TOPIC 1: INTRODUCTION ON SOCIAL INTERACTION

My life as a trainee counselor allowed me to improve and develop my communication skills in everyday life. I encountered during my first training as a trainee counselor I had the opportunity to develop my communication skills not just theoretically but also practically, facing a real-life environment. My course made me aware of the importance of interpersonal and communication skills which are very important in the delivery of care. Throughout my trainee counselor, I will be encouraged to develop reflective practice skills and become a reflective practitioner.

The trainee counselor must establish a rapport and most of this will be achieved through the use of facial expressions. In my practice, it is important that develop a therapeutic relationship with the clients so that they can be able to put their trust in me. The therapeutic relationship is solely to meet the needs of the client. In this relationship, there is a rapport established from a sense of mutual understanding and trust. To build a good relationship with clients, I would have to show qualities of empathy, caring, sincerity and trustworthiness.

During the session, if I am approaching a client and the client looks anxious, I should approach them with empathy. Self-awareness is the key to understanding the reasons why some interactions are successful and why others are not. Realizing how much previous experience can affect us and how certain triggers can produce a response that surprises us, is a process that can take a long time. Having an understanding of yourself and your response to situations can lead to improved communication skills.

Here also contains a reflection on my strengths and weaknesses about how I communicate and relate with my friends, family members, and colleagues. As an individual, I have come to appreciate the importance of developing and coming up with strong and good communication skills. This is because they would play an important role in determining whether I would sustain, create or develop a relationship. One of my major strengths lies in my ability to maintain a face-to-face conversation, through eye contact. This is an important strength, mainly because I have the capability of gazing into the eyes of an individual that I communicate with, hence instilling a sense of confidence, and creating some trust. For efficient communication to occur, the parties to the communication must show some elements of confidence, and trust, in one another. Eye contact is one of the major methods that can be used to create a sense of confidence, amongst the parties to the communication. It is important to explain that most people are always reluctant and unable to maintain eye contact.

This is because they do not feel confident in themselves, or some of them, are telling lies. Based on this fact, it is always difficult for an individual to maintain a relationship that is full of trust if he or she finds it difficult to communicate while maintaining some eye contact. It is also important to understand that, in most interviews, one of the characteristics that they look for in an individual is his or her ability to maintain some elements of confidence They are always concerned, if an individual can communicate without maintaining some eye contact. This means that the person under consideration is either telling lies or is not confident in themselves. Based on this fact, the candidate may fail an interview. Therefore, I would gladly say, that this trait, is one of my stronger points.

Regardless of having strengths in communication, weaknesses are also part of life and should be welcomed if any. First of all, become nervous when addressing people even in front of my class. In most instances, I end up mumbling instead of passing on the information. My Inability to practice restraint because I am an honest and open person is proving to be one of my communication weaknesses. This is because I always find myself disclosing even the privacy issues in my life or even speaking so openly about my feeling. Also, I am one person that is greatly affected by cultural and social barriers. I have difficulty communicating with people not from my tribe or country because I find it odd in the way they handle communication. Thus I am always not sure of the behavior patterns to follow. This is mostly seen when communicating with strange people or those in authority.

I have a weakness of disliking written communication based on the fact that I do not see the people I am communicating with. This is something that puts me off sometimes from effectively communicating through writing. Grammar is also a problem when it comes to punctuation, tenses as well as wordiness, and sentence structure. Sometimes, it is still hard for me to write properly with the perfect answer and be able to use fluent English.  

Beatrice Racheal (69211)