Core counselling skills are a set of skills used in therapy that can be applied in all aspects of peoples lives and relationships both socially and personally. the core skills are developed and used in order to help a person to feel as if they are been listened to and understood in order for their emotional growth, some of the skills can be used in everyday life and some or all of the given skills can be used during client centred therapeutic sessions.
Unconditional is one of many the skills that helps a person to feel as if they can express themselves without fear of judgement,openly, in a safe environment to grow and explore themselves with confidence with the understanding and support of another human being without prejudice, I believe this to be one of the most important aspects of a good relationship along with trust and honesty.
Genuineness as a core skill gives the person a sense of trust in the person by been honest and open with them, by using Empathetic understanding as a skill, the person or counsellor conveys the ability to connect on a emotional level as if they really are experiencing and feeling the same emotions, placing themselves in the other persons shoes feeling the same emotions and understanding the other persons situation and perspective of the world, it is not communicated in the same way as feeling sorry for them by showing sympathy as a response.
By Active listening learning forward and using suitable eye contact this can help a person to open up and tell their story, by sitting squarely in an open posture towards the client in a relaxed comfortable position, in this way your body language communicates a non verbal message to the person that you are open and ready to hear their story and that you are genuinely interested in them as a person, as the person tells their story and opens up to you it is important to remain silent but attentive by nodding and using the silence to allow the person time to talk and not perceived to be talked over, during the times when you feel the need to help the person expand on their story ask open ended questions and also question your understanding of what been communicated, both verbally and non verbally also by Paraphrasing their statements back to the person this checks that you have correctly understood them and also communicates to the person that you are really wanting to understand them and actively support them.
It also helps the person to use Reflecting as a tool for them to think about their own emotions and thoughts, by Summarizing towards the end of an allotted time scale gives both parties the chance to check their understanding of the session and also to agree possible solutions to move forward and set achievable positive actions.
Challenging as a skill is on of the more difficult to use and is used to challenge a persons behaviours or thoughts, this is achieved by way of probing questions, these are skills developed over time and experience as a counsellor.