Empathic Confrontation in Counseling Paper Example

Introduction

Empathic confrontation involves a more soft skill through listening to a client carefully and respectfully and seeking out to help to assess a situation or self-examination in detailed. Therefore, it is not a harsh and direct challenge, not going against the client. It is blending with the client and seeking clarification creatively to resolve existing difficulties. Therefore, Empathic confrontation can be defined as Counsellor's approach in addressing a client's problem with empathy on how they developed such behavior, balanced by confronting the actions as required to change for the client to live a better life. Facing in counseling is different from a scenario where people argue, where one professional insists on a client to adopt their views. From a counseling perspective, it primarily involves a practical interpretive activity regarding how individuals try to make sense of each other and both the counselor and the client maintain a constructive dialogue.

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The Major Tenets of Empathic Confrontation in Counseling

Client, counselor, relationship, and change are the key phrases within the tenets of counseling and are all involved with the concept of confrontation. The success of therapy is primarily determined by the relationship established between the client and the counselor. Counselor's ability to communicate either verbally or non-verbally to his or her client shows the care, understanding, and worthwhileness of the client, which makes an empathic Confrontation possible. Therefore, the counselor is the mirror of the client who is responsible for creating the client know that something has to be done about their internal situation. The primary goal of counseling is an in-depth understanding of inner self, willingness to having a knowledge of becoming a whole person and eventually taking action. Individual needs are also part of the lifetime task of taking action as well as the consciousness of personal talents, interests, and values and to express their deepest feelings openly and freely.

Strengths and Limitations of Empathic Confrontation in Counseling

Empathic Confrontation has been emphasized as working effectively with specific clients such as those with drug addiction problems. It has been seen to be of particular significance with drinking addicts to break down resilient conducts and their tendency to use excessive defensive mechanisms to justify their behavior. Several kinds of literature have strongly confined to the importance of confrontation such as when working with offenders or troublesome individuals in society. Most recently, confrontation counseling has grown to be appropriate among partner abusers.

Confrontation counseling can occasionally result in breaches not only in the flow of the conversation with the client but also with the relationship recognized through the counseling relationship. The human condition is the reality that has resulted in a client to come face to face with a counselor; therefore, fear and confusion coupled with a state of physical tension and pressure to the level where their perception has contracted. Resulting in indecisive and not in a position to act upon the means to solve their problem. The client might admit to the reality facing that they need help though they might vaguely be aware of the problem bothering them.

Confrontation in counseling can make the client feel fundamentally alienated, feeling being out of touch with self and the environment. The client might not be able to reach maximum independence except when they can fully interact with the counselor. The counseling session can worsen the situation; it primarily depends on the counselor and the approach they can use to structure a productive relationship with the client. The ability of the counselor to understand, accept and empathize with their client significantly affects the outcome of the counseling session. The connection established between the client and the counselor will assist the client to express their emotions gradually with complete resonate depths. Therefore, the feelings and attitudes of the counselor have a significant role in communicating their self-motive to their client.

Confrontation helps people to avoid embarrassment in the diverse cultural setting and increasing globalization. An empathic confrontation might be appropriate to prevent an individual from unknowingly offending an individual with a different background. A person confronts another and informs them of an offensive word they might be using in a group will have done a favor.

Cultural Backgrounds

The goal of cultural confrontation is consistent with the needs of the clients because they experience difficulties in resolving challenges in their lives. Majority of clients opt for counseling to change their lives which is consistent with the aim of counseling. Cultural confrontation encompasses both multicultural counseling and application of good confrontation to identify existing differences between the client's adherence to cultural values, which result in self-defeating concerns. Empathic Confrontation assists in moving the client to achieve a self-enhancing behavior beyond stalemate. A critical examination of the client to establish whether the cultural values of the client are necessary and because any client should be challenged, however, counselors should not assume that it is essential for all clients. Cultural conflicts significantly contribute to the self-defeating aspect of different clients while others might not be affected. Hence, the basis for challenging a client is primarily by the causal connection between their cultural value and self-defeating behavior they exhibit. Occasionally, a critical examination might reveal no relationship between cultural values and self-defeating behaviors. Therefore, when there is no connection, challenging of the client is not necessary, however, when a link exists, a counselor has no option but to challenge the client regarding the existing discrepancies.

The counselor can give a supportive challenge when a connection exists between cultural values and self-defeating behaviors. They should consider that most clients are unaware of the challenge and foster to help the client beyond their cultural problems. Cultural empathy is critical in understanding the experience of clients based on different cultures. Cultural empathy understanding enables counselors to identify the accurate picture of the state of the client and the challenges they might be undergoing. The perception of the counselor should be highly specific to establish a correct relationship with the client. Cultural empathic responsiveness allows counselors to develop communication with clients to comprehend their self-experience.

The communication established is vital because it shows an accurate understanding of the client as well as showing an attitude of concern and respect. It is critical to time a cultural confrontation to get the desired outcomes. Premature or postponement of confrontation will be counterproductive. However, it highlights the importance of not prematurely confronting African American clients because some might generalize their experience with racism. Conversely, he emphasizes the consequences of avoiding racial issues in counseling. He established that white counselors often did not address problems race-related with clients from a different race because of their discomfort and feelings. However, contradicted the findings and found that racial discussions in counseling have a positive effect.

Empathy Confrontation Training Program

Empathy training is essential to become a successful counselor. Empathy training involves a tailored program that entails equipping skills on communication with passion, concern as well as compassion. The training should be able to offer techniques for integrating empathetic listening in day to day communication as well as be able to explain expressing empathetic body language. An effective empathy training program should be able to provide tactics for counselors to connect with clients and colleagues.

The critical points for an effective empathy training program include the importance of empathy and the description of the voice tone, pacing and related verbal cues that can impact the experience of a client. A model of better listening for a counselor as well as recognizing emotions is appropriate; participants will be able to identify a feeling that others feel through a series of various activities. A good training program will equip participants with recognizing the importance of being mindful of others while trying to understand them and knowing their emotions. Training about challenging people is vital because specific people are more comfortable to empathize with while others are hard. Therefore, focusing on illustrating empathy when issues get tough is critical. Participants will be required to a series or practical activities and real-world case studies to demonstrate their level of understanding and practice their skills. Reading body language regarding nonverbal cues is an essential element in counseling. The training program entails nonverbal communication signs and strategies for detecting the messages.