Introduction

Personal development is the continual process of reflection and change leading towards the development of skills, new knowledge and character. Consequently, personal development remains core to the effectiveness and reasoning of counsellors when applying counselling skills, and code of ethics. The following plan presents target areas for further professional development, development objectives and selected strategies to enhance my counselling skills and general professional capacity.

Competencies and Current Skills

It is therefore necessary to assess the current skills and competencies in the determination of the development goals. These include:

1.            Active Listening: Illustrating integrated skills of listening to the clients as a way of developing rapport with them.

2.            Empathy: Perceiving clients’ emotional and perceptual worlds.

3.            Basic Counselling Techniques: These include the mastery of open-ended questioning, reflective and summary levels of questioning.

4.            Self-Awareness: That has helped me become more sensitive about my own prejudices and stress factors.

5.            Ethical Practice: Avoidance of improper relationships with clients, patients and presenting false information or false hopes.

Personal Development Needs

While I possess foundational skills, the following areas require further development:

Advanced Counselling Techniques: Increasing the effectiveness of such methods as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and …. 

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