Mock Therapy Assignment

This assignment will allow you to evaluate your competency in conducting, assessing, and applying a counseling theory and specific communication techniques in a simulated therapy environment. Understanding the applications of client-centered therapy in the therapeutic environment helps you narrow the gap between concept and practice, and it also provides a foundation upon which you will build when completing the assignments found in Units 6 and 10.

Instructions

For this assignment, find a friend, relative, or fellow learner who is willing to help you practice four basic counseling skills:

• Paraphrasing (restating and exploring thoughts).
• Reflecting (restating and exploring feelings).
• Empathic statements that show your understanding of their situation and/or their emotions.
• Summarizing the conversation to review what has been discussed.

You will only reflect, paraphrase, summarize, and make empathic statements to move the client toward a greater understanding of their presenting concern.

• DO NOT ask any open or closed-ended questions.
• DO NOT give any advice or tell the mock client how to solve their problems.
• DO be curious to learn more about your client, to understand your client more deeply, and to see how well they can move towards solving their own problems when you provide a warm, caring, understanding environment.

Have your helper make up a problem they want to talk with you about in the context of receiving psychotherapy. Explicitly clarify with your mock client that this activity is not an actual therapy session. Conduct the mock session with them for about 30 to 40 minutes, playing the role of a client-centered therapist. Consider how you will convey the therapist’s three core conditions Rogers believed were critical for client success: empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard.

Submit a 4–6-page paper to your instructor in which you:

• State in the introduction of the paper that you played the role of a therapist and that your helper played the role of a client.
• Next, explain in your paper the problem that the person playing the role of the client made up to discuss in the role play. This disclosure statement must be included to demonstrate your understanding and ability to apply some elements of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct and to earn any credit for this assignment.
• Describe in general the mock therapy session you conducted and evaluate how well you employed the four basic micro-counseling skills required in the assignment. Discuss what seemed to work well in this session. Share any difficulties or challenges you noticed while conducting the session.
• Finally, summarize in one paragraph the key point(s) that you will remember about this exercise.

To successfully complete this assignment, your paper must meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication that is grammatically correct and is free of errors that detract from the overall message. Writing should be consistent with graduate level scholarship.
• APA formatting: Title page, main body, references should be formatted according to APA (6th Edition) style and formatting.
• Number of resources: Minimum of 2–4 resources.
• Length of paper: 4–6 typed double-spaced pages to include title page and references. No abstract or table of contents is required.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt.