Summarising in counselling

skills of course are the bread and butter of any counsellor it doesn't matter what your modality is you're going to be practicing some form of skills and summarizing is non-modality specific we will all summarize it's true ken it's true um i think i'm going to be a bit controversial here i sometimes think that when when skills are taught that they may not be taught like you would teach instruments in an orchestra and they're sometimes used and sometimes um certainly when when we taught uh counseling um we could see students using them it was a bit of a company what we had to do was had to be like conductors in an orchestra and conduct them and get them to use them in harmony and i think that the skill of summarizing is a harmony skill do you see what i did there ken i like that it's a harmony skill and of course it's traditionally used at the end of a session of a series of sessions to summarize most of the content so the client can go away with a with an idea of what's been discussed and some ideas maybe to think about between the sessions and maybe things even to to work on but here's the thing i'm not i'm not sure if you'll agree with me i don't know if you'll agree with me but i think the summit the skill of summarizing is a wide skill and it differentiates between paraphrasing in this way paraphrasing brings depth so you can paraphrase back and reflect back and you go deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and it's real processing your paraphrase with summarizing it's a wider skill it's wider and that is how you have to use it in context i don't think and i may be wrong that summarizing is a pro is a true process skill it is a way of collating all the information so our client can go away and yes feel the herd but also have maybe some things to think about but processing skills things like reflecting and paraphrasing where the person is really going deep deep deep into emotions very narrow skills don't know your thoughts are on that ken because i know we've never discussed it we haven't and i think this is the joy of what we do uh in that we get together two peers and we discuss a topic and and i i'm with you i'm in your camp as you were saying it i'm i guess a visual learner in in many ways and and the way i see the counseling presentation or um what what a client brings in i i see that as a narrative that kind of runs along and underneath that narrative it's like a river that flows and that river that flows underneath the narrative underneath the story that they bring is the emotions and feelings and it's not the story that brings them into counselling it's the feelings that that they have within and using paraphrasing it kind of focuses down on on an area that they brought and it keys down like you say it goes into depth and it goes through the narrative and it keys in to the flow that is underlying that reflecting and paraphrasing both do that so i see the depth that you're talking about there now when we look at summary it spans a longer time frame and it brings the the breadth as you're saying rory so you've got the depth going down then you've got the breadth or the width of what is being brought and it kind of ties things together it summarizes and brings the story together and i guess in in many ways shows the speaker that we as the listener within that relationship have heard them um and that we kind of uh can summarize back what what they've been uh bringing to us showing that we've been paying attention and we've been there with them along that road and i like that you've brought that in as being a whip rory what what would a what would a summary do what does it really do well i think what a summary does is give you it's it's a map of where you've traveled oh yes throughout the throughout the the engagement whether that is a single session or a number of sessions and i'll share with the listener that when i had my counselling a couple of years ago i went back to some therapy my therapist summarized at the end however at the end of all the sessions she gave me a written summary of what was discussed and i found that mightily helpful i also found it mightily creative because it's something i'd never thought of and at the end she said i've written a summary of what we discussed and i said okay and she gave it me and i still have it it's still it still knocks around um and what was useful about that was i was i'm able to look at it and go oh that's that's changed a little bit that's that's shifted a little bit oh i don't do that anymore um now i'm i'm sure that if she'd have reflected back verbally um i may have forgotten you'll be tempted we tend to forget things don't we you know humans do forget things but having it written down very very useful and also and this is the key thing having it written down was very very impactful because i was looking at the words not listening to me recite it in my mind so a skill a skill of summary really is is is a map of where you've traveled therapeutically either in a single session or in a series of encounters um and like with any map you may want to kind of think well i kind of like the view on that piece of the map i'll just go there or you might think oh gosh that was vitally scary you know maybe i need i need some help again just to go and engage with that part of the map we don't like climbing the mountain you know you you look at the map oh gosh there's a great mountain i'd love to climb it but i think i'm going to need a bit of help um so it really is very useful it's a it's a is it a topography of the session where you'll be looking at it in a mapping relief and you can see it vitally helpful um but yes the as i said in the at the top of the piece it's not a depth skill it's a width skill i like it i i see a a summary as a gift and i think that the way you described of as receiving the written summary through the perception of the therapist you work with who was in your frame of reference receiving that it's a gift it's a gift that you look at today you'll get it out and revisit it and have another look at it and you know when when a narrative is coming our way when that client is is talking very often they are putting into words what they're feeling inside and what is going around and around in their head and so often those those um stories can just go round and round and round in the head just in speaking that out it changes the direction and all the power of that story and it infuses with the feelings and it comes out into the therapy room and it's perceived by an empathic other the therapist who receives that and then gives it back gives it back to the client beautifully wrapped up in how they understood it in walking that road with that person and it's a beautiful gift because it it's taking what you've been feeling what you've what's been going on in your head and receiving it back in the words of another beautifully summarized and wrapped up almost like with a little bow that's that's how i kind of see a summary it's almost a gift that is given to the client uh at the end of a session or a series of session and sometimes you may even put a summary in part way through some sessions as a review a summary a review is a great time to put in a summary of what what we've discussed and where we may go and pointing in both directions within within the relationship now i like how you've used the map i like how you've said that you can kind of look at that and go oh maybe i need to go a little bit deeper over there oh look where i've come from there that is really really good and another thing that it kind of shows us is that if we've got it wrong as the therapist that summary is an opportunity for that client to go actually not that bit though you know when you've said that bit there it's not really like that it's like this and it gives us an opportunity to readjust our frame of reference if we've missed something or misinterpreted something or if we've received it in a different way than it was intended by the client or even even if we have reflected it back as the client said it but they are now hearing it differently because not in their head anymore it's coming back in another's words they can even look at it and go actually it's not really like that even if it was their intention when bringing that in so it's a really powerful skill so beautiful skill to wrap up and i might say that if you are using a summary which is customary to put at the end of a session to kind of wrap up what we've done to give that map of that session to go into that width of what the session was before that client leaves always leave a little bit of time after it for the client to reflect on that maybe to correct something if if they feel that that that we might have mis mis heard or misunderstood that or it might be an opportunity as you said rory for them to identify something they might want to bring in another session oh yeah you know what when you're speaking we're looking at it now i think i need to do a bit more work on my mum i wonder if i can bring that in our next session yeah absolutely ken and you know what i if i ever decided to re-engage with therapy i would take that that summary written by my former therapist back to my new therapist as a starting point that was the map that i left with and i would take it back and i'd say you know this is what i discussed in my last um therapy encounter and you know these are the things that have changed but maybe these are the things that have altered that i want to look at it's such a valuable valuable tool and i i can't say enough but i never ever considered because i don't particularly like writing things down kind of dyslexic not a great writer of things um but i would certainly make i would certainly if a client wanted to make the effort just to to give them a written summary at the end um as something they can take away they've got a little map in their pocket written by them i mean they they they narrated the view i just wrote down what they said and then if they ever go to therapy again they could look at it and go you know that's changed i think i think summarizing is a if a fantastic skill for reflection at diff distance so so that when the when the client is is kind of thinking either in between the sessions you know because we know a lot of a lot of change movement and process goes on in in in between sessions so either in between sessions or at the end of any of a series of encounters they can they can have a look and you know the truth of the matter is maybe even through a series of encounters some things are still prominent some difficulties are still there that can that can happen and it gives the person the opportunity to look at that and say well i did a little bit of work on that but you know maybe i need to i need to see how that goes and re-engage with therapy at some point and you know maybe that's a starting point very very useful map of our emotional journey through the arc of therapy i love that you've just used such beautiful words to describe what is in fact a summary and a summary is really a summary but when we're talking about counselling skills they're often not as they immediately appear so if you were doing a summary of a book for instance you would summarize the story of the book there it is but when we're some doing a summary and using that as a counselling skill it's not just the story that we're summarizing we are touching in on the emotions that have presented as well and i think that's the skill the real skill in a summary is capturing the essence of what the person brought by going beyond the narrative or you said this and then you said that and then you brought this and then you said that that would be a very basic summary and maybe as we kind of start learning counseling skills and practicing them with our peers during our studies that's how we might summarize back but a seasoned counselor somebody with the wisdom of many years of practice would be summarizing back and really handing the emotions as part of the uh the words that are given so those words would be the narrative but they would be so intertwined with the emotions so as this client leaves and as you said rory so often the process is between sessions they leave with this neat little package when they look at it they can yes see their story they know that somebody really listened to them bothered to really hear them and reflect that back so they know they've been heard and there's these little invite mats that are strewn across this uh summary little invite mats of maybe i can go a little bit deeper here maybe i can look at that i'm so glad i managed to overcome that it really is a powerful powerful skill all the counseling skills are powerful i often say rory you know there's we talk about basic counseling skills and an advanced counseling skill and i've been thinking about this recently and i don't know that there is an advanced counselling skill and i know that some skills do fall into the advanced category so before we get all the letters in i'll put that in there but i think the skill of silence is an advanced counselling skill in the hands of a seasoned professional counselor who has the experience and wisdom to go behind what may be perceived as a basic counseling skill of just being quiet you know and it all the counseling skills it's that the advancedness comes from the practitioner the skills are the skills and we all practice them and identify them as the self uh but the the the deeper the relationship the more empathic we are able to be the more in tune with the client we are able to be then the more advanced the use of the skill yes and and i i'd second that can it's not the skills aren't the advanced part it's the use and the delivery of them yes that's that's the key elements here so it's like having a guitar if i had a guitar in my arms um the guitar is the guitar and it would sound awful because i cannot play the guitar but if you give it to someone who can play the guitar and there's the skill it's the skill of using the skill not particularly the skill and and you know when we're thinking of summarizing it's really interesting i've just done another piece of personal development work and we were asked to summarize ourselves in our own words and that was really really interesting because that was really person-centered it wasn't it wasn't therapy i did i had some coaching and what happened was i found myself writing stuff down and as i'm writing and going oh oh right yes it was it was well it was a very very strange sensation of having to think about the session and then writing down in my own words look and and the person was working me said so this is what you're saying roy i'm saying yes yes this is what i'm saying and i have to wonder after i was i left that encounter thinking do you know i wonder if i wonder if that would work in therapy just to ask him depending on the client some clients may be in a not in a state where they could recollect but i think i think there's a principled argument to say you could say to a client you know if you were to summarize this session and where you are now what would that what would that be and they could say well i've looked at this and i've decided that and that adds to the collaboration and and the empowerment within the relationship i felt very empowered yeah i love how you've linked that into that personal development and recognizing the development himself and i guess in in a way journaling is a way of us uh summarizing where we might have been that day what we might have felt that day or what what we might have felt the day before if we do our journaling in the morning and i i like it i like the i like the idea of handing that over to a client rory oh there's so much that's unlocking here

Channel: CounsellingTutor

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Keywords: counselling tutor podcast, counselling tutorial, counselling skills summarising, counselling skills, counselling skills training videos, How do you summarize a Counselling session?, Why is Summarising used in Counselling?, summarising examples in counselling, summarising at the end of a counselling session, why is summarising important in counselling, basic counselling skills, basic counselling skills training, basic counselling skills a student guide

Id: VphfWh5ekO4

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 30 2021