Whether you're a student or an experienced practitioner, remembering and revisiting your counselling fundamentals can be a huge help to you in your practice. In this section, Rory and Ken go over these fundamentals and their importance:

• Timekeeping – before a client comes in, take time to ground yourself. Find that ability to put everything else out of your mind and be able to focus on the person that will be in front of you.
• Being attentive – giving the space and time for a client to speak. Providing that safe environment.
• Active listening – don’t just listen, hear.
• Silence – allowing silence in the therapy room can actually be incredibly useful. Don’t try to fill every gap.
• Wrapping these skills around the core conditions – empathy, frame of reference, tuning in to someone else.
• Still being yourself – not just a professional helper. It’s important to still be real in order for the client to build up that trust in the therapeutic relationship.
• Look at the pace the client is going at – meet them where they are.
• Summarise – gives the client an opportunity to refine/alter how you understood what they said. It allows them to set us right if we land outside of their frame of reference.

A handout on Counselling Fundamentals is available for download in the green button above.