examples of reflective essays in counselling

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Reflective Practice and Personal Development in Counselling and Psychotherapy. 2nd ed.

Reflective practice is a vital part of your counselling and psychotherapy training and practice. This book is your go-to introduction to what it is, why it is important, and how to use different models for reflection and reflective practice to enhance your work with clients. It will support your personal development and professional development throughout your counselling training and into your practice.

Related Papers

Sofie Bager-Charleson

Therapists as Research-informed Practitioners (TRP) Metanoia Institute, London. Chair: Dr Sofie Bager-Charleson [email protected] Research team: Dr Sofie Bager-Charleson, Dr Alistair McBeath, Professor Simon du Plock, Dr Biljana can Rijn, Dr Marie Adams and Alan McPherson, Metanoia Institute There is an increased emphasis on research in the field of counselling and psychotherapy. Previous studies* suggest however a strained relationship between psychotherapy research and psychotherapy practice, with therapists often mentioned at the margins of the research community. The TRP group has developed in response to this critique, focusing on opportunities for psychotherapists and counselling psychologists to develop into confident research practitioners. An overarching aim of the group is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how therapists experience the transition from therapists to researchers. What are the opportunities and obstacles, personally, professionally, and academically? The TRP aims to enhance research training for counsellors, psychotherapists, and counselling psychologists by providing learning and professional development events, supporting research and best-practice developments, and making policy recommendations to promote effective and sustainable research training for therapists.

EJQRP (2020) Vol. 10, 93-109

Sofie Bager-Charleson , marie adams

Mental health and emotional wellbeing are notoriously difficult to research and understand. Psychotherapy plays a significant role in generating new knowledge in the field. This study offers a meta-synthesis of earlier published, primary research reports into therapists' experience of and involvement in postgraduate research. Meta-synthesis is an approach of synthesising findings from different studies to enable deeper understanding about a research topic. The synthesis involved 're-searching' and reviewing three studies previously published by the authors in response to an upcoming conference about postgraduate research with a new, transdisciplinary audience focusing on identity, access and opportunity when transitioning to postgraduate research. Our meta-synthesis followed three analytic phases, namely revisiting and reviewing the original findings (meta-data analysis), considering the original methods (metamethod and metatheory phase) and discussing, comparing and contrasting the primary research to create understandings (the synthesis phase). The new interpretations highlighted a loss of self, a re-positioning or attempt to understand self in new contexts, and a newly emerging, integrated (transformed) sense of self across personal, professional, and educational contexts. The synthesis suggests further that researchers in the field of therapy often are particularly disadvantaged in terms of having few professional research opportunities and limited access to academic journals. Our synthesis highlights room for improvement in postgraduate research to support diversity, access, and opportunity.

CPR Journal

References are frequently made to a strained relationship between therapeutic practice and research. This study has developed in response this critique. Our aim has been to explore therapists’ views on the relationship between research and clinical practice within a mixed-methods framework, drawing from a survey (n=92) distributed within and outside of the UK, and coupled with interviews (n=9). Both the survey and the interviews were guided by some of the following questions: What sort of relationship do therapists feel that they have with research? What amount of formal research training do therapists have? To what extent do therapists feel that their own research is valued? To what extent does research inform therapists’ clinical practice? Both the survey and the interviews suggested a sense of ‘homelessness’ for researchers in the field of therapy. Obstacles were referred to within and outside the therapeutic community. Some referred to little training and many felt unsupported among colleagues and employers when pursuing research. One therapist said: ‘The scientists and researchers I work with; they know they have a career in research – you get rewarded and promoted. That kind of recognition doesn’t exist in therapy’. To meet the increased requirements of research-supported practice the study suggests that more systematic efforts are required to support psychotherapists’ engagement in research activities.

There is an increased emphasis on research in the field of counselling and psychotherapy. Previous studies* suggest however a strained relationship between psychotherapy research and psychotherapy practice, with therapists often mentioned at the margins of the research community. The TRP group has developed in response to this critique, focusing on opportunities for psychotherapists and counselling psychologists to develop into confident research practitioners. An overarching aim of the group is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how therapists experience the transition from therapists to researchers. What are the opportunities and obstacles, personally, professionally, and academically? The TRP aims to enhance research training for counsellors, psychotherapists, and counselling psychologists by providing learning and professional development events, supporting research and best-practice developments, and making policy recommendations to promote effective and sustainable research training for therapists. This is a report of completed research so far.

Language and Psychoanalysis

Sofie Bager-Charleson , Jean-Marc Dewaele , Beverley Costa

Therapists are often unprepared to deal with their clients' use of other languages. This study focuses on therapists' experiences of having undertaken awareness-raising training about multilingualism. Did the training impact their practice? If so, in what areas? Adopting a mixed-method approach, quantitative data were initially collected via an online questionnaire with 88 therapy trainees and qualified therapists who underwent training in multilingualism, combined with interview data from 7 volunteers. Having identified the issues on which the training had had most and least impact in survey responses, the interviews were guided by our emergent interest into the impact of the training with potential relational complexities and unique, personal experiences in mind. A narrative-thematic analysis uncovered interrelated themes, relation to changes, or impact of the training, with regard to Identity and Therapeutic Theory Therapists referred to considerable transformative learning on both a personal and professional level, for instance in terms of how multilingual clients might bring different and sometimes conflicting ways of organizing events and experiences into meaningful wholes through their narratives during the session. Language switching seemed less significant in the survey, but emerged as a central theme in the interviews, especially with regard to the possibility of addressing, challenging and sometimes combining different emotional memories, cultural and existential concerns. Working across these areas triggered some therapists to consider the need for expanding their theory.

Alistair McBeath

Research frequently addresses a gap between practice and research in the field of psychotherapy. Castonguay et al (2010) suggest that the practice of many full-time psychotherapists is rarely or nonsubstantially influenced by research. Boisvert and Faust (2005) ask ‘why do psychotherapists not rely on the research to consistently inform their practice?’ and suggest that concerns ‘have echoed through the decades’ about psychotherapists’ failings to integrate of research and practice. This study focuses on therapists’ (counsellors and psychotherapists) reasoning about their engagement with ‘research’ as described in dissertations and in personal, anonymously presented documents, research journals and interviews included. The study focuses on the stages which generally are referred to as ‘data analysis’, which in this study refers research stages where interpretation typically is required with synthesising and analysing in mind. Turning our attention to the therapists’ ‘narrative knowi...

Alistair McBeath , Avigail Abarbanel

The views and feelings of psychotherapists around academic writing were explored using a mixed methods approach. An on-line survey completed by 222 psychotherapists produced both quantitative and qualitative data with the latter being subject to a Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Significant numbers of participants lacked confidence about participating in academic writing. Fear of rejection, not being good enough and not knowing what is required were prominent underlying factors. Current academic writing was viewed as overly intellectual, not focused on clinical practice and the preserve of academics and not practicing therapists. Difficulty in accessing academic material lying behind pay walls was another factor limiting participation in academic writing as well as a lack of formal support. Clinical relevance and clarity of expression were viewed as the key factors of good academic writing. There was overwhelming support for academic writing to be a core skill taught in formal psychoth...

Dr Biljana van Rijn

A naturalistic sessional evaluation of routine outcomes of psychotherapy from a range of theoretical orientations including transactional analysis, using standardised measures for depression, anxiety, general distress and working alliance, was conducted across completed therapy interventions by 113 therapists with 263 clients within an academic institution in the UK and across stages of therapy by 10 therapists with 26 clients in three independent clinics in Spain. Outcomes in both countries demonstrated clinical gains but it was found that such evaluation methodology was more easily applied within a training institute than in private practice; it also appeared to better fit the UK professional climate of evaluation. Suggestions are made concerning the introduction of such research in future.

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ANKWASIIZE EVARIST

http://blogs.bbk.ac.uk/research/2021/01/27/how-words-can-misfire-in-a-foreign-language-a-look-at-the-impact-of-our-research-on-the-role-of-multilingualism-in-psychotherapy/

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Reflective Practice and Personal Development in Counselling and Psychotherapy

• Sofie Bager-Charleson - Metanoia Institute
• Description

Reflective practice is a vital part of your counselling and psychotherapy training and practice. This book is your go-to introduction to what it is, why it is important, and how to use different models for reflection and reflective practice to enhance your work with clients. It will support your personal development and professional development throughout your counselling training and into your practice.

See what’s new to this edition by selecting the Features tab on this page. Should you need additional information or have questions regarding the HEOA information provided for this title, including what is new to this edition, please email [email protected] . Please include your name, contact information, and the name of the title for which you would like more information. For information on the HEOA, please go to http://ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea08/index.html .

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SAGE 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 www.sagepub.com

This book seems to be cover a gap in the marked on reflection for psychotherapy. It does not only cover the theory of reflection but offers a number of relevant reflective excercises which an easily be used with students.

Core text for professional level counselling training.

This book highlights the importance of deep reflection for effective and ethical clinical practice. The author highlights the importance of personal history and unconscious processes and urges us to reflect on how these may affect the work we do with clients. Through the personal experience of the several contributors, the book promotes the exploration into the different aspects of personal and professional development and encourages therapists to consider continuing formal training to further develop both personally and professionally.

New to this edition:

• New focus on Personal Development, with two new chapters: ‘Personal development’ and ‘Your Support and Development’
• Refined content to meet the needs of level 2-4 students better
• Focus on using research to reflect on recent developments in the field
• New contributions from Jeannie Wright, Simon du Plock, and Biljana van Rijn

Preview this book

For instructors, select a purchasing option, related products.

13 Self Reflection Worksheets & Templates to Use in Therapy

While valuable for clients and students, it is equally vital for therapists, coaches, and mental health professionals.

Literature across multiple disciplines confirms that reflection serves therapists by improving “learning and performance in essential competencies” (Aronson, 2011, p. 200). In therapy, it helps the client “manage personal feelings, such as anxiety and inadequacy, and their impact on others” (Fisher, Chew, & Leow, 2015, p. 736).

This article introduces the basics behind reflection along with questions and worksheets that encourage and support the reflective process and maximize the benefits for therapists, clients, and students.

Before you continue, you might like to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free . These creative, science-based exercises will help you learn more about your values, motivations, and goals and will give you the tools to inspire a sense of meaning in the lives of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

Fostering reflection skills: the basics, 50+ questions to ask your clients or students, 5 helpful reflection worksheets & tools, journaling & diaries: 2 useful templates, top 3 activities for practicing reflection, 3 fun games to inspire clients, positivepsychology.com’s reflection resources, a take-home message.

While reflection has no single, universal definition, Aronson (2011, p. 200) frames it as the “process of analyzing, questioning, and reframing an experience in order to make an assessment of it for the purposes of learning (reflective learning) and/or improve practice (reflective practice).” It has multiple uses in various contexts.

Reflection is central to most therapies. Indeed, Socratic questioning (using open yet focused questions) is widely used in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to encourage reflection and unpack deeply held beliefs (Bennett-Levy, Thwaites, Chaddock, & Davis, 2009).

Within therapy , Bennett-Levy et al. (2009) recognized that reflection can be beneficial for both the therapist and the client, and can be considered from several perspectives.

• Reflective practices Reflection as part of the clinical experience, using journals, video, and group activities.
• Reflective skills The ability to reflect on oneself through therapeutic interaction and self-awareness of feelings and thoughts.
• Reflective systems Reflection results from the interaction of several processes, including the individual’s memory, skills, and reflective system.
• Reflective processes Reflection involves the ability to observe (possibly via visualization) and then reflect or conceptualize to engage in further processing, including elaboration, problem solving, and self-questioning.

Bennett-Levy et al. (2009, p. 121) offer the following helpful definition of reflection:

“Reflection is the process of intentionally focusing one’s attention on a particular content; observing and clarifying this focus; and using other knowledge and cognitive processes (such as self-questioning, logical analysis and problem-solving) to make meaningful links.”

The benefits of reflection carry across to the learning process found within educational environments. It forms the second of the following four-stage model used by coaches engaging with students to understand the learning process (Adams, 2016):

• Attending to and focusing on the relevant features of their experience
• Actively reflecting on their experience
• Extracting learning from that experience
• Planning how to create new ways of behaving in response to the learning

Reflection and learning are also highly applicable outside of school.

While reflection is vital to self-awareness and healing for clients, it is also a powerful and insightful tool for therapists.

Mental health professionals must be self-aware and cognizant of the skills they are using, because “in no other profession does the personality and behavior of the professional make such difference as it does in counseling” (Meier & Davis, 1997).

The following questions can be helpful for new and existing counselors and their clients to increase self-awareness and knowledge of counseling techniques (modified from Bennett-Levy et al., 2009):

• Observe the experience (such as the session or intervention). How did I feel? What did I notice?
• Clarify the experience. What did I learn? Was it helpful? What did not change?

The following two points are more applicable for therapists:

• Implications of the experience for clinical practice What are the implications for and impacts on one-to-one therapy, supervision, consultation, etc.?
• Implications of the experience for how I see myself as a therapist What are the implications of this experience for my understanding of cognitive therapy and theory?

Considering each question in turn can provide insights that encourage greater knowledge of the therapeutic process and promote lessons to take forward to future sessions.

Asking appropriate questions is a crucial aspect of reflection and central to deeper, long-lasting learning (Aronson, 2011; Adams, 2016).

Reflection questions for students

The following three sets of questions promote reflection in students by considering academic performance (modified from ones used by the Colorado Department of Education ):

Reflective Questions for personal academic performance

These Reflective Questions  prompt the student to think about what they are learning, why they are learning, and how they can improve the overall process.

The student answers the first question regarding what they have been learning and then selects a sample of other questions to prompt reflection.

They then complete the last column with their thoughts for later review by themselves or a therapist, coach, or counselor.

A sample of the questions includes:

What have you been learning about (today, this week, or this semester)? Why do you think these objectives and this subject are important? Did you give your best effort on your most recent assignment?

Reflective Metacognition Questions for students

Reflective Metacognition Questions help students reflect on how and what they think .

The questions are grouped under the following subsections and can be answered individually, in pairs, or as a group exercise, with a summary of the answers placed in the final column.

• Reflection and collaboration
• Self-reflection

Example questions include:

What are your thoughts about what was said? Are there any other similar answers or alternative answers? Why do you think this answer is true?

Reflection Questions in Therapy

Reflection is an essential part of therapy.

Using the Reflective Questions in Therapy worksheet, the therapist can encourage and facilitate the process of reflection in the client, such as (Bennett-Levy et al., 2009):

What do I wish people better understood about me? What behaviors and beliefs do I want to let go of? Have I been receiving enough support this year?

Download 3 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to find meaning in life help and pursue directions that are in alignment with values.

Download 3 Free Meaning Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

During CBT and other therapies, the client is often given a workbook or journal to capture reflections on the practice or skills they develop as they progress through treatment.

Reflection reinforces learning within the sessions and, more importantly, leads to deeper insights between sessions (Bennett-Levy et al., 2009).

Learning From My Past

The Reflections on Learning From My Past worksheet helps the client capture and reflect on an event from their past and consider how different behavior may have led to an alternate outcome.

The client is asked a series of questions about the incident, such as:

What happened or what was the event? How did it make you feel? How did you handle it?

Self-Reflection Behavior Review

At the end of the year or looking back on the client’s life, it can help to look for patterns in behavior.

The Self-Reflection Behavior Review worksheet is a valuable way to summarize events and see the recurring traps into which the client falls.

The summary provides a valuable talking point during therapy sessions and can be referred to later in order to assess how behavior has changed and improved.

It asks the client to consider:

Do you see a pattern in your behavior? How could you act differently in the future? What situations should you try to avoid?

Who Am I Self-Reflection

In life, we are often so busy with everyday tasks that we forget to take stock of who we are, what we are good at, and what is important to us.

Clients or students can use the Who Am I Self-Reflection worksheet to think about what they are good at, what significant challenges they have been confronted with, and what inspires them.

Some questions to consider include:

Think of something significant that went wrong. What did I learn from it? What am I passionate about? What do I love most about myself?

Student Work Reflection

Students can help their existing and future learning by thinking about how they are approaching their work and using metacognitive skills to drive future improvements (Adams, 2016).

The Student Work Reflection is a set of simple repeating questions to consider how they approach each task in school.

It asks the student to consider:

How could I improve? What am I still working on? What am I most proud of?

Reflection on Group Activities

Reflection is equally important in group tasks as in individual tasks. The Reflection on Group Activities  is for an educational or therapy setting to assess the success and learnings from a group activity.

Working individually or in groups, students can answer questions such as:

What went well? What did not go well? What could we try next time?

As an intervention, it is a creative way to engage clients in a therapeutic activity, increasing self-awareness  and personal growth.

It can be helpful to capture some of the key events of the day. The act of writing what happened and reviewing it later can be insightful and help you recognize positive and negative patterns in your behavior.

Daily Reflection of Feelings

Use the Daily Reflection of Feelings journal with the client to record how their day went and capture the feelings they experienced.

Questions include:

What was the best part of the day? What would you change about the day if you could? What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

Daily Reflection of Behavior

Clients and therapists can benefit from reviewing significant events that occurred between sessions.

Use the Daily Reflection of Behavior  journal with clients to capture daily behaviors that were unexpected or parts of habits that the client wishes to change.

What happened? How did I behave? Why did it happen?

How to start a creative journal – Johanna Clough

Several techniques can encourage the process of reflection in clients and students.

• DARN The DARN acronym forms an important aspect of motivational interviewing . With the use of evocative change questions, the client is invited to engage in reflection to consider the change, including:

Desire questions – What I would like, wish, or want to do? Ability questions – Capturing the idea that change is possible. Reasons questions – Recognizing the reasons for change. Need questions – Identifying the urgency of the change.

• OARS OARS is another acronym important to the process of motivational interviewing to elicit change talk through the use of the following:

Open questions encourage the client to talk. Affirmations include statements of understanding and offers of support. Reflections  capture and rephrase what the client has said Summarizing provides a check-in with the client by summarizing what has been said.

OARS encourages reflection in both the therapist and the client.

• Socratic questioning Observing and taking part in Socratic questioning can be a valuable opportunity to learn about the process of encouraging reflection in others and in oneself.

Consider the five questions:

What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Why did it happen? How did it happen?

Try out the following three activities with clients or students.

Your life as a play

You can carry out this reflective exercise in small groups of three or four people.

Ask each person to describe their ideal life in three acts, as though it were a play.

What past dreams were achieved? What is the present (good and bad)? What is your ideal future?

Share with the group, discussing each of the acts, adding humorous insights along the way. End with your positive view of how the future might look.

Shield of honor

This activity is ideal for reflection in multiple small groups.

Ask each group to create a shield out of a large piece of paper.

Divide the paper into four equal rectangles, representing:

• Skills and abilities they offer
• Skills and abilities they need to improve
• Frustrations
• What they are proud of

Tell the group they are only allowed to use drawings and pictures – no words.

After 20 minutes, ask each group to share what they have created.

Reflection on communication

Individuals are grouped into pairs and asked to sit back-to-back.

One person is given either a pen and paper or building blocks and asked to create a novel design.

Ask them to describe what it looks like, while the other person attempts to recreate the design on their side.

Once finished, the two can compare what they have created and discuss the communication process.

17 Tools To Encourage Meaningful, Value-Aligned Living

This 17 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises [PDF] pack contains our best exercises for helping others discover their purpose and live more fulfilling, value-aligned lives.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Throughout this post, we’ve discussed the importance of clarifying wants, behavior patterns, and forces of motivation to better understand what brings meaning throughout one’s life. To this end, we invite you to check out our free Meaning & Valued Living Exercises Pack .

This pack features three of our top tools from the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, all of which center on the theme of values-based living:

• The Top 5 Values This exercise draws on key principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help clients begin brainstorming their values. Following this, clients will then prioritize these values in a list to identify those most central to who they are.
• Self-Eulogy This exercise invites clients to consider how they’d like to be remembered at their funeral as a means to identify and clarify values. Based on this, they can then consider how well they are living in alignment with these values.
• The Scoreboard Metaphor This exercise helps clients recognize how to enact their values through goal-setting. In particular, it draws on the metaphor of a basketball game to illustrate how living into one’s values is an ongoing process and that the paths by which we pursue our goals are opportunities to enact our values in daily life.

You can access all three exercises for free by downloading our Meaning & Valued Living Exercises Pack .

Additionally, if you’re looking for further reading on the topic of self-reflection, be sure to check out our blog post featuring ten book recommendations .

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others discover meaning, this collection contains 17 validated meaning tools for practitioners. Use them to help others choose directions for their lives in alignment with what is truly important to them.

Reflection engages clients and students in the process of analyzing, questioning, and reframing an experience. It encourages individuals or groups to learn and improve, and promotes deeper, longer lasting learning (Aronson, 2011).

Within therapy and coaching, reflection can help individuals manage their feelings (such as anxiety or self-doubt) and recognize how their behavior affects others (Fisher et al., 2015).

In an educational setting, research shows that questions and exercises prompt learners to improve core competencies (Aronson, 2011).

In any environment, reflection involves metacognition. Individuals must step outside of their existing cognition to think about their thinking . It is a skill that is best learned through practice.

Therapists, coaches, counselors, and teachers can help by prompting the client or class to consider what they have learned, what has gone well (and hasn’t), and what they could have done differently.

The takeaways from reflection can change a person’s view of what has already happened and influence how they behave in the future.

The exercises and questions within this article will engage others, promoting the reflective process and offering deeper understanding and tools for future learning.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free .

• Adams, M. (2016). Coaching psychology in schools: Enhancing performance, development and wellbeing . Routledge.
• Aronson, L. (2011). Twelve tips for teaching reflection at all levels of medical education. Medical Teacher , 33 (3), 200–205.
• Bennett-Levy, J., Thwaites, R., Chaddock, A., & Davis, M. (2009). Reflective practice in cognitive behavioural therapy: The engine of lifelong learning. In J. Stedmon & R. Dallos (Eds.), Reflective practice in psychotherapy and counselling (pp. 115–35). Open University Press.
• Fisher, P., Chew, K., & Leow, Y. J. (2015). Clinical psychologists’ use of reflection and reflective practice within clinical work. Reflective Practice , 16 (6), 731–743.
• Hayman, B., Wilkes, L., & Jackson, D. (2012). Journaling: Identification of challenges and reflection on strategies. Nurse Researcher , 19 (3), 27–31.
• Meier, S., & Davis, S. (1997). The Elements of Counselling . Brooks/Cole.

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Reflective Practice Framework

• Jason D. Brown 2  
• First Online: 30 October 2019

1245 Accesses

Reflective practice is exploring the taken-for-granted. It includes the identification and challenge of therapist assumptions and clinical interpretations. Reflective practice includes assumptions about reality is, how it relates to other knowledge, compares to an ideal, and forms a complete understanding of a particular phenomenon. Schön ( The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge, New York, NY, 1983) can be credited with the first use of the term. Reflective practice a set of techniques and a way of thinking about one’s practice. The concepts of hot spots, blind spots, and soft spots are areas for continued reflection, personal, and professional development.

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Brown, J.D. (2019). Reflective Practice Framework. In: Reflective Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy in a Diverse Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24505-4_1

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Reflective Journaling

Feltham and Dryden (1993, p. 100) define ‘journal keeping’ as ‘the recording of observations of personal and professional growth by the trainee counsellor’.

Keeping a reflective journal is often strongly encouraged – and perhaps even required – by providers of counselling training. The Australian College of Applied Psychology (ACAP, n.d.) defines a reflective journal as ‘a steadily growing document that you write to record the progress of your learning’. It continues: ‘This type of journal is not simply a summary of the course material; it should also include your reactions to what you've learnt.’

Many qualified practitioners choose to continue journaling for their own processing and reflection.

Journaling versus Reflective Journaling

Many people also choose to start a journal in the new year, as part of their determination to improve their health and wellbeing. But there’s a difference between journaling and reflective journaling.

LeGuillox (2017) writes: ‘Being reflective is the process of using metacognition, which refers to taking the time to think on a deeper level about one’s own thinking, in order to acquire a different perspective of these thoughts that may have been overlooked at first.’

Thus, while journaling may describe experiences, reflective journaling ‘allows an individual to more carefully consider the profound experiences that have impacted on their lives, or become critically aware of how these experiences have shaped them in some way’ (LeGuillox, 2017).

Benefits of Reflective Journaling

Positive outcomes of reflective journaling may include:

• increased awareness of the real self and its thoughts, fears, desires and values
• ability to apply this new understanding in future situations
• possibility of living more fully through acting in line with the real self.

Media to Use

Written journals.

A journal traditionally takes the form of a paper notebook – perhaps a lovely-looking one, chosen for its feel, colour and/or cover image. You would then handwrite your reflections into the notebook. A notebook is often better than a diary, as the latter has only a limited amount of space per day, and may make you feel you should write entries when you have nothing of note to add.

An alternative is to use an electronic medium, such as word-processing software on a computer/tablet, or a notes facility on a tablet/smartphone. You can also get journal-writing apps.

Spoken journals

It is also possible to audio-record your reflections, perhaps using your smartphone or a voice recorder.

Students of counselling and psychotherapy on practitioner-level courses need to have equipment to record practice skills sessions, and so could use this.

Writing Style

For many people who have had bad experiences at school in the past – perhaps those who are dyslexic, were taught by teachers who lacked empathy, and/or were in education at a time when there was poor understanding of specific learning difficulties and other barriers to learning – writing can seem a daunting task. You might feel worried about making spelling mistakes and not knowing how to get punctuation and grammar right.

While these considerations matter (though only to a limited extent) when writing assignments, they don’t matter at all when writing a journal.

Your journal is just for you: you are the only reader. So feel free to use bullet points, jot down short notes and spell things however you like. Just make sure though that you can read your own writing, as you might want to look back on your journal when gathering material for assignments on personal development and self-awareness.

The main thing – above all else – is to be honest!

Timing and Frequency of Writing

It’s good to record ideas in your journal as soon as you can after the experience that triggers them – otherwise, it can be easy to forget those ‘lightbulb’, ‘Eureka’ moments! If you don’t have your journal ready at hand to do so, you could write a short reminder note (or record an audio clip) to add to it later.

Unlike keeping a formal diary, there’s no need to write at any particular frequency – though it’s good to try to do so reasonably often, so that it becomes a habit, and so that the journal captures the changes you are experiencing.

Students of counselling and psychotherapy often like to write an entry after each time they have had a college learning session, perhaps with the date or topic of the session as a heading.

Most importantly, do make sure you have a quiet and private space in which to write.

Steps in Journal Writing

LeGuillox (2017) proposes a four-stage process to reflective journaling:

• Brainstorm ideas.
• Reflect on your current emotional and physical state.
• Start asking yourself critical and profound questions.
• Reflect on your journal entries and check in with emotions.

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Reflective Journalling - Free Handout for Counsellors

Learning Experiences

If you are a student of counselling and psychotherapy, you may well be expected to focus in your reflective journal on your experiences in college. Indeed, ACAP (n.d.) points out that another word for a reflective journal is a learning journal.

Your college will guide you on how they wish you to approach writing a reflective journal.

ACAP (n.d.) offers the following as learning-related ideas for content:

• What did I read for this topic?
• What was the most interesting thing I read for this topic, and why?
• What material did I not find interesting, and why?
• What did I previously think was true, but now know to be wrong?
• What did we not cover that I expected we should?
• What have I changed my mind about as a result of this topic?
• What is one thing I learned in this topic that I may be able to use in future?
• What am I still unsure about?
• What would I like to learn more about?
• What issues(s) interested me and would I like to study in more detail?
• What are my ideas for action, based on this topic?

A Final Health Warning

It can be a very challenging process to reflect on difficult experiences, potentially uncovering unpleasant emotions and realisations. This may be especially so if you have a history of trauma.

It would be sensible to ensure you have good support around you before delving into difficult experiences, perhaps through personal counselling. It’s also good to leave yourself time after writing to process any emotions that have arisen for you during journaling, rather than having to rush back into everyday life.

ACAP. (n.d.). Reflective or learning journal. ACAP. [Viewed 26/11/21]. Available from: https://sls.navitas-professional.edu.au/sites/default/files/resource/reflective_or_learning_journal.pdf

Feltham, C. and Dryden, W. (1993). Dictionary of Counselling . London: Whurr.

LeGuillox, H. (2017). Reflective Journaling: A Step-by-Step Guide [online]. Counsellors Café Magazine. [Viewed 26/11/21]. Available from: https://www.thecounsellorscafe.co.uk/single-post/2017/01/22/reflective-journaling-a-step-by-step-guide

Resource created: 26 November 2021

How to Use Self-Reflection to Be a Better Therapist

Self-reflection is crucial for maintaining an ethical, client-centered approach..

Posted November 22, 2023 | Reviewed by Davia Sills

• What Is Therapy?
• Find a therapist near me
• The ability to engage in self-reflection is not just a skill but a necessity for psychologists.
• It involves examining how one's thoughts, feelings, and motivations might influence professional practice.
• Integrating self-reflection into daily practice can best be done through journaling.

The ability to engage in self-reflection as a psychologist is not just a skill but a necessity. Reflective practice is a cornerstone of effective therapy , offering a mirror through which psychologists can view themselves. Self-reflection involves a conscious examination of thoughts, feelings, and motivations and shines a light on unresolved traumas , biases, and beliefs that might influence professional practice.

Reflective practice is essential because a psychologist's self-awareness can significantly impact therapeutic outcomes. Engaging in regular self-reflection can assist in ensuring that therapy remains empathetic , ethical, and client-centered. Building self-awareness can promote the ability to connect with and support clients and pave the way for continual self-improvement.

The Process of Reflective Practice

Reflective practice typically follows these steps:

• Description: Detail a specific therapy moment or session. It can be about a strong emotional reaction, but it doesn't need to be. Sometimes, seemingly non-eventful sessions can bring to light profound reflections.
• Feelings and Thoughts: Reflect on the emotions and thoughts experienced.
• Evaluation: Assess objectively and curiously explore potential reasons for the particular reactions experienced and what assumptions and biases may have been present.
• Analysis: Understand what this may mean, including any biases, unresolved wounds, or areas for skill development and professional improvement.
• Conclusion: Determine key learnings as a result of the reflection process.
• Action Plan: Decide how to apply this learning to your therapeutic practice.

Integrating Self-Reflection Into Daily Practice

Making self-reflection a habit requires dedication. Here are some strategies for how to include this in your daily practice:

• Reflective Questions: Post-session, ask questions like, "How did I feel during the session?", "What triggered these feelings?" and "How might my reactions influence the therapy?"
• Peer Discussions: Regular discussions within the context of peer or individual supervision can illuminate points for reflection.
• Journalling: Journals are effective for developing reflective practice (Bruno & Dell'Aversana, 2016). Journaling can serve as a means for monitoring and enhancing reflective practice, forming part of a broader metacognitive strategy for psychologists.

Benefits for Psychologists

Reflective practice offers numerous advantages to psychologists, including:

• Enhanced self-awareness: The more psychologists reflect on themselves in the therapy room, the more insight they gain into their impact on therapy.
• Improved client care: Learning from self-reflective practice can enhance therapeutic outcomes. The more aware psychologists are of themselves in the therapy room, the more they can engage in a professionally competent, ethical, and effective way.
• Professional growth: Regular self-reflection allows psychologists to be mindful of their shortfalls and provides skills development and growth opportunities.
• Ethical practice: Engaging in reflective practice assists psychologists in maintaining professional boundaries with their clients and making ethically appropriate therapy choices.

Challenges and Considerations

While invaluable, reflective practice also presents challenges for psychologists:

• Time and commitment: Reflective practice requires dedicated effort. Engaging in this practice and keeping up with it consistently can feel time-consuming. Scheduling 15 minutes at the end of a work week may assist with forming this practice into a habit.
• Emotional intensity: Reflecting on complex cases can be emotionally taxing. While this may be something psychologists instinctively want to avoid outside of business hours, working through these reflections will likely benefit their mental health and well-being in the long term.
• Bias and subjectivity: Reflection takes being aware of personal biases. For some, this may be challenging to begin with. However, the more psychologists practice this skill, the more they may notice themselves and their implicit biases in the therapy room.

Therapeutic Implications of Self-Reflection

Self-reflection is not just about personal growth; it directly impacts therapeutic outcomes. It fosters a deeper understanding of clients, enhances empathy, and contributes to more effective therapeutic interventions. Moreover, promoting healthy self-awareness can be a vital tool in preventing burnout .

Reflective practice fosters a deeper understanding of oneself as a psychologist and enhances the quality of client care. Reflection forces us to confront our thoughts, feelings, and biases in a therapeutic context and productively use this. By embracing this approach, psychologists can ensure continual growth and ethical, effective practice.

Bruno, A., & Dell’Aversana, G. (2016). Reflective Practice for Psychology Students: The Use of Reflective Journal Feedback in Higher Education. Psychology Learning & Teaching , 16 (2), 248–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725716686288

Amanda Moses, B S.Sc, is dually registered as a clinical and counseling psychologist in the UK and a psychologist and board-approved supervisor in Australia. She provides training and supervision to early career psychologists.

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Reflecting Skills

Ensuring that you understand your clients, and that your clients feel understood by you is foundational to the counseling relationship. The skills on this page are particularly useful for building the counseling relationship by helping your clients to know that you are hearing and understanding what they are saying.

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, & Reflecting

Summarizing, paraphrasing, and reflecting are probably the three most important & most commonly used microskills. These skills can be used by counselors to demonstrate their empathy to clients, make the counseling session go "deeper", & increase clients' awareness of their emotions, cognitions, & behaviors. All three methods involve repeating back, in your own words, what the client has said. Counselors often go beyond simple repetition and include their own interpretations of the client's emotions or existential meaning to increase the "depth" of the session. These techniques can often be used in place of questions, as, like questions, they prompt the client to reflect or talk more. However, these techniques often have additional benefits of questions as they also demonstrate that the counselor empathizes with and understands each client. Summaries, paraphrases, and reflections can be described as:

• Broadest of the three methods for repeating information.
• Useful at the end or beginning of session. For example, summarizing the session to the client or reorienting the client to the previous session.
• Summaries can include condensed paraphrases & reflections.
• Not as broad as a summary, yet more broad than a reflection.
• Useful for pacing counseling sessions and for demonstrating empathy to clients.
• Paraphrases can contain condensed reflections.
• There are three broad types of reflection: Reflections of content, reflections of feeling, & reflections of meaning.
• Counselors can strengthen their reflections by constructing a reflection that integrates content, process, affect, and meaning. For example, "While talking about the loss of your dog (content) I experience you as alternating between anger and sadness (affect). That makes a lot of sense to me (self-disclosure), since you told me that seeing your dog at the end of a stressful day kept you grounded (meaning)".

Types of Reflections

Counselors can reflect a wide range of information, but reflections typically include one or more of the following:

• Reflecting content involves repeating back to clients a version of what they just told you. Reflecting content shows the client you understand and are listening to them. Typically, reflecting content alone is not as powerful as reflecting content with emotions and/or meaning.
• Reflecting a client's emotions is often useful for heightening the client's awareness of and ability to label their own emotions. It is important that counselors have a wide emotional vocabulary, so they can tailor their word choice to match a level of emotional intensity that is congruent with a client's experience. Feeling word charts are useful for reviewing a wide range of feeling words.
• As existential theorists observe, humans are meaning making creatures. Reflecting a client's meaning can increase the client's self-awareness while encouraging emotional depth in the session.

Emotional Heightening

Counselors can intentionally use language to increase or decrease the emotional intensity of their reflections, thereby altering a client's emotional arousal. Using evocative language and metaphors (e.g., "walking on eggshells") encourages clients to go deeper into a particular experience or emotion, which can heighten awareness and understanding. Conversely, a counselor might support a client in containing their emotions toward the end of the session, so the client is prepared to leave the session.

It is important that counselors attempt to match their reflections to the emotional intensity of the client's experience. Thus, intentionality is important when counselors reflect more or less emotion than the client expresses, as doing so can result in the client feeling misunderstood and not listened to.

An example of emotional heightening is:

• Client: "My wife and I can't stop fighting with each other, and things are really escalating."
• Counselor: "Your fights are becoming more explosive and hostile."