Through my life, I have developed qualities of active listening, a nonjudgmental demeanor, and emotional intelligence. These qualities have been in practice in social relationships as well as counseling roleplays in class settings, which have helped me to realize how important they are in general to the counseling profession. I have always loved being the person friends can come to for support and for them to tell their stories to without fear of being judged or criticized, and this translates perfectly in becoming a counselor. Being an effective active listener is one of the most important skills a counselor needs to posses, as being able to thoroughly be engaged with a client and hear everything they are trying to say in the session is fundamental to building a therapeutic relationship. Another fundamental skill is having a nonjudgmental attitude towards clients, as clients need to feel as though the counseling space is safe to share anything they wish to and not feel as though the counselor will think negatively of them for what they share. Lastly, having a high degree of emotional intelligence allows me to better understand how I am feeling as well as be able to effectively communicate with others. This skill can be particularly helpful in counseling as it can allow me to increase levels of empathy towards clients and enhance interactions during sessions or with supervisors.

For me, some of the most difficult challenges to becoming a counselor are overworking myself, becoming too invested in the client’s life, and being too critical of myself. Even during school, I tend to overwork myself without taking sufficient breaks or taking time to practice self care until I become too stressed to do anything. Acknowledging this, I need to set more firm boundaries for my own life and make sure I am taking proper care of myself in order to prevent burnout too quickly and too frequently. Personally being too invested in the client means asking questions that may not be relevant to the counseling process and would only be used for curiosity purposes, which would not be helpful for the client. To work on this, I need to evaluate the purpose of the questions I ask and determine beforehand if the questions are beneficial for the client or for me, but I know this will take time and practice to be more effective as a counselor. Being too critical of myself has always been a personal challenge, where I hold high standards for myself and give very little forgiveness for error or mistakes. This is one of the biggest practices I need to work on and allow myself to make mistakes during the learning process since I cannot expect myself to get everything right on the first try every time. All of these factors are a work in progress as I am going into the counseling field, and I will continue to develop better strategies for becoming a more effective counselor.