The answer should be at least 350 words in length. Please use APA method of docu

Question

The answer should be at least 350 words in length. Please use APA method of documentation of any quotes taken (at least 3 recent sources). No plagiarism aloowed

Question:

Discuss the role of silence in the helping sessions. When might it foster therapeutic benefits? When might it negatively impact the helping sessions? What are some culture and gender considerations related to silence in the helping session?

Textbook reference:

Cormier, Sherry. Counseling Strategies and Inventions for Professional Helpers, 9E (2016) Pearson

Explanation / Answer

Silence is a powerful tool for recollection, analysis and for making decision. It makes the mind fresh by focusing on the task at hand. It helps the client to look into himself/herself and bring back fresh memories of incidents and information related to the counselor’s questions. Meditation and introspections are synonyms for silence in the therapeutic world.

Silence helps both the clients and the counselor to connect the dots in order to construct the whole picture about the clients and events and people who affected them. Silence help the clients to calm down and relax before answering the questions connected to their emotions. It helps the counselor to understand the emotions and body language of the clients during the silence.

Silence will be a stumbling block and time consuming thing during the limited time counseling. Only if the client talks, the counselor can understand things well and respond accordingly. Silence will affect the flow of the counseling because if the client takes more time to respond they may not be able to connect to the question that the counselor asked. If a person remains silent, during the counseling session, they may not be interested in the session, so it may drastically affect the outcome of the session.

In certain cultures, silence is considered to be respectful and strength whereas in other materialistic and individualistic culture, silence means arrogant, introvert and disrespectful. Western world expects people to respond without much delay whereas, Eastern cultures encourage silence in order to recollect better. A counselor needs to understand why a client is silent. It may be recollection, it may be refusal, it may be disrespect or it may be indifference.

Gender again is yet another issue because in countries, where women is forced to stay at home obediently are not allowed to talk much may not open up that easily. At the same time a Western brought-up girl may be too talkative without focusing on the instructions and questions, thus affecting the counseling process. Certain cultures do not give equal rights to women and women talking in public and with strangers are still considered to be unacceptable in some cultures.

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