This document summarizes a counselling session between a counsellor and client. The client was experiencing distress after being betrayed by her best friend in a business they ran together. The counsellor used person-centered therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and reality therapy techniques to help the client. The session helped the client realize not everyone will betray her and to dispute her negative thoughts with more positive perspectives. The counsellor provided support and guidance to help the client better cope with her trauma and move forward.

1. ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION SHEET
Course Code : ESSB3123
Course Title : Counselling Techniques
Lecturer : Mr.Al Mahdi
Title of Assignment : ASSIGNMENT 2
Submission Date : WEEK 12
Student’s Affirmation :
I, SITI SARAH BINTI SHAMSHUL ARIFFIN, acknowledge the submission of this assignment. I will be
responsible if this assignment is found plagiarized and will bear the consequences.
Student’s Signature: Lecturer’s Signature:
SARAH

2. Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 1
1.1 PERSON CENTRED THERAPY ............................................................................................. 1
1.2 COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THERAPY................................................................................... 1
1.3 REALITY THERAPY............................................................................................................. 1
1.4 CLIENT’S ISSUES ............................................................................................................... 2
2 REFLECTION..................................................................................................................... 8

3. 1
1 Introduction
This assignment is required students to conduct a counselling session with a client by using
3 techniques in the session. The counselling session was held on 19 November 2023 via Teams.
Based on the issues, I am using Person Centred Therapy by Carl Rogers, Reality Therapy and
Cognitive behavioural therapy because it suits the problem faced by the client.
1.1 Person Centred Therapy
➢ Rogers developed a therapeutic approach that prioritizes the client's experience and views
individuals as inherently good, with the potential for positive growth. This approach is
characterized by empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness on the part of
the counsellor.
1.2 Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
➢ Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focus the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and
behaviours. It is a short-term, goal-oriented therapy that aims to identify and change
patterns of thinking or behaviour that are causing people's problems and thus change the
way they feel.
1.3 Reality Therapy
➢ In reality therapy, clients are responsible for their own behaviour and that they have the
power to make choices to meet their psychological needs. Reality Therapy is considered
a practical and action-oriented approach that encourages individuals to take control of
their lives by making effective choices

4. 2
1.4 Client’s issues
➢ The client was having an issue with her best friend. She and her best friend was a student
and both of them have a small business together. She has been cheated by her best friend
in their small business and this traumatic event was really give a big impact on her daily
life. She keeps on distancing from others because she feels everyone will betray her like
her best friend did. The conversations throughout the counselling session is as stated
below:
*Social talk
Counsellor : Hello, Good evening Miss Preethi
Client : Hi, good morning.
Counsellor : How are you ?
Client : Yeah I’m good. I've got a very swollen eyelid, but other than that, I'm fine.
Counsellor : Yeah, I can see that. Hopefully it will get better soon.
Client : Yeah. Let’s hope.
Counsellor : Where are you now? Is it at your home?
Client : Yeah, I am at my home right now.
Counsellor : Is it raining at your house area?
Client : Yeah, it’s raining but not that heavy, it’s quite light.
Counsellor : Yeah same. I notice how the weather has been quite unpredictable lately until there
are some places was flooded. Is your place flooded?
Client : No, thank God my place isn't flooded. But I've been quite scared because many places
are becoming flooded, but not my place.
Counsellor : Yeah, I hope everything is okay and nothing happened.
Counsellor : Alright, so can we start our session ?
Client : Yep, we can.
Counsellor : Ok, first of all, I will introduce myself first. My name is Sarah. I’m your counsellor for
today. The counsellor session will be held around 45 minutes to 1 hour. There are some things
that I need to tell you. If you try to harm yourself or others, or others try to harm you, it is my
responsibility to report it to the authorities. Is its clear miss Preethi?
Client : Yeah, very clear.

5. 3
Counsellor, Ok good. Let’s start. What is disturbing your mind right now?
*Person Centred Therapy techniques
Client: I've been going through a lot right now, I mean for a while, but I haven't really cope or
haven't really gone through it properly, like maybe my emotions and everything. So, I'm like all
over the place. I don't know where to start like what to tell you. But I have just been dealing with
a lot and I don't know how to cope with it and I also don't know where to start.
Counsellor: It's okay Miss Preethi. I’m here to listen and support you. It's okay not to know where
to start. You can tell me a little bit more about what you have go through and or what you have
been feeling lately.
Client : So basically I've experienced this like I would say it's a traumatic event and it was a few
months ago. It was a while ago but it's still disturbing me now and like it just it just left me with a
very like a heavy uneasy just, I'm anxious a lot I'm I feel overwhelmed I can't sleep properly. I get
nightmares and I just can’t stop replaying it and thinking like “O my God that happened that
happened.”
Empathy + exploration
Counsellor : I'm really sorry to hear that you've been going through this. It sounds incredibly
challenging right? And just now you have mentioned about traumatic event. Can you share a bit
more about the traumatic event that you mentioned just now?
Client : OK, so basically what happened is, I'm a student, but my friend and I decided to start a
small business, my best friend, we're very, very close. We decided to start a small business
together just you know just like as a side thing and all that and she is my best friend like I trust
her with everything. I trust her a lot. We're really close. We have one account that keeps that
whenever profits come in and everything is split into two but it's in it's one account but she gets
her share, I have mine.
I came to found out like I realized that she's been taking her money and she's been taking my
money also and she's been lying to me like that's not the like as it is if you take my money. Like I
felt very, very like used. But then she also lied to me about it, like she made me feel like I'm going
insane, I'm crazy and I'm accusing her.
But she cheated me in this business like she really did something wrong and I just feel very
betrayed because if you can do something wrong, you can own up to it. But no, she decided to
put it on me like you are the one that is fine. So that is just insane.
Counsellor: I can see that you are very disappointed with your best friend, right? (Reflecting
feelings)
Client: Because OK, I've been friends with her for so long and best friends. She’s the only person
like I've trusted for so long and for her not only take it without feeling, without caring, but she lied
to me and made me feel insane. That is the one that really, really mess with me. Because now I
don't, I can't trust anybody. Whenever anyone else comes, like immediately I don't trust anybody.

6. 4
I have no motivation to do anything. I've given up on it. it's so hard to focus on anything and trust
anybody and do anything because imagine the one person you're closest to not only uses you
but lies to you.
Counsellor : I think it's normal to feel that anger, sadness or confusion entirely when you go
through all this situation, right? OK, can you tell me a little bit more about this traumatic event like
how it happened and how did you know that she betrays on you?
Client : OK, so me and her, we've been friends for like 7-8 years. For a long time, we've been best
friends. Like we got close and we became close and close over the years and we are like each
other's person. Like OK, I trust her with everything and I thought she trust me with everything also
and so we decided to do our business together and you know, grow our business and everything.
And then when the money comes in like how many she handles the accounts because she's
better at it. Like no, she's not better at it but we decided to split our tasks. So, my tasks are more
about talking to customers and all that and her task is like managing the accounts and mine is
like with any documentation whenever I do that. So being in a position where you deal with the
accounts, she literally took advantage of that. Like she used that to take money from me and it's
not it's not, it's not about that. It’s like if the problem is, she pretended to be innocent like she you
when you when you're wrong. Like you would think if someone has done something wrong, they
would like feel a bit guilty or something. No, she pretended to be innocent. She’s like, “no, I didn't,
I didn't do anything like, she just made it seem like I was the one simply making some making up
something that like didn't exist.
Then like when I started realizing it more and more, like, I finally just went to it and just asked the
proper, like, “are you taking the money?” and she admitted it and she was like, yeah, I did. But
she wasn't she wasn't even like she wasn't feeling guilty about it. She was like, yeah, I did and
you know, it's not a normal thing.
Counsellor : Yeah yeah, she didn’t say anything even “ sorry “?
Client : No at all. She just cut off and just went off and did her own thing and I’m like find it so hard
to do anything. I can't even concentrate. I can't even do anything. Like I avoid social situations or
anywhere where I have to meet people after going through that, I just can't.
Counsellor : Yeah, it sounds like this has had a significant impact on various aspects of your life.
Client : Like, I can't even do normal daily things without thinking about it and feeling upset about
it.
Counsellor : Yeah, yeah, I think it's a normal to feel like this way because, you already be friends
with her around 7 to 8 years, right?

7. 5
CBT TECHNIQUE
Counsellor : Just now you had mentioned about you can’t trust anyone anymore right ? Just
because of your best friend betrayed you. Do you think it's fair for everyone because they didn't
even cheat on you but you are not trust them anymore?
Client : Because once I've gone through this, like I get so afraid to become close with anybody
because I'm just so scared. Like they'll do the same thing to me or they'll cheat me in some way
or they'll do something horrible to me and like because of this, like I feel so lonely. I’m so stressed
because I don't go. I don't approach people like I always, I always try to like distance myself and
not really enter social situations and if there's like a chance to talk to someone, I don't take it. I
like run away from it.
I don't talk to people like even my other friends, I also distancing myself from them also because
what if one of them suddenly now does something bad to me like I do not have? I’ll be able to
handle it or not.
Counsellor : I understand it's completely normal to have this type of emotions after betrayal like
this, but can you find any evidence that you can dispute your negative thought?
Client : I really don't think so .I'm not sure because it's so overwhelming to the point that I can't
see or know how I would get over it. I which is scary because I don't want to have these feelings
for a long time. But I don’t. I don't see how I can get over it. I'm not sure.
Counsellor : OK, Just now you mentioned that you keep distancing yourself with your others best
friends because of you afraid that they will do the same to you, right? Can you remember back,
did they show a bad attitude towards you since you met them?
Client : No, not. They didn't. They've been nice to me.
Counsellor : OK, then, do they show a high effort in your friendship with you?
Client : Yeah, they do make a lot of effort in our friendships.
Counsellor : So do you still think that everyone is the same ?
Client : No, now I can see the difference in how they are because like my best friend that that
cheated me. But then my other friends are not like that. Now come realizing they're not like that.
They're very nice and they're very consistent with how they are with me.
Counsellor : Yeah, Great. OK, so I understand that avoidance is a common response to the
trauma. I can feel you. But, if you keep distancing yourself, you're sitting alone, it can maintain
the distress.
Client : Yeah, of course, I know that because I'm going through it.
Counsellor : Yeah, so can you try to dispute your negative thought to the positive thought?
Client : Sure. I guess I should stop thinking that everybody is the same, because now I'm realizing
that they're not and I can see the clear difference between how my actual friends are towards me

8. 6
and how she was towards me. The friends that I have now are very nice and very caring and deep
put effort into our friendship.
And if I keep thinking that they were bad and they are not great, I will be stressed because that's
what happens.
Counsellor : so yeah great. I think that is the best way for you to move forward because it is not
fair if your friends are put a high effort on you in the friendship but you not trust them. You keep
thinking that they will betray you. Don't think something that not happened yet, ok?
Client : Yeah yeah.
Reality Therapy technique (Want, Do, Evaluate, Plan)
Counsellor: So, yeah based on what you have shared to me just now, your best friend,
someone that you trusted so much, cheated on you in you guys business, and it feels like a
betrayal that you can't get over right? and you feel scared to get close to people because you
afraid they'll do the same thing to you. Right?
Client: Yes, true.
Counsellor: So actually, what do you want? (W)
Client: I just want to find a way to like cope with all the stress that I'm going through like to
understand what happened and to like I mean now that you've pointed out that other people
haven't done anything wrong.
I want to rebuild that trust and, you know, just stop feeling so disturbed and overwhelmed by,
like, anger, because I'm obviously very, very angry that this happened, but I'm also sad.
So, I just want to find a way to cope with all this and just deal with it properly
Counsellor: So, you mentioned that you want to rebuild trust and you want to stop feeling so
overwhelmed by anger and sadness, right? OK, so what do you do to rebuild trust and stop
feeling overwhelmed by anger and sadness? (D)
Client : I tried to like change the topic, change the subject like come up with something else so
that I guess like avoid that that conversational topic and I've even like distance myself from my
personal relationships with like my friends or my like family or whatever but that is not healthy.
Counsellor : OK. So, you told me that you want to avoid any topic about your ex best friend and
you should distance yourself from personal relationship and you it will make you rebuild back
your trust. Right? (E)
Client : Yeah.

9. 7
Counsellor : So yeah.If you think that by avoiding the any business with your ex best friend and
distance yourself from personal relationship can make you rebuild back your trust. So, you just
do it. (P)
Client : Yeah.I mean I'm will. I'm trying.
Counsellor : Great. OK. So I believe that you can go through all this problem and I have no
doubt that you have the strength to face the challenge ahead and I hope that you can put back
your trust and your small business will flourish,ok?
Client : Yeah yeah,hopefully.
Counsellor : Alright, before we end our session, is there anything else you want to share with
me?
Client : No, I think I've told you everything and I'm so glad. Yeah, I think that's all. Thank you so
much.
Counsellor : Alright, most welcome. Thank you so much for joining the session.

10. 8
2 Reflection
From my point of view, when using counselling techniques, it's crucial to tailor the approach to
the individual needs of the client. As a future counsellor, I need to ensure that the techniques are
really suitable for the client’s issues. Based on the issues of Miss Preethi, I decided to used
Person Centred therapy for her at the beginning of the session. The reason is, as we know,
Person-Centered Therapy which developed by Carl Rogers, is a humanistic approach that
emphasizes the importance of creating a therapeutic relationship based on empathy,
unconditional positive regard, and genuineness. As I had mentioned in the client’s issues above,
Miss Preethi was been cheated by her best friend. So, it is very important to show empathy,
genuineness and unconditional positive regard to her. This will make her more comfortable and
trust me in the whole of the session.
Secondly, since Miss Preethi has a negative impact after had been cheated by her best friend
which she was not trust anyone anymore because she feel afraid that it will happen again and
she keep distancing herself from others friends, so, I am using the Cognitive behavioral therapy
to dispute her negative thought to positive thought. That was the technique that really suitable to
dispute her thought because CBT involves identifying and challenging negative thought patterns.
For me, the cognitive restructuring helps Miss Preethi to develop a more balanced and realistic
perspective, leading to changes in emotional responses and behaviors.
Lastly, I was using Reality therapy to make her focuses and helping her take responsibility for
her own lives and make choices that lead to a more satisfying and fulfilling existence. For me,
cognitive behavioral therapy can emphasize strengths and solutions, contributes to enhancing
awareness of the client’s capabilities and resources. Since Miss Preethi was stuck in her problem
and she want to cope with her problem, so for me, I should use this technique to emphasis on
personal responsibility, the present moment, and the exploration of choices so that she can
enhance self-awareness. It empowers Miss Preethi to take an active role in shaping her lives and
making choices aligned with her values and aspirations.
Video link: https://youtu.be/mxVr0GHUvmQ