Therapists’ perceptions shape the goals, activities, and outcomes of counseling and psychotherapy (Mahalik, Worthington, & Crump, 1999; Strupp, 1980). Reflective practice (RP) focuses on what professionals believe and value. It targets what is taken for granted. It invites professionals to challenge their assumptions. RP is the personal experience of meaning-making for self-awareness, cultural sensitivity, enhancement of the therapeutic relationship, as well as personal, professional, and social change.
What Is Reflective Practice?
- RP is a process for professional and personal self-improvement.
- RP includes what happened, why it happened, and how it happened.
- RP explores processes occurring throughout and following an experience.
- RP is a way of making meaning about why we do what we do.
What Is Not Reflective Practice?
- RP is not an identity, status (professional high ground), or achievement.
- RP is not prescriptive, punitive, or uniform.
- RP is not for personal therapy.
- RP is not for guilt release.
Why Does Reflective Practice Matter?
- RP is a professional resource.
- RP is a way to improve skill and effectiveness.
- RP is a way to enhance cultural competence, the therapeutic relationship, use of emotion, and self-care.
I (JB) was practicing in a medium-sized city’s downtown core counseling men who were released from institutions living in the community. As a professional corrections employee, it was an ethical responsibility to protect the public. I also felt it was necessary to connect with clients to understand the issues that led to incarceration. I some ways, such as their experience of being incarcerated for months to years, I had no point of reference and felt worlds apart. In other ways, I felt separated by only bad luck and some poor decisions. The struggles I had were about fairness, responsibility, and change. These were fundamental personal values tested by new professional experiences. For example, are trials, sentences as well as incarceration, and release applied fairly? Does responsibility for illicit behavior exist solely within the individual? If such behavior is in any way socially influenced, how much personal change is possible?
Take a few minutes to consider the many values listed below and check those that matter most to you. Once you have done that, check to see if they can be grouped and ranked in order of importance.
Acceptance | Accomplishment | Accountability | Accuracy |
Achievement | Adaptability | Adventure | Agility |
Alertness | Altruism | Ambition | Amusement |
Assertiveness | Attentive | Audacity | Authenticity |
Authority | Autonomy | Awareness | Balance |
Beauty | Belonging | Best | Boldness |
Bravery | Brilliance | Calm | Candor |
Capable | Careful | Certainty | Challenge |
Charity | Cheerfulness | Citizenship | Cleanliness |
Clear | Clever | Comfort | Commitment |
Common sense | Communication | Community | Compassion |
Competence | Competition | Concentration | Confidence |
Connection | Consciousness | Consistency | Contentment |
Contribution | Control | Conviction | Cooperation |
Correctness | Courage | Courtesy | Creativity |
Credibility | Curiosity | Decisiveness | Dedication |
Dependability | Determination | Development | Devotion |
Dignity | Discipline | Discovery | Discretion |
Diversity | Drive | Duty | Dynamism |
Economy | Effectiveness | Efficiency | Elegance |
Empathy | Empower | Endurance | Energy |
Enjoyment | Enthusiasm | Entrepreneurship | Equality |
Equity | Ethical | Excellence | Excitement |
Experience | Expertise | Exploration | Expressive |
Fairness | Faith | Fame | Family |
Fearless | Feelings | Ferocious | Fidelity |
Fitness | Fluency | Focus | Foresight |
Fortitude | Freedom | Friendship | Fun |
Generosity | Genius | Giving | Goodness |
Grace | Gratitude | Greatness | Growth |
Happiness | Hard work | Harmony | Health |
Helping | Holiness | Honesty | Honor |
Hope | Humility | Humor | Imagination |
Improvement | Independence | Individuality | Ingenuity |
Innovation | Inquisitive | Insightful | Inspiring |
Integrity | Intelligence | Intensity | Intuition |
Irreverent | Joy | Justice | Kindness |
Knowledge | Lawful | Leadership | Learning |
Legacy | Leisure | Liberty | Logic |
Love | Loyalty | Mastery | Maturity |
Meaning | Merit | Moderation | Motivation |
Nature | Obedience | Openness | Optimism |
Order | Organization | Originality | Partnership |
Passion | Patience | Patriotism | Peace |
Perfection | Performance | Persistence | Piety |
Playfulness | Poise | Positivity | Potential |
Power | Practicality | Preparedness | Present |
Prestige | Productivity | Professionalism | Prosperity |
Prudence | Purpose | Quality | Realistic |
Reason | Recognition | Recreation | Reflective |
Relationship | Reliability | Resourcefulness | Respect |
Responsibility | Restraint | Results | Reverence |
Rigor | Risk | Satisfaction | Security |
Self-actualization | Self-control | Self-reliance | Selfless |
Sensitivity | Serenity | Service | Sharing |
Shrewdness | Significance | Silence | Simplicity |
Sincerity | Skill | Smart | Solitude |
Soundness | Speed | Spirit | Spirituality |
Spontaneous | Stability | Status | Stewardship |
Strategic | Strength | Structure | Success |
Support | Surprise | Sustainability | Talent |
Teamwork | Temperance | Thankful | Thorough |
Thoughtful | Timeliness | Tolerance | Toughness |
Traditional | Tranquility | Transparency | Trust |
Truth | Understanding | Uniqueness | Unity |
Usefulness | Valor | Variety | Victory |
Vigor | Vision | Vitality | Wealth |
Welcoming | Winning | Wisdom | Wonder |
Personal Values and Reflexivity
The values we hold connect with our experience. They are at the center of RP. As you work through this text, return periodically to the values you identified and check their applicability to the topics as well as which are the most and least salient.
Reflexivity is considering self in context. It has been defined as “regular exercise of the mental ability, shared by all normal people, to consider themselves in relation to t...