For me, genuineness in counseling means being authentic, present, honest, and emotionally congruent while maintaining appropriate professional boundaries. As I have progressed through the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program and into my clinical training, my understanding of genuineness has changed significantly. Early in the program, I associated genuineness primarily with being myself and communicating honestly with clients. I now understand that therapeutic genuineness is more complex. It requires self-awareness, intentionality, appropriate vulnerability, cultural humility, ethical judgment, and the ability to remain authentically present without allowing my own experiences or emotional reactions to become the focus of the counseling relationship.

Artifact: Elements of a Successful Therapeutic Relationship

Course: CNL-515 – Counseling Skills
Artifact: Elements of a Successful Therapeutic Relationship: Counselor Identity

My CNL-515 artifact represents an important early stage in the development of my counselor identity. At that point in my training, I was beginning to understand how counselor dispositions influence the therapeutic relationship. In the original assignment, I identified empathy, acceptance, and genuineness as dispositions I attempted to demonstrate during mock counseling sessions. I specifically described genuineness as staying true to myself and interacting with the client in a way that represented who I actually was rather than attempting to behave according to an artificial idea of how a counselor “should” behave.

Looking back at this artifact from my current perspective as a counselor in training, I recognize that this was an important foundation, but my understanding of genuineness has become considerably more developed. I no longer view genuineness simply as “being myself.” Instead, I understand it as the ability to bring my authentic self into the therapeutic relationship while continually asking whether my words, reactions, and interventions are serving the client.

elements of a successful therapeutic relationship* (obj. 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, and 8.7)).docx

Growth and Purposeful Revisions

One of the most meaningful observations in my original artifact was that empathy, nonverbal communication, and active listening felt relatively natural to me. At the same time, I identified time management, paraphrasing, and questioning techniques as areas needing improvement. I also recognized that I sometimes became so focused on problem-solving that I missed opportunities to acknowledge a client's resilience.

That observation has become especially significant as I have gained actual clinical experience.

My purposeful revision of this artifact is therefore less about changing its original conclusions and more about expanding them based on what I have learned through practicum, internship, supervision, and direct client contact. I now recognize that genuineness sometimes requires resisting the urge to immediately solve a client's problem. Being genuinely present may mean tolerating silence, remaining with difficult emotions, reflecting what I observe, and trusting the therapeutic process rather than attempting to produce an immediate solution.

Clinical experience has also taught me that counseling skills should not feel like techniques being performed on a client. Reflecting, paraphrasing, asking questions, providing psychoeducation, or using trauma-informed interventions are most effective when they occur within an authentic therapeutic relationship. As my confidence has increased, I have become less focused on trying to “sound like a counselor” and more comfortable allowing my natural warmth, curiosity, compassion, and personality to exist alongside my professional training.

This represents an important progression from my CNL-515 artifact. Earlier in my development, I was learning counseling skills individually and evaluating whether I was performing them correctly. I am now learning how to integrate those skills into my own developing therapeutic style.

Reflection on the Guiding Questions

How do I demonstrate genuineness with clients?

I demonstrate genuineness by attempting to be emotionally present and congruent with clients rather than relying on a rehearsed therapeutic persona. I want clients to experience me as a real person who is genuinely interested in understanding their experiences while also recognizing that the counseling relationship exists for their benefit.

Genuineness can appear in relatively small moments. It may involve acknowledging that something a client described sounds painful, expressing appropriate curiosity, recognizing a client's courage, or honestly acknowledging when I need clarification rather than pretending that I fully understand.

I have also learned that genuineness does not require disclosing everything I think or feel. Authenticity without clinical judgment can shift attention away from the client. Therefore, I increasingly evaluate my responses by asking myself: Is what I am about to say for the client's therapeutic benefit, or is it meeting a need of my own?

That distinction has become an important part of my professional development.

How has my understanding of the therapeutic relationship changed?

When I completed CNL-515, I understood intellectually that the therapeutic relationship was essential to counseling. Clinical experience has allowed me to experience that principle rather than simply understand it academically.

Clients do not always need an immediate interpretation, solution, or intervention. Sometimes they first need to experience safety, acceptance, consistency, and the feeling that another person is willing to remain present with them without judgment.

This has been particularly important as I have developed my trauma-informed approach to counseling. Trauma work requires sensitivity to safety, pacing, autonomy, and the client's readiness. My growing use of approaches such as EMDR, Internal Family Systems concepts, attachment theory, and CBT strategies has reinforced the importance of the therapeutic relationship. Techniques can provide structure, but the relationship creates the environment in which clients can safely engage with those techniques.

How do I remain authentic while maintaining professional boundaries?

One of my continuing areas of growth is learning to distinguish personal authenticity from therapeutic appropriateness. I naturally value connection and emotional depth, which can be strengths in counseling. However, those qualities also require professional boundaries.

I have become more intentional about monitoring my emotional reactions, motivations, assumptions, and desire to help. When I notice a particularly strong reaction to a client's experience, I recognize the importance of reflection and supervision. Rather than assuming that my emotional response automatically provides useful clinical information, I can explore whether it reflects something occurring in the therapeutic relationship, something within my own experiences, or both.

Supervision has therefore become an important component of genuineness. Being genuine as a counselor also requires being honest about what I do not know, where I need consultation, and where additional professional development is necessary.

How does genuineness influence my work with clients whose beliefs or experiences differ from mine?

Genuineness does not mean expecting clients to share my worldview. Instead, I believe genuine counseling requires enough security in my own identity that I can remain curious about another person's experiences without needing to change them to match my beliefs.

This is especially important when clients make decisions that I might not personally make. My responsibility is not to determine what I would do in their situation but to help them explore their experiences, values, choices, and goals.

This understanding connects genuineness with acceptance and cultural humility. I can bring my authentic self into counseling while simultaneously respecting the client's autonomy and remaining aware of the power inherent in the counselor-client relationship.

Professional Self-Evaluation and Continued Growth

Self-evaluation has become increasingly important as I progress from student learning into clinical practice. My original artifact identified strengths in empathy, active listening, and nonverbal communication while recognizing growth areas involving questioning, paraphrasing, time management, and a tendency toward problem-solving.

I continue to see value in that assessment, but my current goals are more nuanced. I want to become increasingly comfortable with therapeutic silence, strengthen my ability to recognize subtle relational processes, continue developing confidence in clinical judgment, and become more intentional about distinguishing empathy from overidentification.

Another area of continued development involves trusting myself while remaining teachable. Early in training, it was easy to believe there was a particular way a counselor was supposed to sound or behave. Experience has taught me that professional development is not about replacing my personality with a clinical persona. Instead, it involves developing the knowledge, skills, ethical awareness, and self-understanding necessary to use who I am responsibly within the therapeutic relationship.

This process reflects CACREP Standard 2.F.1.k, which emphasizes strategies for personal and professional self-evaluation and their implications for practice. Reflection, supervision, consultation, continuing education, and openness to corrective feedback are practices I intend to maintain throughout my professional career.

Ethical and Professional Integration

ACA Code of Ethics A.1.a – Primary Responsibility

ACA Standard A.1.a emphasizes counselors' primary responsibility to respect the dignity and promote the welfare of clients. Genuineness supports this responsibility when authenticity is used in service of the client's therapeutic needs. My responsibility is not simply to be authentic but to ensure that my authenticity contributes to a relationship characterized by respect, safety, and attention to client welfare.

ACA Code of Ethics A.4.b – Personal Values

ACA Standard A.4.b addresses the importance of counselors remaining aware of their own values and avoiding imposing those values on clients. This standard is particularly relevant to genuineness because authenticity should never become justification for imposing personal beliefs, opinions, or preferences.

My development as a counselor requires knowing my values while also recognizing that the counseling relationship belongs to the client. I can be genuine without expecting clients to think, believe, or make decisions as I would. Continued self-awareness, supervision, and cultural humility help me maintain this distinction.

CACREP Common Core Standards

2.F.5.f – Counselor Characteristics and Behaviors That Influence the Counseling Process

My growth in genuineness demonstrates my increasing awareness that who I am in the counseling room influences the therapeutic process. My verbal responses, nonverbal communication, emotional presence, assumptions, biases, confidence, and reactions can all affect the therapeutic relationship. Continued self-reflection allows me to use these characteristics intentionally rather than unconsciously.

2.F.2.h – Strategies for Identifying and Eliminating Barriers, Prejudices, and Processes of Intentional and Unintentional Oppression and Discrimination

Genuineness also requires examining the assumptions and biases I bring into counseling. Authenticity alone is insufficient if I am unaware of how my worldview may influence my interpretation of a client's experiences. I therefore view cultural humility, openness to feedback, continued education, and examination of implicit biases as essential components of becoming a genuine and ethically responsible counselor.

Looking Forward

My understanding of genuineness has progressed from the simple idea of “being myself” to a much more intentional understanding of therapeutic authenticity. I am learning that genuineness requires knowing myself well enough to recognize what belongs to me and what belongs to the client.

As I continue developing professionally, I want clients to experience me as warm, trustworthy, consistent, and real. At the same time, I want my authenticity to remain grounded in ethical practice, cultural humility, appropriate boundaries, and respect for client autonomy.

My goal is not to become a counselor who performs counseling perfectly. My goal is to become increasingly competent while remaining authentically present—using evidence-based skills and interventions without losing the human connection at the center of the therapeutic relationship.

 

GENUINENESS

Authenticity + Self-Awareness + Ethical Boundaries + Presence = Therapeutic Trust

A genuine counselor does not leave their humanity outside the counseling room; they learn how to bring it into the room responsibly.