Counselling and Psychotherapy - Essay Example

Running head: ANALYZING A COUNSELING SESSION RECORDING POSSIBLE CHALLENGES AND POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS Customer inserts His/her name Customer inserts grade course Customer inserts Tutor’s name 25th November 2011 This session reflects upon a young lady who is on her early 20’s having nightmare of a certain man she used to love in the past. The problem is that she is getting nightmares lately whereas they were intimate 16 years ago. These nightmares are that, the boyfriend used to treat her very bad and thus affected her emotionally. The other thing is that the boyfriend did not appreciate how much she could sacrifice and come to see him to the extent that she could put the fuel and come to his place but, in vain the guy complained why she did that. This issue thus is affecting her so much and she feels she was betrayed and abused emotionally and that the thing is ringing in the mind every other time. The lady further feels that she was cheated and used and that she gave her all only for the boyfriend lacking to support her and love her unconditionally. As a counselor, she approached me given the condition she was facing asking for some advice on what to do. I welcomed the client with a smile ushered her to her sit and gave her a warm hearted welcome to feel at home. Counselor: Please feel welcome to this counseling session Miss Naomi, please sit down” Client: Thank you…. This was aimed at calming her down and letting her open up to me without fear. She started up with tears and agony and I felt empathy as she started narrating the story. By making her comfortable, I relaxed her to be able to open up to me. Client: I had a boyfriend a when I was 20 years old and although we broke up, I feel cheated and all along I have been having endless nightmares concerning him. How can you help me overcome this situation? Counselor: I’m sorry for this. I know by the end of this counseling you will go home feeling better This was to show her that I identified with her story and was ready to listen to it. I understood that, being open and attached to her it helped in calming her down. I understood her very well as she told me of the sacrifices and how she could go and visit him even though he never felt comfortable and okay. She realized that she had gone wrong by loving this man and doing all by herself to make this guy happy. She felt the dire consequences that might affect her both psychologically and emotionally for the way the guy abused her emotionally. I understood that she also had an inner fear of meeting another man since her first love was still affecting her and also she felt maybe by being so much into the guy and trying to impress him it will not bare any fruits even in the future. Client: the nightmares are really affecting my daily working and life. Counselor: I believe that life is all with up and downs but do not worry the night mares will come to an end After narrating this situation, I realized the problem she had with the boyfriend and that in spite of being loyal and trying to prove to the boyfriend that she was good and capable he never appreciated but gave her hard time and to the extent of making her feel cheated within. It is through this that she is having a lot of nightmares concerning him and for this she feels il inside her soul and emotionally pain for what she was done by the boyfriend before they parted ways. In addition, I realized that the nightmares were coming as a result of the facts that she loved the boyfriend so much and gave him her all so as to make him happy. Inside her, I felt that she still loved the guy and that is why she keeps thinking of him and despite the situation that forced them to part ways there is still that feeling that disturbs her most. Client: I fear I may lose everything…after losing my virginity to a man who never tried taking good care of me Counselor: Take it easy, you will be alright…this won’t happen again if you believe. Please proceed. I understood that she was suffering severely and this had affected her psychologically and emotionally to the extent she feared for getting another man at her age and the same happens again. The nightmares she is receiving now are thus affecting her and she feels the issue is irritating and wants an answer which is immediate and readily available to remove the traumatic nightmares in her. During the listening period, I avoided interjecting as she narrated her story even though it sounded painful and some of her words were incoherent. Client: I…do not…oh my God…what I’m I saying…? Counselor: Please compose yourself…I am carefully listening… This gave her ample time to arrange her train of thoughts and also enable her not to leave out vital details. The skills that I employed were so personalized, direct and interactive. Through them I was able to relate to the clients experience and help her in resolving it. One of the alternatives that I ought to have employed to achieve maximum results was to complement the one on one session on counseling. I would have obtained maximum results if I had given the lady to my client audience where he would have given his side of the story. This would also have helped in enhancing reconciliation to the two parties. In future I have seen that there is need to integrate other methods to complement a one on one counseling session. The other methods include role plays where a client dramatizes some of the roles during counseling; it can also involve the counselor acting as a facilitator. This helps in re-enacting roles to identify the root of the problem. The next, is through assertive training where a client is taken through paces to claim and defend her rights by enhancing communication in the home. Show evidence of using empathy, acceptance, and genuineness to develop the helping relationship with your client. You should identify to what extent and how these qualities are evident in your recording. This counseling session brought out strong interpersonal attributes. The use of empathy is exhibited through an active engagement with the client by identifying with the problem and not just observing it. It addresses human values such as pity and understanding where a counselor absorbs himself in the predicament of the client. Client: I fear I might not get someone to love and trust going by the fact that, I lost trust and hopes of having a good boyfriend Counselor: Sorry for the pain. I can relate. Have you told your friends about the issue in the past or shared with anyone? Acceptance is demonstrated by making the client make a confession of the underlying problem. She must feel that what she did was wrong and did not add value to her life. This is to be done by the counselor not being judgmental while in the counseling session. As a counselor, I had to demonstrate that I genuinely felt for her pain and that what she was undergoing was human. Upon acceptance of the challenges, a more effective mechanism is able to be employed to the problem. These qualities are reflected in my recording in that they help to evoke the human values exhibited during the process of counseling. In acceptance, I made the client to know that she was not the only one who was undergoing that problem. As a counselor, I accepted her situation, appreciated her boldness in seeking help and above all encouraged her that the problem would be solved. Client: Miss. Naomi, you should know you are not alone in this. Millions of women in UK are battling related challenges. You sought professional help and you should take it easy as I am addressing this matter. Counselor: Thank you counselor. I really appreciate! By being genuine, I was able to confide in my client by demonstrating feelings for her predicament. A good counselor should be able to demonstrate that he had the best interests of the client at heart. The counselor at this particular point should be real since this will give the client to develop a relationship that will enable them to open up to share their problems without fear. In this stage, the client will be able to share their feelings through communicating them appropriately without fear of being taken for granted or laughed at. Client: I don’t know whether you can handle my situation Counselor: Miss. Naomi, you should know that I have handled many cases of this kind Consider the session with reference to the Integrative Process Model, showing awareness of what you were doing in relation to the themes and stages of the model. An integrative approach is one whereby the counselor understands, values and accesses a range of different counseling perspectives and orientations and integrates these as and when it is appropriate in their practice. In the Integrative model, I would have established firstly a good rapport between myself and the client. It is person centered and is concerned with the cognitive behavior of the client. The one on one counseling session differs to the integrative model since it does not offer specific solutions rather it aims at help to help the client come up with the most viable solution. As an integrative counselor, I will consider employing multiple interventions to enhance the therapeutic effects of the counseling session. I will consider possible ways of enabling their client to tackle issues by applying appropriate therapeutic perspectives to their counseling session. I will then apply concepts and techniques that are most appropriate and ‘fit’ both their assessment of the present problem and underlying issues. Since integrative counseling is focused on working towards change I will help the clients to reflect on the issues and problems and select appropriate methods of intervention. Reflect on and make constructive use of the feedback you received from peers and/or tutor for this session. This session generated varied feedback from both my peers and my tutor. They impressed to me the need to incorporate other personalized methods of counseling using the integrative approach as it is more focused on arriving at a solution. My peers also looked at how I conducted the entire counseling session and whether I brought out the strong emotive human values in solving this problem. Although as a counselor I should observe neutrality, I realized that as a counselor you at times suggest various ways in which you would have managed the issue yourself if put in the client’s shoes. This is because we all carry our own bias to different issues which a counselor may handle; this bias is reflected to a small scale on the interventions I as the counselor may suggest to a client. My peers also highlighted to me that counseling would have flowed more freely had it been conducted by a woman since being highly emotive, a woman counselor would have solicited unfettered response from the client. On the other hand, my tutors were specifically interested in evaluating the way I handled the very emotive parts of the counseling session. Specifically, they looked at how sensitive I was in my interview brief during the progression of the counseling session. Include clear evidence of how you have demonstrated an appropriate level of competence in the core skills and qualities in this interaction, giving a real evaluation of your strengths and areas for development. As a good counselor I exhibited great listening skills. I sought to talk less and hear more from the client. The other skills are in handling the client. This is through improving interaction by building a good rapport with the client and assuring her that we are to reach a conclusion /decision. This I did by making the client feel comfortable as she told of what was disturbing her. I confided in the client that our verbal exchanges were to be kept so confidential. Being a professional counselor, let the client release their emotions in this instance, I avoided being patronizing by imposing my own belief system to the client. I was able to give my client an avenue to choose the best remedy to his situation in line with the ultimate goal envisaged during the therapy. In solving my client’s problems I was able to employ good interviewing and listening skills to the client. One of the strategies that I did not use effectively was to complement the primary methods of counseling by use of role plays and assertion training where the client is empowered to play the role of the spouse to try to gain empathy for his position both socially and emotionally. This involves use of multiple methods of learning. This helps the client to be more sensitive and also assertively demand to interrogate and address several issues in the family and specifically to her spouse. Assertiveness helps the client to be able to develop mechanisms of handling future challenges. The feedback received also helped me to test my interviewing skills among other interpersonal attributes during the counseling session. I was able to appreciate that a good counselor must choose a set of strategies that best fit the client’s environment to solve his problems. References Bayne, R., Jinks, G., Collard, P. & Horton, I. (2008) The Counselors’ Handbook, London, Nelson Thornes Cooper, M. (2008) Essential Research Findings in Counseling and Psychotherapy: The Facts are Friendly, London, Sage Egan, G. (2006) The Skilled Helper: A Problem-management and Opportunity Development Approach to Helping, London, Thomson Learning Rogers, C. (2004) On Becoming a Person, London, Constable Rogers, C. (2004) A Way of Being, London, Constable Dryden, W. (2006) Counseling in a Nutshell, London, Sage Feltham, C. & Horton, I. (Eds) (2005) Handbook of Counseling and Psychotherapy ,London: Sage. Hubble, M., Duncan, B, & Miller, S. (1999) The Heart and Soul of Change: What works in Therapy American Psychological Association McLeod, J. (2009) An Introduction to Counseling. Buckingham: OU, (4th edition). Mearns, D. & Thorne, B. (2007) Person Centered Counseling in Action, London, Sage (3rd Edition) Merry, T. (2002) Learning and Being in Person-Centered Counseling, PCCS Books Neslon-Jones, R. (2004) Introduction to Counseling Skills, London, Sage O"Brien, M. & Houston, G. (2000) Integrative Therapy - A Practitioner’s Guide London: Sage. Read More