This post describes my experience in a group as I learned about the dynamics of group counseling. I met with this particular group for a full semester 1 time per week. This week I learned about losing trust, group roles, and being very critical others – something that I hadn’t realized before this activity.

Every group session opened up with a new person in the group taking on the role of the facilitator. The next person was up to facilitate our group. Surprisingly, this person broke the chain reaction of making our group goals the main topic during our facilitator role. It was something we have molded ourselves into. It was habit.

This woman also expressed disbelief in another group member who gave an excuse last week for no fully engaging as committed. We as a group cannot seem to get past an incident that happened two weeks ago (this member had taken on [inadvertently] the role of a slacker in this group as she wasn’t consistent with her commitments and was caught in a lie).

At this point, I think it is getting old and I do not feel it is fair we should focus so much of our group time on this issue. I think I had something to do with it though because I made reference to her being absent and wondering if it had anything to do with what happened last week when we amicably confronted her. This is such a big deal to some of the ladies in our group that we are actually going to spend a whole group next week on addressing the situation “the right way.” We all agreed but in typing More

Internship Journals

Counseling Intern Journal: When You don’t Choose Your Clients

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In reflecting on my week, I realized I am experiencing a challenge with my six-year-old client. This was the very first client assigned to me and frankly, I just didn’t know how to work with a child so young. I processed the techniques that I could utilize with a child this age and thought about the amount of information I can actually learn from her.

I spoke with different clinicians about the various ways to treat a client of this age. One of the clinicians told me it was a good idea to treat the child with the parent in the office. Another informed me to treat the client first for half of a session and then the parent for the remainder of the session.

However, my supervisor informed me about something that just completely made things a little more complex for me. In this particular situation, my six-year-old client came in with a presenting problem of hyperactivity as per the mother. This little girl’s brother is also being treated at my internship site. More

Case Presentation and Treatment

Family Dynamics: An Interview as a Counseling Student

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In exploring options for a family interview, I realized a family is what it is and that it does not follow a specific format. It wasn’t until I experienced the Introduction to Marriage, Couples and Family Counseling that I realized this idea. The family I interviewed is nuclear based and consists of a mother and a son who live in the same house. Although I thought this may pose some challenges as the interviewer, considering that perhaps most people were interviewing couples, when the opportunity presented itself to interview this particular family, it became clear that indeed this was the family that I would interview. Perhaps I even discovered more about this type of family than I was expecting since it is different than the families I have been exposed to, including my own. Of interest to me was the living arrangement of this family whose two only sons (ages 25 and 31), were both unmarried and living at home with the single mother.

Wanda (pseudonyms used to conserve identity) is the mother and is a single 46 year old of Puerto Rican decent. Wanda attended grammar and high school in the United States and therefore considers her primary language to be English. In exploring background information, Wanda shared with me that she became pregnant with her first son at the age of 15 and was 21 when she gave birth to her second son. The relationship with her sons’ father fizzled and so at More

Session Transcripts and Analysis

Analysis of a Counseling Session: A Practicum Experience

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Section I: Description of client

Shelly is a 26-year-old single Italian female who is working full-time as a teacher and is also a part-time graduate student. She came into counseling today well groomed and casually dressed. Her speech was normal and her thought process appeared to be relevant and coherent. At opening, she reported feeling “okay” but had some concerns she wanted to share. Shelly’s affect appeared congruent with her behavior.

Shelly attends counseling one time per week for 45 minutes a session. This is her sixth session in counseling and is preparing to terminate session in two weeks. She has no prior history of counseling or psychiatric treatment and is currently diagnosed with Adjustment Disorder with Depressed Mood. Counseling was self-initiated, although she reported family members More

journals

Conflict Resolution in Groups: A Counseling Student’s Perspective

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We met at our usual room. The facilitator began expressing how nervous she was about her presentation today. She felt she was not going to be able to be as “good” as her two previous members. The group was supportive about her feelings. However, at this point, I noticed some competition when taking lead roles. It is not just about fulfilling the assignment, now we are concerned with topping previous performances. That became clear to me when she continuously expressed her feelings about her fears as a facilitator and when other members began judging the content of previous presentations as if it were important for this assignment. We all know the process is what counts here, not the content. The only person who has not made a comment about whether the group was “real good” or “fun” is another lady who is a little more vocal these days, but still not quite present as the rest of us.

Interestingly, our group facilitator chose her topic to be conflict resolution. At first, I thought the group would open up with a discussion about the incident that occurred last week with her leaving early. However, nobody brought it up before she started presenting. I also thought since another woman in the More

Session Transcripts/ Session Transcripts and Analysis

Counseling-Client Rapport: Breaking Down A Video Taped Session

Description of Client In Counseling

The client who is identified here as Shelly, is a single 26 year old Italian American female. She came in to counseling casually dressed and her grooming was clean and appropriate. This is Shelly’s first time to counseling. She was initially experiencing high levels of anxiety, anger, and sadness due to the loss of her 4- year romantic relationship to a man. These symptoms persisted for about two weeks after the break-up and therefore, affecting her sleeping, eating, and work patterns. Shelly was engaged to this man for 2 years of the 4-year relationship and recently found out that he had been unfaithful in the relationship. She then terminated their engagement. Shelly did appear to be angry and guarded during the intake session. She also explained that she was experiencing worry about her current financial situation. As Shelly described, the ex-fiancé charged her accounts and she is unable to keep up with payments. She is currently indebted $30,000.

As it appears, Shelly is extremely dependent on her relationship emotionally, mentally, and financially. She has a strong support system with her family; however, it appears that she extremely dependent on her family. In fact, she moved back in with her family and they have initiated to move her things out of the apartment for her.

Shelly denies any suicidal and homicidal tendencies but is feeling “guilty” because her ex-fiancé threatened More

Uncategorized

Counseling Group Basics: When It’s Your Turn To Facilitate

It was my turn to facilitate today. I looked forward to this day all week and found myself feeling anxious all day. When I arrived to our group room, the group was having a discussion about something that appeared to not sit well with some of our group members. I asked the one guy in my group what he was talking about when I walked in, since he was the one leading this discussion. Apparently, it involved “a favor” by one of our group members who was not in with us at that particular time. I did not agree in carrying out that favor so I asked the members how they felt about it right before I shared my feelings of disagreement with the situation. It was like opening the flood gates. Nobody agreed but everyone appeared to have difficulties expressing that initially. We decided to talk more about it at the end of group. We did and the favor was not carried out. I guess I put everyone at ease in expressing their feelings when I spoke about mine.

My goal for today was to increase the comfort level in our group. Personally, I also wanted to get to know everyone on a deeper level. For that reason, I initiated an activity that offered the group members an opportunity to share something intimate. One of the women, for one, came right out of her shell. It was amazing. It was almost as if somebody else was sitting in her place. She came right out and admitted to not being assertive and shared her feelings about how others make her feel unimportant because she does not More

Self Awareness

Introduction to the Counseling Profession: A Sample Career Plan

Potential Internship Sites and Goals

I have two potential internship sites in mind. The first one is an outpatient counseling center that provides counseling to all ages. The clinical services available are family and marital counseling, drug and alcohol abuse counseling (individual and group), career counseling and testing, and counseling for displaced homemakers. One of the reasons why this is a potential site for me is because I work for this agency in a different program which is prevention based; however, I am currently not counseling. I believe it is not only convenient for me but also, the agency has an excellent reputation that is appealing. Additionally, the agency has an internship program, which is also beneficial because I can share and learn with other interns as well as trained counselors.

Yet, another reason why this site would be of interest to me is because the Clinical Director and the Senior Counselor are both Licensed Professional Counselors. This means that I will acquire supervision from a licensed counselor as opposed to a licensed Social Worker or Psychologist and being an LPC is the credential that I am opting to achieve.

One of the challenges that I find in exploring internship sites is that most places have Licensed Clinical Social Workers and I do realize that their field, although some may argue, is different from ours. One of the downfalls, however, in doing my internship here is that it is an outpatient clinic and I will have to More

Diversity Counseling/ Self Awareness

Diversity Counseling Interview: Religion, Race and Roles (Part 2)

This is a continuation of a post which describes an interview which purpose was to identify how cultural differences may affect the therapeutic relationship between two people who are different in various ways but particularly in ethnicity/race, religion, and gender.

Roles of Husband/Wife, Child-rearing, and Overall family

When I asked Mike if he was congruent with his cultural group he said, “Absolutely.” He thought American views on family roles are changing but only in theory. He said he feels men are still expected to be the breadwinners and the wife is expected to stay home and take care of the children. He does not consider himself as being a mainstream American though. As for what constitutes a family in his cultural group, he said family consists of a father, a mother, brothers, sisters, grandparents, and very close friends. He was not sure if close friends were considered family to most Americans but he does.

In regards to grandparents he says they are well respected and are there to share their wisdom with the rest of the family. They are perceived as a parent figure and although true in his family, his elderly grandmother is considered “wacky.”

I believe the norm for Americans is to place their elderly parents in nursing homes or assisted living More

Diversity Counseling/ Self Awareness

Diversity Interview: Experiencing Cultural Differences In Counseling (Part 1)

The following paper describes an interview conducted by a Latina counseling student with a White male interviewee named Mike. The purpose outlined is to identify how cultural differences may affect the therapeutic relationship between two people who are different in various ways but particularly in ethnicity/race, religion, and gender.

Mike regards his religion as the most important aspect of his life. Although his role as a White male may have initially impacted perceptions on the counseling student, she discovers the biggest challenge to be his religious beliefs.

Initially, it was obvious that Mike was White but I decided to ask him anyway. “Mike, what do you consider you racial/ethnic identity to be?” He looked perplexed just as I suspected so I politely gave him my reasons to why I asked. His look made me a little uncomfortable. For a minute, I thought perhaps I sounded a little racist or prejudiced. He then replied, “I consider myself a White Protestant.” Part of this answer was not a surprise to me. He is, obviously White although I do not dare guess anymore. However, if I had not asked More

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