In reflecting on my easiest client, I found one particular case to stand out. Usually, I’m nervous every time I go into session with clients; particularly those I feel are the most challenging. However, with this specific case, I do remember feeling nervous when I was going to meet with her for the first time after reading the initial contact form with the presenting issue, but I then found out after meeting with her that she turned out to be my favorite client. The client I am referring about is a 24-year-old Hispanic female who was having difficulties getting over her 3 year relationship after the break up. This woman had broken up with this man a year prior to coming to treatment and was still finding herself preoccupied with the situation to the point where it was not only affecting her self esteem, but also her work and motivation in school.

What I think made this case easy for me initially was the idea that I could relate on many different levels, particularly in that I have been broken hearted before, as most of us have been. The problem was that I thought at that time that this was why I enjoyed working with her, because it was something that I was familiar with personally and felt fairly competent in the matter. In contrast, my other cases were drug related and I guess, I felt somewhat inadequate and inexperienced. As I continued the journey of personal reflection, I later came to realize and more now that I am rethinking that experience that yes, perhaps I felt like I could be of more assistance because I felt more knowledgeable about situations like those but more importantly, I discovered that she reminded me a whole lot of my sister who was also experiencing a similar situation at that time.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely became aware that perhaps some counter- transference issues where transpiring and I believe my awareness and professionalism was what kept me from telling her to “screw him” in regards to the guy she was talking about, but had I explored it a little more, I would have realized that I was spending way too much time talking about “him” and his issues and background than focusing on my client’s personal healing. As I continue to reflect, I come more into the realization that subconsciously, I think I was comparing situations and I’m wondering if some of what we talked about was biased from my part.

In pondering the use of basic techniques of reflection and prompting for deeper exploration of the matter, I think that my way of asking questions, not so much the questions I asked, was enough to send my client the message that I did not like this guy she was talking about. In my head, I think I thought the idea of having someone side with her was healing enough, but as I think about it more and more, it really didn’t all have to do with her situation.

I don’t know, sometimes I feel that the more I look for flaws in my style and how I handle particular cases, the more I find and granted, there is always room for improvement. However, even though I had thought about this case frequently, revisiting that time is making me think I did this woman less justice than I had originally thought. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how one looks at it, I don’t see her any longer because her insurance only covered a few sessions, but I’m thinking that probably the reason why I never really thought about it on this realm was perhaps my own fear of discovering that my favorite client, whom I thought was “easy” to work with, turns out to be the most challenging case I have had thus far and there is nothing I can do about it now, except learn from it.