Conjoint Reflection

Everyone is likely to experience some form of discrimination or prejudice; as is anyone capable of acting prejudiced towards others. On April 5th, 1968, a teacher in Riceville, Iowa named Jane Elliot conducted an experiment with her third grade class that dealt with the concept of discrimination; and was documented in Peters’ 1985 ‘A Class Divided’. The exercise originally took place the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated. The documentary is an eye opener to the world of racism and discrimination. Bucher (2010) describes racism as “discrimination based on the belief that one race is superior to another” (97). According to Bucher (2010) “discrimination is defined as the

The client and his mother was thrilled at the idea. The mother was excited because she believed that her son constantly seeks to establish a relationship with his father, who hasn’t made any strides to do so. The son was excited because he stated that he would like to see his father more often and spend more quality time with him. The client was willing to see his father in a therapeutic environment if that’s what it takes to get him involved. I met with the father to schedule a family session with him and the client. During the initial contact with the father, he appeared nonchalant and apathetic towards the therapy. He made statements such as “boys will be boys” to explain his son’s behavior and seemed genuinely uninterested in the idea of family therapy.

P: Facilitator and PP met with the client and mother to identify situations and triggers that contribute to the client’s behaviors.

During this initial session, the client stated she is seeking counseling to "help find herself" due to some concerns she is dealing with in her personal life. When asked "to describe what does finding herself mean" the client was unable to answer. The client struggled to provide her view or a meaning to certain issues she identified as concerns. The counselor then assesses the client's family and her interactions with her family to find a correlation in her family interaction and what changes she wants to make in her personal life. Initial impression from the counselor is the client is aware of herself and her family and what she views as a positive and negative interaction which has or could impact the way she views things now. The client

-Shifting the family’s view of treatment from focusing on the adolescent as “the problem” to enhancement of family relationships as an important part of the solution.

The therapist could work on the family’s communication styles to find out how to find the best communication style to tell her family about what she would like to do. It would also be important to work on the client’s emotional issues, and new ways on how she can handle her problems with her family. It is important that the counselor would address more of the problems in the family that was not discussed in the vignette. For example: the therapist can try to understand why the family had never come into counseling to deal with past problems and why the family does not allow others to know about their problems. It would be important that the daughter would need to communicate to her parents that running a restaurant is not her

The client’s chief complaint is feeling stressed and overwhelmed from living with her mother. She has just moved in with her mother and new baby, while her husband is in another state attending a military training school. The client has expressed the feelings of being overwhelmed for the last one to five years. The client and her family have never gotten along, but now she is living with her mother who has a new boyfriend while still being married to the client’s father. The client is the older of two younger brothers’ feels and that she has never been understood or heard by her family. The client is irritable, anxious, hopeless, isolation, and guilt because she moved in with her mother to help with her new son, but her mother is not helping. The client may have unresolved conflicts with her family dynamics, which is influencing her thoughts and behaviors now. The client does not have the resolution for her past problems in the family dynamics, which is continuing the negative pattern she is experiencing today. The only way to help the client is to help the client in her self-awareness of these

Oberservation/ Particpation: MHS met with the client and the client’s father at home. The client was in a good mood. The client made eye contact and was engaged the session. The client and the client father was very eager to share the latest new about the adoptive with the MHS. The client appeared to be very happy about the adoptive. The client also shared how he has been getting into a little trouble because his parents and himself sometimes fail to communicate effectively. The client father stated they are open to listening to the client as long as it is believable. The father said the client has been untruthful in the past. The client expressed his frustration with trying to plead with his parents.

S: Today, the client was still on lunch duty. While on lunch duty, it was discussed about how P.C’s grandpa and dad did not show up for the schools Dad/Grandfathers day. She reported that her grandpa was supposed to come but he had a doctor appointment that her mom took him to. It was just found out that her grandpa has cancer. When P.C ate lunch she sat alone again. Her treatment plan was brought up and her action step of sitting with other classmates was discussed. She expressed she would try this week. P.C helped brainstorm different ways where she could ask classmates if she could sit with them at lunch.

Child was 14 years old from El Salvador. Child came to the United States running away from the gangs and to reunify with his family. Child’s mother left from El Salvador when the child was 5 years old. Basically, they have not live together. Adding to all this the policy indicates that the family will have to be reunify in a range of 20 days. My goal as therapist is to at least educate the family about the challenging that may occur while they start to live together. During the first session which was conducted via Skype; it was emotional, even for me, the child expressed to be content, but at the same time his reaction was panicky, I thought he was having a panic attack. Further, I thought I will concentrate on the family dynamic and how they will relate to each other, but these population is different. The family does not entirely interact or communicate openly, and it is hard to intervene because the family seems to be comfortable in their relation. The parent child interaction is superficial; I try to help the parents to build a loving and responsive relationship with their child and to deal with their youth wrong

Writer and client met to discuss client's treatment goals. Client stated that he wanted his goals to be graduating from high school and furthering his education, respecting his mother, and having a successful completion from Giant Steps. Client stated he wanted these as his treatment goals because he needs to have a better attitude when it comes to his mother, would like to have a successful completion to make not only himself happy, but his parents as well, and that he would like to do well in school because he would like to go to trade school after graduating from high school. Client and writer will meet weekly to discuss progress of treatment

Since this intervention is more of a conversation, it would be more comfortable for the client. The client would be able to express his or her feelings by telling the story of why the parenting changes are affecting his or her life. According to Backhouse & Graham (2013), most of the grandparents were interviewed in their homes. Since the clients are parenting their grandchildren, it may be best to be interviewed at home depending on the age of the child. Furthermore, the grandparent may be older which can affect his or her ability to get to and from appointments for this intervention. Therefore, there may be a need to arrange a mediating meeting location (Backhouse & Graham,

The therapist met with the client for the individual session to continue setting the rest of the behavior contract and to set the daily duties schedule which will reflect how he will be able to use the time management skills. The client was well prepared with the main objectives that he wants to discuss with his parents during the next conjoint session. The client discussed the components of his daily behavior contract and duties, according to his parents’ expectations which they discussed it last week. The client listed some of the future goals, which the therapist had asked the client to prepare. The client was open to sharing his thoughts and feelings about the future objectives and how he feels anxious because of his parents’ reactions

Understanding the counseling session from the client’s perspective is a very important aspect in the development of a therapeutic relationship. A clinician must be an excellent listener, while being to pay attention to the client’s body language, affect and tone. The dynamics in the counseling session that is beneficial to the client include the recognition of the pain that the client is feeling. The detrimental part of this includes a misunderstanding of the real issues, a lack of consideration of the cultural aspects of the client, and a lack of clinical experience or listening skills. In this presentation, we will discuss the positive and negative aspects of the counseling session from the client’s perspective which

According to the above reviewed case study, Kelly is experiencing difficulties with herself and her parents. The following suggestions will be targeted to Kelly and her parents which aim to improve their