Essay On Self Reflection

From my earlier process recording, I was able to see how my technique change over time when engaging clients. From my earlier process recording with Donavon, I notice I was doing all the work during our sessions. I was asking questions that I needed answers to and not allowing Donavon feels like he was controlling our session. Although I was able to engage with him I realize I struggled with asking him certain questions. I also realized that I was focused on his family and his living situation and not what he wanted

2. Do you share any of your feelings or concerns with the client during this session? If so, what do you say?

As I begin, I got the client to sit in a chair with me directly in front for her. I started off demonstrating the deep breathing techniques and had her join in. After getting into the relaxed state, I began using adjectives to describe the settings and the surroundings to paint the picture she wanted. She appeared to be very relaxed and often showed a smile.

- Brandon correctly foreshadows the hold times to ensure the client knows exactly what he is doing.

Looking back at our conversation, I noticed that I had gone through the five stages of listening. These stages are receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding. During the responding stage, I found that I wanted to cut into the conversation to ask questions which would have been immediate feedback, however, I remembered that it is important to let the client finish talking. I then resorted to using delayed feedback by waiting until the participant had finished telling her story before I added any questions or comments. During the conversation, I found that I had to use active listening as well as empathetic listening. Applying active listening gave me the ability to improve mutual understanding by sending back what I thought the participant meant in context and feeling. likewise, empathetic listening allowed me to think about how I would feel if I were to lose my sight in one of my eyes, in addition, evaluate how my life would be affected. It was also amusing to get a glimpse of how much fun they have while playing jingo. As I watched how some of them reacted, I could tell that they take it very seriously, as they demand it to be quiet so they could hear every picture

Overall, we had a great session. I believe I will incorporate Claire’s rules into the next session (She is a bit bossy). I hope this structure will help the session’s flow better. I will also begin working on the goals. I will record my voice reading a few times then record my client’s voice to play back on W’s

What were your goals – for your own skill development and for the client’s well-being? I wanted to make sure I provided the best knowledge, I learned so far for my client. The client well-being is very important to me, so I wanted to make sure I avoid harming my client in anyway. I wanted to show my client compassion, empathy and build a trusting relationship.

I wanted to make myself available for the client, by assuring her that I’m listening, being available for her and that I care about her issues. 2. What issues did the client present? During this session the client thanked me for a question that I asked her during a previous session. The question was relating to the issue of her and her husband leaving the church.

I was very pleased with the way the first session went. I was nervous to start but the client was on her best behavior and worked through my little bumps. This particular client also worked hardest for rewarded breaks so I was able to lay out a timeline of working for 10 minutes for the reward of a 1 minute break. The client loved pigs so I brought a pig puzzle as well as coloring pages and stickers for the rewarding activity. The half session ran so smoothly that Lyndsey let me conduct for 35 minutes instead of the agreed upon time of 25 minutes. Lyndsey once again gave me a great critique and I did my best to apply her suggestions to my next interactions to show that I was learning and progressing.

The characteristics I could improve on are focusing on the topic for the session. I sometimes let clients slip off onto another topic and this is not always a good thing to do. This sometimes frustrates the client and their thoughts run wild. I try and focus on one

This decrease could be attributed to familiarity with the conversation partner. Additionally, the conversation partner allowed the client more time to formulate his response. One of the instances of delayed response could be attributed to the client attending to a worker outside cutting the grass during the session.

During the session, I found myself relaxing a bit because I know I was not being grading on being an effective helper. I noticed that the client’s body language was not slouched or reserved in any particular way. This made it more comfortable for me to communicate with them, and I felt like the conversations flowed naturally. I also found myself using some helping skills that were not taught in lab yet. For instance, I used disclosure of feelings when my client had stated that she was worried about her relationship, I was able to draw from my own experiences from past relationships. I was able to empathize with her, and I was able to used disclosure of feelings without really knowing what that skill was in the first place. When I was able to share my story of my past relationship, the client rated my helping skills as a number 9 on the session review form. This lets me know that I was helpful and my client did not simply

assertive skills during a session. This will motivate and encourage the client to try this new skill in a

Open-ended questions were necessary throughout this interaction because without them the client would not have given me the information that I was searching for. Open-ended questions helped me to build trust between the client and I. They ensured the client that I was interested in what they were saying.

Although we did not analyze this aspect of the session one key feature that I think made this session work for my client and I is non-verbal communication. I was able to use the non-verbal cues from the client to guide the course of the session. To be more specific, prior to the session, I was more conscious of how much I talk because in past sessions I often spoke too often. In the book, it addressed that the talking ratio between the therapist and client is usually about 80 to 20 percent (Hill, 2014). With this in mind, I often used non-verbal communication such as gestures after my client would finish a sentence and pause to further conversation and insight from her. Instead of immediately replying to what she said, I would simply nod my head or reply with a one word such as hmmm or yeah. This was very useful in the session because often times my client would look at me expecting more from my response, however, when she noticed I had nothing else to say, she would often continue talking and reflect on what she had previously said. Eye contact was also a big factor in the session. Although it was very difficult for me to maintain eye contact throughout the entire session, I continuously would look my client in the eye and convey to her that I was actively listening and understood her problem. I never realized how anxiety-provoking looking someone directly in the eye