My Counseling Session

First Session Summary Summaries are used to clarify client comments, provide feedback and demonstrate that the counsellor listened and understood the client fully. I summarised using both factual information and Charlie’s subjective experience at the beginning of the session, to recap and orientate Charlie to the key points from the first session. I felt that the summary was done well. It summarised the major points of the first session, such as the panic attack and the subjective feelings of failure and worthlessness. I do however think that my speech was disjointed and did not flow as well as it could have.

Needs of Love, Affection and Belongingness are needs for safety and for physiological well-being are satisfied; the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

I think Glasser is correct with his five basic human needs of choice theory. I agree with his reasonings on all of the human's needs. If these needs were not fulfilled then we would be trying to fill that void in our lives. I think the two most important needs are survival and love and belonging. On the other hand, one could argue that the need for love and belonging is not as important for all humans. There are many single individuals who are content with being alone. They may have friends, but when it comes to having romantic relationships, they prefer to not engage.

What does every human being need or desire in their life? Love? Trust? Safety? Or is it the need to be needed?

Dr. Crabb stated, “People have one basic personal need which requires two kinds of input for its satisfaction. The most basic need is a sense of personal worth, an acceptance of oneself as a whole, real person. The two required inputs are significance (purpose, importance, adequacy for a job, meaningfulness, impact) and security love unconditional and consistently expressed; permanent acceptance” (Crabb, 1977, p 61).

My personal philosophy of life and my philosophy of counseling has been deeply affected by my life experiences as a young child and also as an adult. I am fortunate that my life has been a good life and I consider myself to be fortunate to have to have good parents and many loving family members. I do not recall having any events in my childhood that I would consider to be abusive or neglectful on the part of my family, and for that I consider myself to be lucky. I know several people who were abused as a child and it seems to have impacted them in many aspects of their lives even into adulthood.

When conducting this counseling session I decided to conduct my session as if it were an initial interview session. So with that being said my client who likes to go by the name of Jay is a 24-year old African American women who was raised by her two adoptive parents and grew up with her blood brother as well. Jay’s mother passed away from cancer when Jay was 17-years old and that is when her relationship with her father began to diminish. Jay also did not have a strong connection with her blood brother either. When Jay turned 18 she moved out of her father’s house and has thus lived in 8 to 9 different homes between the age of 18 to 24. Jay stated that because she is adopted she does not distinguish between actual blood ties as being family and thus has very strong connection to her friends who she refers to as sisters. Over the past years Jay has begun to reconnect with her father and brother as she has grown. Jay has decided to come to counseling because she does not get along with most of her co-workers at her job as a teacher assistant for a daycare. More so, she is finding out that most of her co-workers do not like her. Because of this she has reported feeling angry, anxious, sadness and isolated when at work. A goal for her in counseling is to interact positively with her co-workers and work where she does not hate her job. Jay does not want to look for new employment because she states that her co-workers are aware of her mood swings and personality. The thought of

I believe counseling is a collaborative partnership between client and counselor. Furthermore, this collaborative partnership is built from trust and acceptance of both client and counselor. I hope in conjunction with clients to understand the issues and concerns so to help them tap into their wisdom, creativity, and strengths to meet their current challenges. I believe in a comprehensive perspective through which clients can better comprehend themselves in the framework that our thinking about events can lead to emotional and behavioral upset. Moreover, counselors are to provide a safe environment for clients to explore their challenges and identify ways to move differently in overcoming these challenges.

Briefly outline and describe the essential elements of a solution-based, short-term pastoral counseling strategy such as its goal-orientation; brief (i.e., number of sessions) and time-limited (i.e., length of each session) nature; basic tenets and guiding assumptions (briefly explain each tenet and assumption), essential interpersonal skills, and possible behavioral positions (i.e., attending, blaming, willing).

The personal views I have acquired throughout the year have ultimately affected the views I have on counseling in a few different ways. Growing up, I was raised in a family that views counseling as very acceptable. As a child, I always viewed counseling as a positive action because you are trying to correct a problem you are having and have acknowledged it. When I reached the beginning of highschool, I needed counseling for myself and the depression I was dealing with. As my counseling sessions proceeded, I really found them helpful. At a time where I felt like my own mother couldn’t even understand my own thoughts and feelings, my therapist could . It gave me a hope that at least I had one person I could tell everything I am feeling to and know it is kept in private. It was hard for me when my sessions eventually stopped, and it took me sometime to get over it. Through my own experiences and views, I feel like this pushed me to wanting to support and

The goal of a counselor or my session is to help the client identify the problem that effecting her. Here is to offer techniques and strategies for dealing with her issues. Incorporate techniques and skill to the client. The goal to client is to get help for the student to learning how to cope with other I used a positive feedback. . I begin to focus on the behavior of student during the session. The counselor should make the session a two way communication process to find a solution to the problem.

As stated further by Maslow, there are five levels in the need hierarchy, which are physiological, safety, love and belongingness, esteem, and self-actualization and they are very often of unconscious nature and can be at certain times reserved. Unfortunately, there are not too many who are capable of reaching self-actualization and the ones who will are very creative and acknowledge the world very accurately. An individual however is always aware of the fact that he or she has possesses a choice and therefore he or she has the ability to influence their behavior and personality at anytime (Cloninger, 2008).

A.H. Maslow, a famous social scientist, has given a framework that helps to explain the strength of certain needs. According to him, there seems to a hierarchy into which human needs are arranged as shown in Figure.

Counselling sessions can help us work through a range of personal issues from everyday hardships to potentially life threatening situations. In this reflective essay I propose to put theory to practice by analysing and reflecting upon a one hour session with a professional counsellor. The session is to be recorded so I can refer to particular instances during the session.

What were your personal goals for this session? (Focus on your skill development rather than what your goals for the client were) My personal goals were to incorporate reflecting feelings into my role as a counselor. To be able to inspect the emotions my client is feeling at the moment during our counseling session. Also, to continue encouraging my client to further express her feelings and continuing telling her story.