Personal Narrative : A Traumatic Experience

By discussing this particular experience in detail, I can begin to understand the specific skills a counsellor may use in many different situations in order to help others (Egan, 2007, p. 13). In this reflective

Put the gun down! Put the gun down! Pow Pow Pow. The gun shots cracked into the air as loud as thunder. One after another. We live day by day not knowing our end. In the blink of an eye our lives can be changed forever. Its life, yet even in knowing this we never expect tragedy to find us. We never expect it to affect our lives and the people we know and love. I’m going to share with you the day tragedy found my life.

On September 2nd 2016 my best friend, Ashley Minor, who is a single mom of two, was working her twelve house shift at the hospital. At the end of her shift her life stopped for a short time when she received a phone call that her 8 year old son Teagan, was hit by a car, and had multiple injuries.

Having been recently introduced this style of therapy, I became curious to apply my newfound knowledge during the first session with my new client. Like most people, I learn best by doing. The literature that I have read describing MI has not been as descriptive of a real-life session as I would like for it to be. So, closely observing how a counselor guides a conversation with a client, paying meticulous attention to body language and nuanced facial expressions, has been tremendously helpful in my understanding of how these kind of interventions can

Throughout our lives, every person encounters hardships that put a strain on other aspects of our lives. The biggest hardship that I have faced was taking care of my wife after she suffered a severe head injury while at work. The injury was the result of a salad fridge door falling and striking the back of her head, causing her to receive a severe concussion that lead to post-concussion syndrome. As a result, she became completely dependent on me. Some of the major hardships that we faced during these times are finances, helping her cope with her injury while she recovered, and maintaining my 4.0 GPA.

The counselling process is based on the exchange of emotions between the client and the counsellor which aims to form an alliance (Hough, 1998). It involves the counsellor using skills in which they possess in order to communicate effectively with clients (Hough, 1998). This reflective essay clearly articulates my application of counselling skills used in this practice session and suggestions for improvement. It will provide a summary of the session, identification of a range of skills used and a brief explanation of the reasons for using the skill. It will also provide an evaluation of my application of the skills chosen, including verbatim examples, suggestions for improvement, also including verbatim examples to demonstrate what could

Clt was responsive and present throughout the session. The counselor asked the clt to talk about what is going on in her life currently. She reported many aspects of her life such as, employment, family, and current housing. The clt reported specifically that she loves to work however, she has experienced a language barrier in many of her positions. As a result the clt decided to resign. The clt also reported having a desire to cry often. “Crying makes me feel better”, she reported. The counselor asked about the clt’s current mood. The clt reported feeling happy. The clt reported having many hobbies and acknowledges that she has a mental illness. The clt reported that the medication she is currently taking is not working for her as evidence by her letting the counselor know that she feels like life is in fast pace for her every

A couple of years ago, one night, I was about to propose to my girlfriend before an nfl game tbh, when my roommate Joseph barged into the room out of nowhere, tripped and fell over, breaking a glass table with his face. Totally ruined the mood. Now, I didn't know Joseph THAT well, don't even remember where he was from, but let' just say I put my plans on hold to help him through his injuries.Joseph had gotten a big glass shard in his eye, making him completely blind in that eye. He was walking around with one of those cotton pads on his eye for a couple of months. Then suddenly, he disappeared, along with my girlfriend .Apparently they'd bonded during the time after his injuries, and eloped together , left me behind without as much as a note.

Recording for the first time with one of my own clients was a worrying, but valuable, assignment. For me, it was beneficial hearing myself during a session because I was able to recognize areas of the session in which I conveyed comfort and areas where I was hesitant. This type of self evaluation aids in my development as a counselor. Overall, there were a number of techniques and interventions that went well, and some that need improvement.

An interesting event occurred early Saturday morning near the town square in Pittman County. A tractor tire exploded and blew a man onto the top of a Standard Oil sign. The man’s name will be kept anonymous to protect his identity, and we are happy to report that the man is alive, although he attained some injuries, and it is possible that he will have permanent damage to his hearing.

My whole life, I had always thought that people reacted the same way I did in stressful situations, and the people around me experienced emotions and thoughts the same way. The realization that I overreacted and suffered immensely because of it made me feel isolated and seemed daunting, as if I would never understand or be able to fight the feeling of hopelessness that overwhelmed my system.

Another counseling skill I used during the demonstration was use of open ended questions. I used these types of questions throughout the counseling session in order to encourage my client to elaborate on what his thoughts were and how he was feeling. I believe that this increased the potential space throughout the session. While I used many open ended questions, there was one question that stood out to me when I was reviewing the video of the demonstration. At one point I asked the client if he could think of a time when he had had a similar situation to what he was currently experiencing and how he handled this situation (see Appendix B). I believe this was an excellent example of an open ended question because it encouraged the client to think about how he had solved a problem in his past and how he could use his experience to solve the current problem he was having. This question may have empowered the client and have helped him realize that he is capable of handling the issue with his friend.

This case study is about a couple, Mike and Sally that have recently lost their 6-year-old son to cancer. They have decided to get counseling because Mike is unsure how to help Sally, she is having a difficult time coping with this loss, she cannot register how a child can die before a parent. Mike is handling this loss differently, he feels like this is the life cycle, and doesn’t quite know what to do to help Sally. When speaking to this couple I would start with the ABC Model of Crisis Intervention which will help Sally and Mike get comfortable with speaking to me. “The ABC Model of Crisis Intervention is a method of conducting very brief mental-health interviews with clients whose functioning level has decreased following a psychosocial stressor” (Kanel,2015). There are three stages in the ABC Model of Crisis Intervention. Stage one in the ABC Model of Crisis Intervention is to develop and maintain rapport between the counselor and client. This means that the counselor does what they can to help the client feel at ease, some ways to do this are making eye contact, showing warmth, compassion and empathy to allow the client to feel that they are safe and can talk to the professional openly. When the clients feel more comfortable it makes it a safe place for them to talk about the issues they may be having at home. Establishing a good relationship with the client must consist of being supportive and not being judgmental. Once this goal is achieved we will be able to move

My most significant experience in my life is unforgettable. I was there with my sisters, my mom, and my dad. It was the most horrifying event that I have ever witnessed. The daunting image in my head is still clear as day, as though it happened yesterday. This event did not affect only me, but also my family. The story that I am about to tell you may change the way you see things and it may not. All I can say is, it

Comfort and slice are vital because it allows the client during that time to gather their thoughts and ideas. I need to work on being more effective in the comfort and slice because that will strengthen my counseling skills in letting the client think and evaluate themselves before they communicate again. The second weakness was summarizing during and at the end of the session. I did not do those things and I thought that was not the right way to ending the session, summarizing at the end of the session gives to counselor and client the information into what was being said and discussed. I need to do that in the next session because that will assist me in helping the client understand in a sense to what was all discussed during the session. That will support the client into what the plan is forward. The third weakness was the empathy aspect, I felt and observed that there were some instances in the session to where the client was expressing something that they were going through and I didn’t respond. One example from the session, the client was expression how he feels bad about himself and wants to lose weight, in that instance I should have used empathy and told him that what he’s going through sounds tough. Empathy is important during a session because it is experiencing understanding another person's condition from their