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Reflective Essay On Community Work

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I am doing my internship in the Clinical Department at the Juvenile Justice Center in El Paso Texas. The Clinical Department assists in empowering youth who have been detained or sentenced by a Judge to a rehabilitation program. The clinicians support the client’s growth by helping them recognize their strengths and overcome mental and or behavioral health issues. Counseling through the Clinical Department at the Juvenile Justice Center is very different from counseling at a typical community agency, as there are many challenges in working at a correctional facility. The first thing that I became aware of is that the clients are not at the facility because they want to be, they are there because they were caught doing something illegal and as a result are serving time at the facility for their actions, so it has been a struggle to facilitate groups when the clients are resistant or are simply there because they were told that they had to attend. Another challenge that I have come across is that since this is a state agency I am limited in what I can do, as some activities are considered as being a liability issue, for example going out to the client’s home to work with clients both individually and with their families and as a result I must go by what hours are available at the site as I am not assigned cases or clients as I might have been if I were working at another community agency. The counseling activities that I have participated in have been mainly observing and co-facilitating groups. These groups are both developmental psychoeducational and psychotherapy groups who are presented with a cognitive-behavioral treatment curriculum and consists of topics such as criminal and addictive thinking, building a foundation for your future, goal setting, and building life skills. It has been difficult to come into the middle of a ten-week group session, however with the help of the counselors I have been able to find my way into the sessions and have been working on building rapport with the clients. The first goal is to develop knowledge and skills in group therapy and to co-facilitate in a youth group counseling session. I have been able to participate in group sessions several times throughout the

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