Reflective Diary Analysis - Essay Example

Reflective Diary Affiliation: I am busy in my office when this lady with a disturbed look on her face enters in need of counselling services. She was on my 11 o’clock appointment list and her name is simply indicated as Jane. In respect of boundaries in counselling, I do not ask her what her problem is but offer her a seat after the initial greetings and wait for her to say something. She starts by telling me about her journey to the office and a few other pieces of information not really hinting on the subject of her appointment. As mentioned by Sawyer, Peters & Willis, (2013) about counselling skills, I listen keenly but take a few notes on relevant issues about her life such as her neighbourhood and family. She seems hesitant about stating the real issue so I start by explaining to her the ethical principles of confidentiality and benevolence which I am bound by and this seems to keep her at ease and she even offers a loop-sided grin (American Psychological Association, 2010). She finally starts with her story which is rather depressing and she even breaks down at some point. All I can do is nod and provide a few encouraging words to her to make her continue as well as show her unconditional positive regard through expression of warmth as well as not bringing up open critiques or interfering with her during communication and respecting her pace of communication. During her breakdowns, I take time to reflect on what she is telling me and how she approached her situation and cannot help noticing the differences in her cultural belief and mine as well as her approach to situations and mine. I however do not let these differences interfere with my listening skills or my provision of empathy to her which seems to have a calming effect on her as well as provide the morale to continue with her story. I have to keep reminding myself that the client’s needs come before mine on the few occasions that she keeps drifting from the topic to other unrelated issues. This however I have realized are a way to help ease her into a difficult issue she wants to discuss but either feels embarrassed or is too angry to be coherent. Maintaining boundaries of competence at this point is proving to be the greatest ethical challenge of all. When she is through with her story and is waiting for me to say something, I have to remember to put her cultural context into account before counselling her as mentioned by Kanekar, (2011). This is so because her beliefs and mine are clashing and in as much as I want to instil my culture in her, I have to remember to practice within my boundaries of competence and give in to cross over and I adjust to the most relevant counselling therapy for her sake (American Psychological Association, 2010). This will go a long way into dealing with the cultural differences in her approach and decisions which are different from mine. The first thing is to understand her cultural background and whether it has been playing a huge role in her life and decision making. This is important as cultural biasness and assumptions act as a limitation to counselling skills. The next most important thing at this juncture is to understand what the client needs the counsellor to help her with. This will require acquiring information in an approach that is indirect to avoid raising unnecessary emotions and I have already established she is an emotional patient. The client has to explain clearly what she wants to happen by the end of her therapy sessions. I have to reflect on her best to ensure that I prepare her to make various decisions along the way and do so with conviction. It is important for her to make the decisions for herself as counselling encourages autonomy of the client from the beginning as mentioned in the American Psychological Association, (2010). Based on the needs and wants of the client, I take time to explain to her the various psychological therapies available to enable her cope with her situation and determine a plan of treatment best for her. She has to agree with the plan or make changes to it as she will be the one following it keenly each and every week. Agreement after understanding will be made through a signed informed consent form to legalize the matter. In explanation of the plan, I have to be as genuine as possible without any pretence, defensiveness or expression of feelings. This enables lack of obstacles that may hinder the treatment plan in the long run due to mistaken emotions by the client. Contracting is a mutual agreement between patient and counsellor on a therapeutic technique issue and the client may have to sign documentation to that regard. Jane the client had many issues all of which could not be handled through one session. It was important to explain in great lengths and in as clear and specific facts as possible about them and how each problem would need to be tackled differently if recurrence of the problem is to be avoided. According to the suggestions made by Gibson, (2005), we enter into a mutual contract with the client about her behavioural changes in the following weeks of counselling which would mark whether we are making any progress in the therapy sessions. Each week the contract will be reviewed and discussed before and will provide the guidance for the session. These will still be subject to the ethical challenge of boundaries mentioned above but I am determined to make it work for her. During one of her follow up counselling sessions, I decided to self-disclose. This is necessitated by the fact that the sessions have not been yielding much progress and she is on the verge of giving in. She has been taking her problems as unique and hence having no solution or way forward which is not truly the case. The self-disclosure was based on my personal story a few years back but which I had come out of and was now stronger than ever. This personal experience was to be a way to help her identify with the situation and take the positive teaching out of it and start getting how about her situation as well. The negative aspect of self-disclosure as discussed by Froeschle & Crews, (2010), which I am hoping as the counselling progresses will not come out are that she will chose to ignore it and count me as lucky or want to hear more about the issue which will derail the treatment making me the patient and her the counsellor. References American Psychological Association. (2010). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 57, 1060–1073. Brand, T. (2014, July). Basic counselling skills. South African Medical Journal, 104(7). Chattopadhyay, S. & De Vries, R. (2013). Respect for cultural diversity in bioethics is an ethical imperative. Medical Health Care Philosophy, 16(4). Frame, M. (2000). Spiritual and Religious Issues in Counselling: Ethical Considerations. The Family Journal, 8(1): 72-74. Froeschle, J. & Crews, C. (2010). An Ethics Challenge for School Counsellors. Journal of School of Counselling, 8(14). Gibson, S. (2005, October). On judgment and judgmentalism: how counselling can make people better. Journal of Medical Ethics, 31(10): 575-577. Kanekar, A. (2011). HIV/AIDS Counselling Skills and Strategies: Can Testing and Counselling Curb the Epidemic? International Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2(1): 10-14. Sawyer, C., Peters, M., & Willis, J. (2013). Self-Efficacy of Beginning Counsellors to Counsel Clients in Crisis. The Journal for Counsellor Preparation and Supervision, 5(2): 30-43. Read More