CASE STUDY OF THREE COUNSELLING SESSIONS

Introduction:

This is the first of three sessions with Val.  Val is a married lady, in her early fifties, she has one son.  Val has agreed to take part in this counselling case study and understands it will entail three counselling sessions.  She is aware that it will involve the use of videotapes for my training and that the tapes will be seen by my tutor, Val has given her permission for this.  The sessions will be weekly and will take place within the college.  

The issue that Val wanted to talk about, was a burglary that had happened to her about a year ago.

SESSION ONE EVALUATION

At the beginning of the session with Val, I explained confidentiality and how certain disclosures might affect her. I also explained that this was the first of three sessions and the amount of time we would have for the session.  I tried to put her at ease by asking was that okay after explaining what confidentiality was. I opened the session by say” what ever you want to talk about”.

Val had come to talk about a burglary, which had happened to her last year. As Val started talking in the early part of the session I was able to pickup her emotions of shock and disbelief that this had happened to her. I clarified early on in the session which burglary she was talking about as she disclosed she had, had another burglary the previous year.  I feel I was silent for quite a long time in the early part of the session but I feel that this was necessary.  Because Val seemed to pour out a lot of information in great detail about the discovery of the burglary at this point I said, “it sounds like you’re still quite shocked about it.  I can feel the shock as you are speaking” This gave Val a chance to pause and look at her feelings and how she was feeling at that moment.

I missed a key phrase that Val used about feeling afraid of going back into the house by her self, as she phoned a friend to come to her aid.  And she did not re-enter the house until the friend arrived. Perhaps I could have explored what the exact fear was, as she knew there was no one in the house at the time.

Val spoke of her husband’s arrival home to find her in tears and I think I tried to show empathy and immediacy at her husbands reactions to her – that” he was not supportive at that moment in time, when she felt she needed his support”.

I felt that a lot of the time until the latter part of the session I could only show Val with non-verbal communication my understanding of her situation. Val seemed the need to re-live every detail of her story to me – I tried to show empathy by allowing her to off load in as much detail as she needed, without interrupting her.  

Towards the end of the session Val disclosed that she knew who had done the burglary and how they had gained entry to the house.  I asked “did it help Val knowing how they had gained entry to your home?” She replies “did it help? I don’t know” I think I was trying to make her feel better by showing her that the entry point would not be used again because she could take more security precautions. I made Val aware that we were coming to the end of our time and summarised the information she had given me and asked if what I had said was correct. We agreed to make another appointment for the following week.

Join now!

The feedback from my peers was on the whole quite good, although reference was made to my body language being static. I feel that I agree with this observation, as I felt uncomfortable in the setting in which this session took place.  I also feel I adopted a sitting position in which I would not ordinarily sit.  I felt that this session went okay but I did feel that I had not given the client much time because of circumstances and I felt the session was rather short, in which to try and build a relationship with the client. ...

This is a preview of the whole essay