Counseling

INTRODUCTION TO CLIENT AND THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING

Part 1

INTRODUCTION OF CLIENT

The client that I will be using for this assignment is a 31 year old female whom has come for counseling due to an addiction to methamphetamine. She is also seeking help to manage depression and anxiety which is caused by neglect at home from her mother, not knowing who her real father is and also finding out as she got into university at the age of 18 that her mother did not file for her Permanent Residence together with her sibling at the time and she was unable to carry on studying because she was classed as an over-stayer. She started to rebel a lot through her teen years and got into so much trouble with the police. Her record has affected her ability to gain employment. It has made her feel worthless and her self-esteem plummeted. She is now seeking help and trying to sort herself out and in her own words “I am sick of sitting there blaming the world and feeling sorry for myself, so I am going to do something about it and I am going to start here”. I have had 4 sessions with her and will be continuing for 6 weeks. Each session is an hour long, some sessions has gone to and hour and a half.

WHAT THEORETICAL IDEAS WERE INFORMING YOUR COUNSELING?

As I first met this client our first session consisted of us trying to be comfortable with each other. As she introduced herself, I thought to myself, this is a woman with so many stories that I need to uncover.   The best way I will be able to uncover these stories is by using the theories of narrative therapy. The theoretical ideas that started to inform my counseling was narrative. According to Michael White and David Epston, Narrative therapy seeks to help people find what their values and skills are. It also aides them to find the knowledge they have to live these values which will help them effectively challenge what problems they face. Clients organize and give meaning to their experience through the storying of...