The response of the client to strategy
Introduction
In this session, the role-play client is a businesswoman in Australia who has been dating for six to seven years with a fellow businessman. Rose explains that they have done well since they started to date and agreed on everything they discussed themselves. Communication and support are the strongholds for love, and these were the reasons for their success (Chew, 2020). Their relationship issues started with the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic, where communication started changing, and the man did not bother as much as he did before. It was a sad and challenging moment for Rose as she did not expect to part ways with her boyfriend. The theory of loss and grief stresses the occurrence of a circumstance that can displace someone from their predicted life course, making the grieving person search for the lost attachment (Harris, 2019). The therapeutic letters help people disclose personal issues related to their journey while disclosing unspoken words (DeCino, 2018). The letter worked effectively in this session. This paper will analyze grief and loss events and help develop solutions that will guide decision-making to offer effective therapy and alternatives for coping with the loss.
Development of focus
My role client was determined to make the relationship successful, and she had great hopes of having a family with her boyfriend. The emotional and physical absence led to emptiness, making her feel like her boyfriend was dead. I decided to focus on emptiness after realizing that my client was suffering from this due to the physical absence. The client was deeply in love and shared most of her time with her man after work. The breakup led to the existence of a gap that was never expected to occur. I realized that my client was missing an important person in life and the only person with whom she could share experiences. This would help me determine the strength of action needed and determine the impact of her daily activities, where I noted that she gets disturbed mostly at night.
I wanted to get more information about the specific moments when Rose experienced an intense feeling of emptiness to determine the best approach for handling my client when the feeling is worse. Adjustment to life changes is always difficult for many people making it hard for them to accept the changes. Rose was unable to get the lonely nights, which she was not used to, leading to loss of pleasure in most of her activities. Emptiness may lead to physical and emotional disturbances causing loss of sense of identity (Alonso-Llácer,2020). Focusing on this would guide me in understanding my clients better and act accordingly to deliver effective counseling. Focusing on one major problem helps one arrange information from one stage to another, thus enabling the collection of factual information related to clients (Bozanic,2017). It would help me in avoiding misunderstandings that would affect the grieving process.
Effectiveness with the implementation
The grief process is not linear; therefore, it requires different approaches to relieve the client from pain (Feigelman,2020). The effectiveness of counseling depends on the nature of the intervention applied (Smid,2020). In my practice, I ensured that the information given in the letter of loss was confidential, which provided my client’s safety, thus building a trustworthy relationship. The use of a letter of loss was to help me gather relevant information from their clients to determine the approaches needed to promote healing. The letter of loss would help identify the problem affecting the role-play client and assess the impact of loss on my client. The letter assisted me in knowing the nature of the relationship that existed between the two people. Davis (2018) says that relevant data and investigations aids in defining the actual problem affecting an individual. The letter helped me analyze the challenges my client faced and determine the significant issues such as the feeling of emptiness. It helped explore and get more details in some areas of concern, such as determining the time when the feeling of emptiness was intense. The client needed advice on those particular moments, such as the evening when emptiness was intense.
The recommended intervention implementation requires a good understanding of the problem (Esposito,2020). I had to ensure that the loss letter can achieve the counseling goals and objectives meant to relieve my client from the problematic issue. For this strategy to be effective, I had to understand the behaviors and nature of the topics addressed to detect the actual problems. The letter discussed the nature of their past relationship, which showed that rose was in a serious intimate relationship with her boyfriend. It would be the cause of severe pain due to disappointment related to the unexpected breakup. The letter also disclosed that emotional and physical disturbances were caused by loneliness and difficulties in accepting the changes.
After identifying various issues addressed by the letter, I started developing relevant alternatives to help my client handle her problems. The letter assisted in asking questions that were not included in the writing, such as the client’s status during the night, where she suffered from loneliness and feeling empty. Counselors must analyze the data and compare the problem with the intervention’s nature, which is expected to match to produce an effective outcome (Bruhn,2020). The loss letter was a helpful and straightforward intervention that was affordable to my client, and there was a mutual agreement between the client and me. The method must be convenient to the client and ensure the recollection of thoughts, thus giving precise and detailed information (Bruhn,2020). I encouraged the client her feeling was familiar, and she had the right to feeling empty due to the love she had to her boyfriend. I informed the client that the emptiness was since they shared a bed, and she had to accept that she would never have answers to some issues. The counselor must consider and identify the policies needed in support of implementation (Taillie,2017).
I had to consider the available resources that would help the client in recovering. The counselor should compare the resources available and the techniques needed to deliver the intervention by guiding the specifications (Mull, 2020). I was capable of identifying available resources such as friends and other necessary activities for her therapy. These resources would help in reducing intrusive thoughts that would worsen her situation. The letter gave me enough time to analyze information before the session, giving me time to gather alternatives for solving the mentioned complaints. A useful intervention must be capable of analyzing data to provide practical solutions (Ardi,2017). Planning for vacations and dinner with friends were the most available resources that would help Rose reduce the feeling of emptiness.
The response of the client to strategy
Healing is the optimum result of a practical counseling session (Ghunawat,2019). Grieving is facilitated by a good session resulting in fruitful outcomes that offer clients (Sonnier,2019). Clients also expect that sharing time with their counselors will help produce positive effects, but several situations determine the outcomes of counseling sessions. My session with Rose had different results facilitated by different strategies applied to bring healing. Before the session, my role play client had tried to reach her boyfriend to understand the root cause of the breakup but did not find any information. She tried to communicate well with her boyfriend, but the man was not in a position to answer or tell her what made him change his plans and behaviors. It would be caused by an inappropriate approach to the man’s handling, making it hard for Rose to understand her man. Assumption of the sources the breakup could cause misunderstanding between the two people leading to the parting. I would say that Rose approached the issue with the wrong timing, which led to this intervention’s failure.
The use of a letter to handle the client’s problem was an effective strategy bearing fruitful results, which improved the counseling process (DeCino,2020). The client recommends the benefit of this strategy by saying that she could write her problems from one stage to the other by putting every thought to prospects, thus capturing actual events. This strategy transformed my client, who was emotionally disturbed by becoming a better person who accepted the situation. The letter helped identify one of the significant issues affecting my client: the intense feeling of emptiness. This strategy worked effectively, and time was a factor that promoted the process by ensuring that the client could express herself (D’Agostino,2020). For this method to work for my client, it had to be suitable for her without inconveniencing her life and daily activities.
Current literature on grief and loss
Your client’s presentation determines the kind of interventions needed in grieving the affected person (Guo,2018). The skills applied to cope with the situation must be proportionate to the nature of the loss. The main presentation of my client was the emotional suffering which led to struggling in response to depression. These symptoms result from disbelief, shock, profound sadness, and guilt, making the client not function normally (Fagundes,2019). Interventions that apply include; the client should acknowledge her pain to accept her situation before healing starts.
An intense feeling of emptiness is another major problem faced by my client. The client spent most of her time together with her boyfriend while sharing her life with the man. The physical and emotional absence led to emptiness as no one could listen to her like her boyfriend. It resulted in overthinking, feeling of loneliness, and difficulties in accepting the situation. Face-to-face support can help this client in her healing process by providing lost care. The therapeutic letter helped the client in dealing with loneliness and offering psychological support to cope with emptiness. The videoconference helped the patient by delivering a dynamic company, assisting her in accepting the problem, and reducing overthinking.
Effectiveness of the session
A counseling session’s overall goals are to get the patient relieved from the disturbing matter by developing strategies that will help them move on with their everyday lives and ensure that their routine health is restored (Chan, 2020). The client was suffering from a big void due to lacking someone she loved making her feel lonely without someone to talk to. Rose suffered from loneliness, especially in the night, by overthinking the loss, but the session did not offer a full alternative to solving this problem. As a counselor, I did not manage to give a straight choice to replace the lost lover. The feeling of emptiness was not fully solved, and the client sought more sessions for her to heal.
The client was looking for answers related to the breakup that is not solved by the counselor. She has been overthinking and asking herself many questions, which she doesn’t get correct answers. The man left without giving reasons for the breakup, making the client have sleepless nights full of unanswered questions, which I could not answer. The letter helped her from overthinking but could not get the answers she demanded.
The session addressed emotional disturbances, such as emptiness, loneliness, sadness, and disappointments. The session addressed various alternatives for overcoming some of the challenging issues, such as planning for outings and dinner with friends. The main goal was to help my client recover from these problems and partially solve them while others were fully solved (Jobby,2018). The reason for not meeting some of the goals is time. The client requires to have several sessions that will help me in a better understanding of my client while delivering efficient support.
Improvement suggestions
I would advise the client to look for activities that would help her reduce the feeling of emptiness during the evening and nights, such as watching TV and playing games. The client explains, “in the evening when I go to bed there are times you know even if am very very tired you know I just go to bed and am very tired, you know I can’t really sleep.” Accepting the situation promotes grieving and brief therapy. Rose says, “but am trying to come to terms that if is that he wants there is nothing I can do.”
I employed empathy in my counseling session to ensure that I understood my client, which enabled me to see everything from my client’s perspective. It helped me comprehend the client’s issues, thoughts, and experiences, thus allowing me to make efficient decisions that offer my client (Maurici,2019). I could predict what my client felt, which encouraged my client in self-disclosure and relax.
I ensured warmth and congruence in my session, which helped me agree with my client and act appropriately to provide a good foundation for the counseling activities (Harrison, 2020). I ensured that I used suitable body language while maintaining good eye contact. Reassuring, my client created a friendly environment that provided the comfortability of the client.
Ethical issues
Confidentiality. As a counselor, I started the session by assuring the client of confidentiality and promise her of safety related to information shared in the conversation (Doshi,2020). I confirmed the client of privacy in conversation unless the supervisor and court require the information of law with her consent. Another ethical issue in this session is the provision of equal access to support and opportunities. The client is given great attention that she needs for her to benefit fully from the conversation.
Conclusion.
Counseling is a two-way activity that includes the counselor’s cooperative effort and commitment of the individual receiving the counseling services. Both parties must be committed to pursuing difficult changes in life patterns. The counselor must establish a good relationship with the client, allowing the client to be honest on matters related to thoughts and feelings (Ooi,2018). Giving my client more time and different alternatives will help her attain good therapeutic outcomes.
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