It is hard to believe we already made it to the mid point of practicum. My practicum has been such a great experience thus far, and I imagine it will only continue to improve. I am at Simmons Middle School currently, interning under Heather Aldentaler. The school is grades 6 through 8. I have been working mostly with the 6th and 7th grade. But, have worked with the 8th graders a few times. Heather and I have been counseling more in the classroom setting. I am looking forward to working with the students more one on one. When I made the decision to change from mental health to school counseling, I was a bit nervous at first. I never imagined working with children, now I can’t imagine not working with children. Reflecting on the skills I have …show more content…
It seems like lately, I have been expressing my emotions on my face. I do not mean to do this and not sure when I started doing, but I am glad I have become aware of it now, but I could potentially hurt a client. Another weakness I need to work on is figure out what the client is saying when they aren’t always saying it. This is another skill I imagine will become easier with more experience. Up until I had my first counseling session today, I would have said I usually do a good job of asking open-ended questions but during my first sessions, that was not something I did that well. I did ask a few open-ended questions but I could have done a much better job of it. I was pretty nervous. I believe staying with the here-and-now will help me to remember open-ended questions. But, now that the first solo session is out of the way, I believe I will be less nervous. I don’t think I was really that nervous, just more worried about not having the correct question at all times. Heather suggested practicing the portion on mandatory reporting. That makes sense because I have only practiced that part twice throughout school. It is kind of awkward to say the client because you do not want them to shy away from telling you crucial information. I believe by practicing that and fine tuning it, it will be less awkward to
I received the pleasure of interviewing two school counselors, Mrs. Jean Harmon and Mr. Devon Herrick. I was excited about interviewing school counselors within the Chicago land area. Despite many negativities spoken about the Chicago Public School (CPS) system, I desire to work within CPS. I’ve heard many pros and cons of working at a selective enrollment school, compared to a public charter school. By interviewing these two individuals, I assumed that I would get a snapshot of a potential work day for a school counselor. Mrs. Harmon is a school counselor at King College Preparatory high school. Mr. Herrick is a personal counselor at Urban Prep Charter Academy- Bronzeville campus. It was interesting in learning about the daily responsibilities,
I was really nervous about doing this first practice recording. While I knew how I wanted to start the conversation, I was stressed out about the unknown that comes along with these sessions. I am constantly listening to my friends talk, but how I had to respond for the counseling session was very different than what I am typically used to. I usually give my friends my opinions and advice on how I would handle the situation. It was hard for me to just sit back and let my classmate talk. I wanted to respond to many of her statements, but I had to take a step back and really just listen. In these types of counseling sessions my thoughts and opinions are not important. Rather, the focus should only be on the person you are counseling.
Deciding to become a Student Guidance Counselor was not a fly by night decision. I did a great deal of reading and research before making a decision. I knew once I started a graduate program in School Guidance Counseling, it would be both challenging and a commitment until the end. I am somewhat nervous about this new journey that I am about to partake; however, I am ready to accept the challenge and make the commitment. I am a newly licensed teacher and there will be areas and terminology which I am not familiar. But, what I have found out thus far is that a teacher and a student counselor have quite a few things in common. They both work with other teachers, parents, school administrators, and the community in an academic setting. The skills I have acquired as a preschool director and teacher will be integrated into my career as a guidance counselor. I will have the skills to guide and enhance the social, academic, and personal growth of my students by using a variety of strategies which will be my primary goal. I will be able t...
School counseling has evolved over the years into a significant component of the educational system. School counselors are taking on new roles in schools as leaders, working with “school administration and staff in developing student attitudes and behavior which are necessary to maintain proper control, acceptable standards of self-discipline and a suitable learning environment within the school” (Secondary School Counselor 2012). Counselors work in “diverse community settings designed to provide a variety of counseling, rehabilitation, and support services” (Counselors, 2010). When working in a school district as a counselor, you can either be an elementary school counselor, middle school counselor or a high school counselor. This essays explores a recent interview with a high school counselor.
As a second language learner I have never expected myself to be a perfect writer throughout the semester. Even If English was my first language still, I would not be a perfect writer. It is not about first or second language, it is about how well I understand the learning objectives. Then organizing and writing with my own ideas and putting them in my paper. I am going to be honest, I am not good at English subject and English subject is my strongest weakness than the other subjects. In this paper I will discuss and analyze my own writing, reflecting on the ways that my writing has improved throughout the semester.
I cannot recall a more rewarding experience than helping facilitate a child’s education while enabling parent participation alike. These experiences have drawn me to my current position as an Educational Assistant where I am constantly interacting and establishing relationships with students, learning about their goals and aspirations. It is that same desire to empower our future students that has steered me towards a career as a school counselor. By enrolling in the Masters in counseling program, I aspire to develop methods and experience to become an effective, experienced, and adaptable school counselor that promotes self-awareness, allowing students to realize their full potential and impetus them towards a promising future. I want to learn skills that facilitate personal and career development, ensuring that our students grow accomplishing their goals and ambitions.
Writing has always been a difficult subject for me to tackle throughout my education. I enjoy writing academic essays and rhetorically analyzing in research papers but not personal narratives of any sort. In this class, there was a combination of both, which helped me to continue to grow as a writer. During this semester, I have learned several valuable things in this class and gained a lot of knowledge to use in future academic classes. From different styles of writing, how to analyze images, MLA format, rhetorical analysis, and structuring my writing to an online audience. Even though this class initially seemed to be a difficult task, going through the entire semester beginning to end has helped make writing a more achievable challenge.
I believe nearly all my skills require further development, but the skills I feel require the most attention and development is control of myself and how I listen to my client. My own values and assumptions I feel are hampering my development of skills. Ways I can improve on this is by doing my own research into different or opposing values and assumptions and finding their positives and finding the negatives within my own, to help find a more balanced practice. The way I listen could greatly improve as it took Lucy pointing out how she wanted and/or needed support from me, for me to make the session more productive. As I need to listen equally to answers of inaction and answers of action. And focus more on listening to Lucy and not problem solving, as I said during our session “you’re safety and [those] around you are safe … are the ultimate goal of our session’s”. (Harms, 2007; Ivey & Ivey, 2007; Trevithick, 2005). The analysing and planning of further development of my skills has given me hope within my current short-comings, and my future
The counseling session began with the introductions where I introduced myself as the counselor and later introduced my client. This stage is important in any counseling session since it is the time of exploration and focusing according to Gerard Egan as quoted by Wright (1998) in his essay on couselling skills. It is in this session that I was able to establish rapport and trust with my client in order to come up with a working and fruitful relationship with him. During this stage I made use of skills like questioning, where I would pose a question directly to my client, sometimes I would choose to just listen to what the client wanted to speak out while in some instances I would be forced to paraphrase the question if I felt the client did not understand the question I had asked previously. There were also other times when I would reflect through silence. During such a period, I got time to study the client and the information he had given. This being a difficult area, since some clients may not be able to volunteer information to you as the counselor, I decided to assure the client of confidentiality of any information he was willing to share with me with a few exceptions which I also told him about. Being open to him about the only times the information may not be confidential was part of my building rapport and establishing trust with him. I therefore, decided to ask the client what information he wanted to share with me and lucky enough he was ready to speak to me about different issues that he was going through.
Taking the techniques of counseling class was a great course that contributed to my evolution as a perspective therapist. Certain skills I already possess such as, great communication, being empathetic, and open to learning. However, throughout the class I learned different therapy policies such as confidentiality, attending skills, and self-awareness. Having knowledge of these basic practices and skills has contributed to me becoming well rounded, self- aware, and a competent perspective counselor. I have made moderate progress towards the learning goals I established for myself in the beginning of the semester. During the beginning of the semester I anticipated learning different counseling approaches, becoming culturally competent, and learning how to be more confident. Throughout the course not much was mentioned about theoretical approaches and how to incorporate the framework into therapy. Nonetheless, the content that I learned allowed me to be more culturally competent, self-aware, and confident. To be culturally competent, it is essential to know basic background information about a client before assisting them. It is imperative to know basic information about a client such as age, sex, and nationality to determine how to assist the individual. Not knowing certain information may contribute to unethical work and a disservice to the
The Scripture that calls me to the ministry apart for being a church member is 1 Samuel 16:1-13. More precisely verse seven, which states, “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (King James Version, 1 Sam. 16:7). After reading this, God destroyed any excuse of not answering the call of God in my life. This Scripture tells me God does not emphasize the outward abilities, strengths, appearances, or social status, but the Lord focuses on the heart. My Lord first reached out to me on February 14, 2000; when God visited me, this was my first experience
The image of a pastor entering the pulpit from among the pews in the sanctuary described by Long is one that resonates with me, because it is genuinely where I am entering from. Perhaps it is to be expected when someone answers the call to ministry later in life, but I approach homiletics as a member of the body of Christ first and foremost. Experience as a member of the congregation and a Member in Discernment have taught me that the pastor has many responsibilities, but good, solid preaching is of the greatest import.
But I had realized that I do not have to have all the answers and I am not here to give solution to the client. Instead, I am here to assistant the client in finding solution to their problems that would work for them. Therefore, when I am stuck I would have to paraphrased or summarized the client statement or conversation that the client had said to me. I would always keep in mind that I have to be an active listener and listen to my client with non-judgmental. This is only reason that I was able to continue with my session with my client (husband) and most of the time I did not let our relationship interfered with the counseling session. During the interview I had use the reflection of meaning, interpretation and reframing. Meaning is how my client feels about the situation. Interpretation is what I think he is feeling about the situation. As for the reframing I had assisted the client to find an alternative way for client to approach the
Operant Conditioning is a way of learning that uses rewards and punishments for certain behaviors. It was first coined by BF Skinner. It is also known as Skinner Conditioning. It creates an association between a consequence and a behavior. Sometimes it is also referred to as response-stimulus conditioning. Operant conditioning is related to classical condition but focuses more on why the behavior is happening & what the drive is behind it to accomplish the task at hand.
My parents arrived in the United States hoping for a better future not for themselves, but for the baby they carried in their arms. We would often move from relatives ' houses since my parents couldn’t afford renting an apartment themselves. We were fortunate enough to have caring relatives who didn 't mind us living with them since they knew the hardships we were going through. I grew up in a household where only Spanish was spoken given that both my parents didn’t speak any English at all. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher was afraid that I would be behind the rest of my classmates, given that I only spoke Spanish fluently. I was fortunate to receive free tutoring from my kindergarten teacher. We would often read books together until