Family Violence And Abuse In Charlie's Pond

Process Paper

Charlie’s Pond Information Charlie’s Pond was an interesting novel about a female teenager growing up in a dysfunctional home. She dealt with abuse and neglect as well as battling her own thoughts and fears. Samantha, the female, lives with her older brother Charlie and their two parents, all of whom show abuse and neglect physically and emotionally. The novel is her journey through discovery and courage. I enjoyed this book and selected it for my paper because it not only gave me a glimpse into the lives of family dysfunction and abuse but also I was able to see how a female may see her life in this way. As I am a male, my experience with this difficult topic may never be the same as if I were a female.

Personal Assumptions

I always try to keep an open mind and never place blame on any survivors, male or female. My experiences with friends growing up in abusive homes has allowed me time to process what steps I took to help them as well as what steps a younger me may have done better to assist them in their time of need. I will carry this with me in my practice and have an open mind about what enters the room as well as learn from their personal experiences, as each individual will have specific stories. As I am an unjudging individual, I feel a strength of mine is that I am a great active listener. The novel continually displayed many individuals in Samantha’s life that either did not listen, did not listen well enough, or brushed her pain off as a typical response. I strive to not be one of those individuals and to always pull out strengths of their situation and seek supervision whenever I need further training or support.

My inexperience working directly with this population may ultimately get in the way of my effectiveness at first. I feel as though many male survivors would be reluctant to seek counseling and many female survivors would initially elect to work with female clinicians to avoid residual triggers. I have already had a few intakes at Hamilton Center elect to not see me as they had become triggered seeing me once sitting down in my office. As more opportunities arise with this population,

I have grown a liking to working with the anger population and I could eventually see myself as an abuse survivor advocate helping the abused and the batterer come to terms with their own issues. As my journey through counseling continues, I know I will still be curious and willing to take on as many experiences as possible. Helping others was, is, and always will be a passion of