A strength that I had was that I maintained myself focused on the relationship instead of siding with one member of the couple. As the reported their perspectives on the presenting problem, I was able not to blame one member or alienate with one of the members. Validating each partner’s experience without invalidating the other partner’s one is relevant to build a therapeutic alliance (David, 2014, p. 65). I focused on trying to find ways to move towards the healing of the relationship instead of alienating with one couple’s member. According to feedback from my peers, I did well being present with the couple and facilitate the engagement of the couple in therapy. Another strength that I believe I had was that I was open minded, coming from …show more content…
I attempted to engage the couple on beginning to think about solutions to their problems, such as compromising. I also kept using reflection of feelings to demonstrate empathy in order to build trust and a therapeutic alliance. Building a therapeutic alliance is one of the main tasks in the integrated couple therapy model during the first sessions (David, 2014, p. 65). Therefore, building a therapeutic alliance was valuable to the work with the couple. Meanwhile, one weakness that I had was that I did not have a clear understanding of what it was expected from me as I did the session. The goals of session that I was provided were, in my opinion, vague. Thus, I was unclear on how to approach the couple. I felt anxious and confused because I did not know the expected outcome. An example about being unclear was when I tried to present the assessment feedback to the couple. I was confused by what information I should be presenting. Thus, I missed on presenting to the family relevant information that the assessments provided such as Jane’s sadness and Charlize’s …show more content…
Getting details is a therapeutic intervention to clarify vague statements that clients make (De Jong & Berg, 2013, p. 26). Getting details help therapist and clients to be more clear and specific about generalized statements. This intervention elicits descriptive clarifications (De Jong & Berg, 2013, p. 26). Getting details is used to help clarify and amplify clients, goals, strengths, and success (p.26). I missed opportunities to get details about the couple’s feelings. If I got details during specific times such as Charlize’s feelings of frustration when Jane demands her, the couple would have been more specific about the goals that they want. The main weakness that I have is that from my perspective, the couple’s presenting problem is an easy solvable problem. I do not perceive the couple as a challenging case. Thus, I used solution focused techniques to attempt to solve quickly their presenting problem. Introducing specific tasks for the couple to work on would have been helpful. But, I did not do it because I wanted to get to the core of the problem and solve
Szapocznik, J., Schwartz, S. J., Muir, J. A., & Brown, C. H. (2012). Brief strategic family therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 1(2), 134–145.
The relationship between the husband and wife seems initially to be perfect. They both show each other expressions of love. There is understanding, harmony, financial security, and good communication between them. The couple spends a lot of time together, discussing future plans, and talking about the good moments they had in the past. However, behind all of this positive interaction between the two of them is something they are both not able
Emotionally focused therapy is designed to be short-term in structure. Developed principally by Dr. Susan Johnson, the main target of this type of therapy is couples and is focused on expressing emotions. The primary goal of emotionally focused therapy is to create a safe and long-lasting bond between romantic partners and family members while expanding and restructuring significant emotional responses. Partakers in emotionally focused therapy are emboldened to express their thoughts and emotions in a safe environment without fear of judgment. In this paper, we will discuss a therapy session between Sue Johnson and a couple, Leslie and Scott.
Stickley, T. & Freshwater, D. (2006). “The Art of Listening to the Therapeutic Relationship” Journal of Mental health Practice. 9 (5) pp12 - 18.
Stickley, T., & Freshwater, D. (2006). The art of listening in the therapeutic relationship. Mental Health Practice, 9 (5), 12-18.
Creating a setting where you and your partner feel safe to work through your issues is the number-one priority in Couples’ Counseling. Under the guidance of your therapist, you will explore your relationship through honest and open discussion. Through active listening and open communication, you’ll find a greater strength and intimacy in your relationship.
According to Jeremy Safran and Christopher Muran (2000), psychiatric research shows that the quality of the therapeutic alliance is the most important factor in determining the therapist's success. “Some therapists are consistently more helpful than others; differences in therapist ability seem to be more important than therapeutic modality, and the more helpful therapists appear better able to facilitate the development of a therapeutic alliance” (Safran & Muran, 2000). However, the main problem is that it is difficult to teach the skills necessary for the creation of a therapeutic alliance. In fact, psychotherapy research stresses the importance of the development of human qualities in the therapist. According to Safran and Muran (2000), the therapist need to constantly develop themselves and become involved in personal growth through inner work. Without this feature, the therapists will not be able to devel...
Step three involves identifying and accessing the underlying emotions that have not been acknowledged by the couple in response to their interaction positions (Furrow & Johnson, 2011). The goal of the therapist is to assist the couple to tune into the music of their dance by listening to their primary emotions (Johnson et al., 2005). Couples often experience secondary emotions, such as anger, anxiety, or frustration that mask underlying primary emotions related to the blame/pursuit and withdraw/distance interaction patterns (McRae et al., 2014). Primary emotional experiences such as sadness, loneliness, fear, or rejection (Greenman & Johnson, 2012), are usually identified during this step, as these emotions manifest from the desire for human
Stickley,T. & Freshwater, D. (2006). “The Art of Listening to the Therapeutic Relationship” Journal of Mental health Practice. 9 (5) pp12 - 18.
Furthermore, my goal is to let client fix their problems on their own through insight and guidance from the therapist. I envision a successful therapeutic process being when a client follows their goals and achieves positive outcomes in their lives. I seek to gain a therapeutic process with my clients by building rapport, trust, and helping them gain insight. When my clients are stuck and need motivation, I plan to remind them about their goals and the positive things that will come with change. If family is important to a client, informing the client about their family and their happiness may help motivate them to continue to
I have based my approach on the data that was presented to me through intake forms and viewing prior sessions with the couple. To protect the couple from any negative counter-transference, I filtered my observations through the theories of Gottman’s Married Couple Therapy (2008), Johnson’s Emotionally Focused Therapy (2008) (EFT), and David’s Integrated Model of Couple Therapy (2013a) (ICT). The bulk of this paper will then examine my therapeutic approach, the supporting theoretical concepts, and my strengths and weaknesses as a therapist during the session. The latter will include peer feedback, instructor feedback, and self-critique. This paper will conclude with a brief discussion of the future direction of therapy were I to remain their therapist.
...ing silence, paraphrasing and reflection of feelings, as well as non-verbal skills such as body-language and active listening are all used in order to allow the client to introspect and work with their problems in a safe environment, the role of the counselor within the relationship being to support the client and help them to reach their true potential by expressing emotions and thoughts that they can’t express outside of the helping relationship, whether it be for fear of rejection or some other reason.
One strength I saw myself, as having when I enter college is being able to understand and critical think about a essay/article that I have read. However, after taking English 101, I have now learned that this is a strength of mine as well as a weakness.
The more you get to know someone, the more you are able to make better decisions and judgments for not just yourself, but for your partner as well. How a couple handles issues while
Rapport and empathy are two essential skills for communication in health services. In this integrative essay, it is displayed how rapport and empathy play an important role for communication in health services, such as counselling and psychotherapy. Empathy helps building rapport with the client. Both skills are needed in counselling, because once the client has found trust in the counsellor there is a bigger chance of them opening up about their feelings. If a client has a good rapport with the counsellor, they are less likely to discontinue the sessions. A five minute non-scripted video is included with this essay and will be referred back to, while describing and discussing rapport building and empathic listening. The video’s content is a first interview with a client, where the client tells the counsellor about a troubling issue. At the end a self-reflection is included, which will reflect upon the video, the challenges faced and future improvements for personal improvement upon communication skills.