Since I was first accepted into the graduate clinical mental health counseling program, I highly anticipated my first experience of actual counseling. I never expected the difficulties I would face upon my first encounter counseling a client. With my client unaware of the reason for being referred to me, asking “what brings you in here today?” turned out to be the wrong question to ask. The more appropriate way initiating a counseling relationship begins with introductions and obtaining background information from the client increasing the trust level between client and the counselor. During the session, I detected my “machine gun questions” meaning I never provided my client adequate time to respond before I asked another question; as a result,
