Marriage Counseling Reflection

Marriage counseling can be intimating not only for the spouses reaching out for third party help but also for the counselor that is just starting out. This is a summary and response paper of a 50 minute mock marriage counseling session with Thad and Keri Osterdyk.
This session represents a marriage counseling session that took place after the initial counseling interview process. Thad and Keri have been married for over 19 years. Over the last couple of years they have been experiencing negative tension building in their relationship. Both spouses mutually agreed to reaching out to a counselor to share insights them to strengthen their marriage.
After completing an initial interview, I was able put together a strategy for our first full counseling session together. My initial strategy was to spend 15 minutes discussing the positive attributes of each spouse that attracted them to each other. Speaking about the positives that started their relationship and what …show more content…
This experience help me to better understand how to apply theories and interventions taught in this course to real world situations. Planning the session was a very helpful place to start however a case of the nerves caused me to skip over processing through the miracle question and brought me directly into the development of the genogram. The other urge I struggled with is wanting to be the immediate problem solver. I need to take more time to allow the couples to discuss their feelings as well as allow them to work towards a solution that would work for their family. Especially since they know how their family works better than I do. I also noticed I was leading the spouses towards answering question in such a way that fit nicely into my planned course of treatment. As I move forward with practicing this skills I need to be ready to be flexible with the direction the couples may need the counseling session to