The first paragraph of this assignment will introduce a fictional client who is being counselled for sadness and fear issues. The assignment will then consider how problems may have arisen from the social contexts of his life and from his family system relationships. Race, culture, identity, family structures and relationships will be considered and linked to evidence to explore and understand the client’s feelings of sadness and fear. The assignment will continue with suggestions for working with the client to try to find ways of alleviating the problem behaviours and emotions, this will include details of how the therapist will work within systemic therapy tenets and encourage an exploration with the client of how sociocultural issues may
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They, perhaps, look in the mirror and see only a human being, they do not see what Julian sees and they do not have to live in the world that society creates for him. If other family members don’t have the same self-image issues as Julian, it is likely that this will have caused him feelings of isolation. Laudat (2005) examined the connection between being a “mixed race” woman and experiencing depression. One of Laudat’s participants commented “there was no-one I could confide in about why I felt different and how I could deal with that” (Laudat, 2005, cited in Barker 2010, pg.219), Julian may have had similar feelings within his own family system, particularly as he indicated that emotional matters were not discussed. Julian also stated that he felt that counselling was not a “manly” option, Barker (Barker, 2010, pg.223) states that “real men” show no fear or emotion due to strong cultural messages. Stereotypes of strong hard capable men still exist even though there is a “masculinity crisis” with the decrease in society of traditional male roles and jobs (Gauntlett, 2008, cited in Barker 2010, …show more content…
Before the sessions begin the counsellor needs to consider and understand their own views on subjects like culture, race, gender and sexuality, the counsellor also needs to remain neutral, congruent and curious to enable them to work collaboratively with the client to find acceptable solutions. The client’s perception of identity had been challenged by society leading to confusion and feelings of isolation. Deeply held meanings of identity will be explored with a view to challenging negative perceptions and finding alternatives. A systemic approach and a small amount of CBT is suggested to enable the client to understand his sadness and fears and look for alternative behaviours that might reduce the impact of sociocultural and family system problems. Work was suggested with the client’s partner to identify possible patterns of recurrent interactions and circular causality. This client is neither “wrong” nor “right” however some of his perceptions and deeply held views could be the cause of his distress. Working systemically with an open minded counsellor will hopefully help him identify sociocultural and family system issues and challenge his perceptions and thought processes to enable him to reduce his fear and
They, perhaps, look in the mirror and see only a human being, they do not see what Julian sees and they do not have to live in the world that society creates for him. If other family members don’t have the same self-image issues as Julian, it is likely that this will have caused him feelings of isolation. Laudat (2005) examined the connection between being a “mixed race” woman and experiencing depression. One of Laudat’s participants commented “there was no-one I could confide in about why I felt different and how I could deal with that” (Laudat, 2005, cited in Barker 2010, pg.219), Julian may have had similar feelings within his own family system, particularly as he indicated that emotional matters were not discussed. Julian also stated that he felt that counselling was not a “manly” option, Barker (Barker, 2010, pg.223) states that “real men” show no fear or emotion due to strong cultural messages. Stereotypes of strong hard capable men still exist even though there is a “masculinity crisis” with the decrease in society of traditional male roles and jobs (Gauntlett, 2008, cited in Barker 2010, …show more content…
Before the sessions begin the counsellor needs to consider and understand their own views on subjects like culture, race, gender and sexuality, the counsellor also needs to remain neutral, congruent and curious to enable them to work collaboratively with the client to find acceptable solutions. The client’s perception of identity had been challenged by society leading to confusion and feelings of isolation. Deeply held meanings of identity will be explored with a view to challenging negative perceptions and finding alternatives. A systemic approach and a small amount of CBT is suggested to enable the client to understand his sadness and fears and look for alternative behaviours that might reduce the impact of sociocultural and family system problems. Work was suggested with the client’s partner to identify possible patterns of recurrent interactions and circular causality. This client is neither “wrong” nor “right” however some of his perceptions and deeply held views could be the cause of his distress. Working systemically with an open minded counsellor will hopefully help him identify sociocultural and family system issues and challenge his perceptions and thought processes to enable him to reduce his fear and