Reflection: My Client Analysis

My client, D.C., is currently going to school at Florida International University and is in her first year of Graduate school while working on a full-time job. She is a 27-year-old who was born and raised in Miami, FL. She is a single mother who is living with her mother and her son. She is also charismatic, spontaneous, and enjoys spending time with her son. The presenting issue in this session was a complicated situation with the father of her son, which she thinks is negatively influencing their relationship. D.C. was unsure of how to deal with this situation so it does not affect her son in the future.
My goal for the session was to listen actively to my client’s story in order to understand the thoughts and feelings she was experiencing, as a consequence of the issue with her son’s father and his relationship with his current partner. I let D.C. explain all the details of the story from the beginning to the present time to gather information about the ways in which she perceives the situation and how they affect her at the time of raising her son. …show more content…
This assignment helped get an insight of the responsibilities of the counselor at the time of listening to the client’s story. I learned how to show empathy through the use of minimal encouragers, reflections such as paraphrasing, and open-ended and close-ended questions in the way that the client feels understood, connected, and safe during the counseling session. The techniques learned while doing this assignment can be applied to children and adolescents, adults, and older adults, as every person needs to feel supported and understood in order to connect with the helper and begin a process of healing. I also learned how to wait for the right time to make a reflection of the client’s feelings or, to paraphrase the client’s ideas, and these are essential things in the work of a