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Session 1
Introduction
After the initial contact and two formal assessments, I have planned a set of intervention mainly to restructure CWL's cognition and improve her relationship with family members, especially her relationship with her mother. In this session, I will try to let her understand the rational and irrational thoughts. Some work sheets are prepared for her learning and also some homework is prepared to help her to be aware of her behavior in the family.
Client: CWL
Date: 29.10.1999 (Friday)
Time: 11:00 a.m.- 12:00 p.m.
Venue: Placement agency
Social worker: R
Session objectives:
Session Procedure:
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Time (a.m.) |
Objectives |
Contents |
Resources Requested |
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11:00 - 11:10 |
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11:10 - 11:15 |
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11:15- 11:20 |
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To share with her the feeling of losing her new mobile phone |
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11:20-11:30 11:30 - 11:45 |
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Notes |
I. Identifying Date
Name of Client: CWL
Date: 29th October 1999 (Friday)
Time: 11:00-12:00
Worker in Charge: Student social worker R
II. Objectives:
III. Summary of Contact
In the interview, I tried to understand CWL's performance in this week and I invited her to tell me about her week. She told me that she went to see her probation officer. However, due to the document transition, her interview with the probation officer was delayed. She also told me that she had gone to the Science Museum with her friends and mentioned something about the Science Museum. From CWL's description, she sounded very happy to go out with her new classmates.
Then I invited her to tell me how she felt about my home visit last week. She revealed that the atmosphere was relatively quiet that night. Then she continued that her sisters used to be more talkative. She also said that the manner of her father and mother was the same as usual. I asked her about her parents' attitude towards her after the home visit. She just replied that her parent reminded her not to steal again. She said that she seldom talked to her father, but she would report to her mother her school's schedule. When she has a problem, she will try to solve it by herself rather than seeking help from her parents.
Then, I asked her the feeling of losing her new mobile phone. She said that she felt very sad about it because she had just bought it for a few days. Then she told me that she had not tried to steal her friends' things because she did not want to hurt them. She only stole things from department stores or shops. I tried to remind her that theft was wrong regardless of from where she had stolen the things. However, I showed positive regards to her that she could understand the feeling of losing things and would avoid hurting her friends whom she liked. It demonstrated that she would still consider other people's feelings.
After I introduced the objective of this session to her and introduced the irrational and rational concepts and exercises to her, she was very attentive when she was doing the exercise (refer to Appendix A). I had discussed the question six with her. The statement says "if I want to do a task which I can handle it by myself, I don't need to report it to any persons." Initially, she got the message from the question that if she had the ability to handle the task, then she should try her best to do it until she needed help from others. However, after my explanation, she still thought that she did not need to report the task to anybody if she could handle it well. Then, I tried to confront her belief with some examples. First, if she finished a task in the company, did she need to report it to her boss? Then, if she did homework with her group mates, would she need to report her part that she was responsible for to the other group members? Then she thought for a while and replied that when under such situations, she needed to report to others. However, she felt that there would be some situations that did not need to report to others. She strongly insisted on the idea of making her own decisions. (Comment: There are a couple of issues here. The first is the issue of being accountable to others in some situations. The placement student seems to be trying to get at this point. However, the statement in use also leads to another issue that is obviously important to the client, that is, the issue of being accountable to oneself and making one's own decision without having to report to others, if the situation does not make it necessary to do so.) Then, I tried to assess her attitude towards her parents and asked, "Do you need to report your situations to your parents?" She said she would not. She would not request to go out and then report what she had done to her mother. She would not report to her parents about her study, relationship with friends and love affairs. Then I advised her to consider other peoples' feeling before doing every thing. If she reported what she had done to her mother, then her mother would not worry about her so much and their relationship would be improved. I said that although she could make her own decision about things, she needed to show consideration for other people's feeling. Thus she should try to report her things to the related people so that they would not worry so much about her. All these people cared about her and I advised her not to make them feel hurt. She said that she understood and would try. (Comment: It does come across that the idea of `reporting' to someone else about her movement or life is probably not something the client likes to do. This is understandable given that she is already in her mid-adolescence. Considering her age, it is actually desirable that she gradually learns to do things for herself and to be increasingly responsible for her own decisions. However, given what had happened, there is also a concern by significant others (her parents especially) about how she is managing herself or if she was going to get into trouble again. It will be helpful for the worker to explore these issues and highlight some of these observation from different angles instead of merely pushing the message of having to report to others. The client needs to know that the worker is able to acknowledge / understand her growing developmental needs towards independence. By all means, this is important for the client to strive towards. On the other hand, the worker needs to help the client to see how her situation has made, for instance, her parents, worry about her even more. The worker needs to understand how the client is interpreting the parents' actions or behaviors such as the need to be kept informed of her life. The worker should avoid assuming that the client would automatically see it as concern or care (which was the worker's interpretation) although the client does appear to be able to appreciate where her parents are coming from. By discussing these observation and interpretation of the possible dynamics that may be taking place, the worker can then gradually lead the client to derive at a better understanding of her situation and from there make informed decisions about what she may wish to do.)
Then, I introduced the ABC model to her and did the exercise with her (refer to Appendix B).
She replied that her thought would be to save money in order to buy it but sometimes she would feel that she was poor and in bad luck. The emotional consequence is "disappointed."
Then I started to understand her source of financial support. She told me that her mother gave her $ 50 per day and the money was just enough to cover her transport and lunch. She had no spare money to buy the things that she liked. However, she promised that she would not steal things and she would negotiate with her mother or save money to buy the things that she liked most. I showed appreciation for her positive problem solving skills and reminded her to keep her promise: not to attempt theft again!
Then, she told me that she might find a part time job to earn some money because she really did not have enough money to buy things that she liked. Then I tried to explore what kind of job she liked to do. She said she wanted to be a private tutor. However, she did not know how to find such jobs. I suggested two ways for her. The first one is to post an advertisement in the supermarket and the second one is to phone private tuition agencies. These agencies would introduce students to her but they would charge a commission. I recommended her to approach several agencies.
Belief system: She replied that it might be better because her parents would be unable to find her. Also, she could use the school's telephone.
Emotional Consequence: feeling sad when the mobile phone was lost
I asked her why her parents bought her a mobile phone? She said that her parents wanted to contact her easily. Then I explored if she wanted to have a mobile phone? She said actually she wanted one but her father bought a new mobile for her mother and did not give it to her. She said that although she wanted to have a mobile phone, she felt fine even she could not have it. I appreciated her change and in fact, she could not get all the things that she wanted under some circumstances.
Belief system: Do not go
Emotional Consequence: Feel unhappy and want to go.
She liked to play basketball. I asked her if her mother allowed her to go out and play basketball. She said that after her sentence (under the Probation Order), her mother did not allow her to go out, except going to school. I invited her to explain why her mother did not allow her to go out frequently when compared with the past. (Comment: Good question strategy for the client to reflect on her situation and the change that occurs (change in mother) as a result of her stealing incident.) She replied that her mother was afraid that she would commit crimes again. She could understand but she still wanted to go shopping and playing. She told me honestly that she went shopping after school because her mother did not let her go. She told her mother that she just walked around and then went home.
Besides, she told me that she decided to move out from home when she got a job in the future. She might live with her friends or one of her sisters. I tried to understand how she felt during the period of remand and asked if she had missed her parents and sisters. She said that if the three weeks' of remand were a camping trip instead, it would have been a very enjoyable and happy experience. She started to forget the feelings of the remand period and her parents' concern. (Comment: The placement student's stated intention of wanting to understand client's feeling during the period she was under remand appeared rather incoherent to what the client was saying (moving out from home). It was not clear her intention for asking client if she had missed her family members during the period of remand. Her conclusion drawn `She started to forget the feelings of the remand period and her parents' concern' from the client's response also does not appear coherent in the context of the conversation about the client's intention to move out of the family home once she is financially independent. The placement student can reflect on her thoughts and concerns at that particular instance that cause her to engage with the client in that manner. What was going through her mind at that point in time? How was she reacting to what the client is saying? What was her concern about the client's intention to move out of her home? What is the placement student learning about herself in practice? How is that influencing the flow of the conversation? Would the conversation take a different focus if not for the placement student's concern at that time? What could some of these foci be? In practice, the practitioner responds or reacts to the client's words and actions all the time. Different practitioners respond differently. It is therefore important to be aware of how we, as practitioners, are interpreting, making sense, responding and reacting in a given conversation, dialogue or interaction. What are influencing our reaction and action? What are some of the practitioner's stereotypes, biases, assumptions and values that are coming into play? The ability to be more self-aware will raise the level of one's practice. Therefore, in placement, learning to tune in to the worker's own subjectivity, that is, to be self-aware, is an important learning task.)
IV. Worker's Assessment and Follow-up Action
- Compared with the initial period, the fearful experience of the punishment of remand has faded. I found that the client still did not have a very clear idea that stealing is a wrong behavior. Her motivation to correct her stealing behavior was mainly due to the punishment.
- She tried to find different ways to get the things that she liked.
- She promised that she would not attempt to steal again.
Follow-up action
- To explain to the client that she should stop stealing not because of the punishment but because it is wrong.
- To further distinguish between right and wrong concepts.
- To reinforce her to follow the rational belief to get the things that she liked
- To discuss problem solving methods
- In this session, CWL showed that her relationship with her sisters was quite good. She said that she would rather communicate with her siblings than her parents. (Comment: Did she say why?)
- Her relationship with her parents was fair. However, her relationship with her mother was closer than that of her father. After sentence, she reported to her mother more about her study.
- CWL is not so attached to her family because she has plans to move out when she can financially support herself. (Comment: Can this conclusion be drawn about her attachment to her family because she has plans to move out?)
- At present, CWL felt that her mother was strict with her which led to her being even more rebellious
-Two more home visits will be arranged in the coming sessions so as to improve CWL's relationship with her mother.
-The communication record had already given to CWL so as to understand further her relationship with her mother.
-In fact, CWL's mother was a traditional Chinese woman. She loved her daughters but she did not know how to communication with CWL. She could not spend too much time on all her daughters at the same time. I would play the role of a middleperson to facilitate their communication and enhance their understanding of each other.
- She had a good peer network and she had four best friends whom were her classmates from the secondary school. They usually play basketball together.
- She shared her problems with her friends.
- She reflected that she made a lot of new friends in the new school
Follow up action
- It was found that her social skills were quite good. Therefore, it is not the focus of the coming session, in which, I would try to understand her relationship with friends so as to provide psychological support for her.
It seemed that the relationship between the worker and the client had progressed as CWL was more willing to disclose her experience to the worker.
V. Evaluation of the Worker's performance
At the beginning of the session, I tried to listen to her recent and present situation because in the following part when I introduced the ABC model to her, my role would be relatively directive. So I asked some open questions, such as "Can you tell me something about last week?" to break the ice and to understand her daily life. Then she tried to tell me her recent situation. Due to her straightforward character, she did not talk actively and mainly used short sentences to express her ideas. Therefore, during the interviewing process, I usually needed to use questioning skills to guide her to disclose more things about her to me.
On one hand, I tried to confront her misunderstanding on the concept "theft" but on the other hand, I gave her the space to let go her suppressed feelings towards her family. When she released her feelings, I helped her to make sense of her feelings.
Written and revised by: 17499533 (Student)
Instructor: K S To
Copy Edited by: Phyllis Chee
Commented by: Phyllis Chee
Copyright © 2001 by the City University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.
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