Index: L1 / School Social Work / Children and Young People / Recording / 70144153
Keywords: Casework recording - narrative account / adolescent clients / absenting / siblings conflict / client's physical appearance
Abstract: The placement student has worked on three cases in this placement. The presenting problems of the three cases are absenting from school, sibling conflict and client’s `undesirable’ physical appearance respectively. Samples of the recordings of each case are compiled below. The fieldwork instructor has inserted his comments/feedback (in italic) in the recordings of case 1 and 2. The recordings together with the fieldwork teacher’s comments provide a window into the counselling experience of the placement student and a rich source of learning about counselling practice.
This is a narrative account of an individual interview with L on 17/03/00
Purpose:
I met L in the guidance room. She avoided sitting down in the guidance room and said she wanted to talk only with me. She and I walked to the empty classroom and I invited her to take a seat in that room. She kept silent and smiled at me. I then asked, “Have you seen a school social worker before.” She said no. I then asked about her feeling towards school social worker. She smiled and had no verbal response. (Comment: Since she had approached the placement worker and requested to talk to her, it would be appropriate to ask more directly why she had wanted to talk to a social worker.)
Then I wanted to break the silence of L and ask her about her study. Since she was absent from school for about two weeks, she needed more time to compensate for her homework and study. She said she had already handed in her homework this week.” I told her I appreciated her work. I wanted to facilitate her to share her feeling about her study. She said she would try her best to finish Form 5, but it was difficult to study well in some subjects. I asked: “What subject are you talking about?” She said, “Although I spend much time to study Chinese history, but I will forget about 50% in the examination in the next day.” I changed the focus and invited L to talk about her study after school. It was because I wanted to know more about her study style.
L then said, “I do not review the study content every day because I cannot keep long-term memory well.” I shared with her my study style when I was studying in the secondary school. She responded, “I have tried a method in the first term exam. When I have come home after school, I would go to sleep until evening. Then I study during the whole night and then go to school for exam.” I suggested for her to review the study content more frequently. It was because it would help her to reduce the stress during examination period. It also could reduce the study time before examination.
L changed to talk about her mother. She said: “I feel pressure on communicating with my mother. It is difficult to express my feeling. My mother always asks me many questions which are too difficult to answer her.” I said: “I feel your mother is showing concern about you.” L responded: “I know my mother is concerned about me, but I do not know how to express myself. I will show my temper when my mother asks me some questions. I do not know how to control myself.” I asked her to give an example of such a situation. L said, “When I came home yesterday, my mother asked me ‘Did you go to school today?’ I answered her no although I had gone to school.” I invited L to share her feeling about it. She said, “My mother asks me this question because she worries about my attendance at school.” (Comment: It will also be helpful for L to reflect on her reaction towards her mother and to gain some understanding as to why she is reacting in this manner.) I summarized her feeling and then L talked about her impression of her mother. She recalled some bad experience such as the lying of her mother. She also felt sorry about treating her mother impolitely. Then I suggested her to use another method to express herself such as writing short notes. I thought it could increase the communication between L and her mother. She agreed to try before seeing me the next time. (Comment: Too quick to start suggesting. So far, the recording has not reveal an understanding of what is causing L to react to her mother in this manner.)
Reflection:
L was referred to me by her classroom teacher. Therefore, I had talked to the teacher before the starting the counselling with her. The classroom teacher told me that many teachers had tried to talk with her, but she was not willing to share with them. (Comment: Why was she referred to see a social worker? What did the teachers want to talk to her about?) Then, I tried my best to invite L to share during our counselling session. It is because I want to know more about her, such as her family, her difficulties and unhappy things. I am pleased she is willing to talk with me. I often reflected her feelings and tried to engage in some self- disclosure so as to build up a trusting and good relationship with her. I also wanted her to know I was not only concerned about her attendance, but also her feeling. I encourage her to share with me and to release her pressure.
It was difficult to engage in active and accurate listening. It requires me to listen with my ears to the words spoken and the tone of voice, with my mind to the underlying message, and with my eyes to the body language such as posture, bearing and gestures. It was necessary to prove that I heard, understood and accepted what had been said to me. At that time, I also needed to reduce L’s stress and anxiety.
I reflected the content with a short, simple re-statement or paraphrasing of the essence of what L had actually said. It was because the reflection of content could condense in a fresh way the information L gave. During the counselling, I used the skill of paraphrasing to restate L’s message concisely. It could show that I understood her feeling and also could bring focus to an idea or situation for her consideration.
Furthermore, it was necessary to show empathy, positive regard and genuineness for building up a warm, trusting relationship to L. I showed empathy when she said that she felt sorry towards her mother. (Comment: How was this done?) It could lead her to know that I understood her private perceptual world that made her feel more comfortable.
And sharing of myself by relating in a natural, real, sincere, and spontaneous, congruent and open manner, which also could gain trust by L. For example, I shared my feelings that lied at varying depth. It could lead her to rethink her past experience. And I could drew attention to her immediate feeling and imply meaning between sentence.
(Comment: In reflecting on a particular counselling session, it is insufficient to simply list down a repertoire of counselling skills in a general sense. For instance, it is insufficient for the worker to record that she has shown empathy and then make a statement that simply reiterates the generic purpose of empathy in a counselling relationship. Worker’s reflection needs to draw on specific context and incident during the interview or as the process of the interview unfolds. Using the same example on empathy, the worker can offer her interpretation of how L perceives her attempt at being empathetic. What is in the interpersonal exchange that indicates a building of the worker-client relationship. In reflecting on one’s practice, we are interested to examine and interpret what had taken place rather than what could or should take place. The latter is based on textbook knowledge while the former is grounded on the actual practice context.)
Name of the client: L
Problems identified by the referral agent
Client was a repeat Form 4 student. During this year, she had frequent absents in school. She always kept silent when teachers questioned her. She often avoid talking about her school life. She always cried in school and had little sharing with her classmates. Therefore, the referring teacher thought she needed counselling service to share her depressed feelings and increase her attendance rate.
Social background
Client lived with her parents and two younger sisters. She talked less with her parents because she did not want her mother to worry about her. (Comment: Is it lesser than before or generally less?) She described she had a warm family and she knew her parents loved her. She had also talked less with her younger sisters. Client felt they could not understand her feeling because they were too young.
On the other hand, she was afraid to communicate with her classmates because she was a new comer and she felt it was difficult to communicate with them. She also felt she was a passive person and rarely take the active role of speaking to or making new friends.
Client changes
During the last three months, she had gradually improved on her attendance. In the first three weeks of school, she was absent. Two weeks later, she absented about two-days per week. But in the next two weeks, she was only absent for not more than one day per week. After that month, she absented not more than half day each week. In this past several weeks, she kept full attendance. It was a great change for her, since she was absent three days per week before receiving counselling.
Furthermore, she had made more friends in class and more contact with her classmates. She cooperated with some classmates to do a project during the Easter holiday. She also took part in the activities that was organized by her classmates after school such as a BBQ and karaoke in the weekend.
Client’s classroom teacher said that she became happier and more active in class. Sometimes she would play jokes with her classmate. Since she always kept silent in class and hang down her head during lessons, many teachers were worried about her and wanted to talk with her. However, she always cried when teachers asked her about her school life. (Comment: Is this still the situation now?)
Evaluate the changes
In the first three week, I tried to find more information about her, such as her family life, school life, and her relationship with friends. During these three counselling sessions, I found that she was depressed about having to repeat her Form 4. She felt she would loose her old friend because of less contact. She also felt ashamed to make new friends and feared to face this problem in school. However she said that it was not a reason for her absence in school. She told me that she was absent from school because she was sick.
After that, I tried to verify her reason for her absence. She told me that she often felt dizzy in the morning. When that happened, she would absent herself from school for the whole day. She told me that although she got better one hour later, she still did not go back to school. When I asked her why she did not go back school, she would cry. When I encouraged her to express her feelings on study and school life, she would also cry. She told me that she felt lonely and unhappy during in school. She would talk about her old friends repeatedly. (Comment: It will be good for the placement worker to offer her thought on or how she is making sense of what L is saying.)
I thought that only sharing would not help her to improve on her attendance. (Comment: I see her school absenting as a possible manifestation of the problem she is having (or avoiding) in having to repeat and needing to start anew in a new school environment. In this sense, helping her to work through these feelings and to find ways to better deal with the situation she is in will be more significant in working with L.) I tried to use the Reality Therapy approach in the counselling sessions. I let her to know a consequence of her absent because I wanted to help her find her goal. It was because truancy was a irresponsibility and could not help her to achieve her goal. Her goal was to get promoted to Form 5 and by absenting frequently from school, she would not be able to achieve her goal.
At that time, I shifted my focus to not only giving emotional support, but also encourage her to retain her goal. Therefore I helped her to set a task to achieve her goal. For example, setting a timetable to help her review the topics and texts after school. I wanted to help her to solve the study difficulty. (Comment: This did not surface in the recording.) In addition, I discussed her situation with her classroom teacher because he could help her in class. (Comment: It is good to collaborate with the classroom teacher in working on the case.) He suggested adjusting the sitting plan and letting some classmates to help her. I also agreed that peer group encouragement was necessary for them. I kept cooperating with his classroom teacher was because I wanted to know more about the client’s performance in class. (Comment: It is not just about that but also seeing the value of inter-professional collaboration.)
This is a narrative account of an individual interview with client F on 16/03/00
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
How did you come to know F? Offer background information and how you interpret it. This will help to reveal your anticipatory schema prior to the first client contact. Why did you frame the purpose of the first contact in this manner?
Content of interview
Purposes:
- To help F to share his feelings.
- To encourage F to solve his sibling conflicts.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
The first statement is generic to counselling. As for the second statement, do you mean that you will be able to “solve his sibling conflicts” even though it was the first client contact?
(Comment: It is more appropriate at the initial contact with the client to aim at exploring the presenting problem (if there is an obvious one) and understanding client’s context and view in regard to the concerns/problems he/she brings into the counselling session. The worker and client can then jointly work out how best to proceed and what counselling objectives to set.)
F found me in the guidance room. I sat facing F in an open, relaxed manner, and far away enough from him to feel comfortable. I greeted him and told him that I was ready to listen and help. My hands were kept relatively still and my facial expression friendly.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
How you opened the interview was important. Probably, you would have your reason (practical argument) in opening the interview in this manner. Identify your reason. There is no need to describe your physical posture, etc. It is no longer a student assignment in the laboratory course. It is real life practice, and what you described here is generic to counselling.
When F was talking, I kept eye contact; body inclined forward, non-verbal feedback through facial expression and head nod. And I used a warm, accepting tone and words that were natural to him. I avoided stereotyping beginning statements or using false humour, such as ‘worry’ or ‘problem’. I felt F talked freely because he did not avoid my gaze.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
Only the last sentence is relevant – how the client approached the interview in the beginning. The rest is generic to counselling.
At the beginning of sharing, F talked non-stop for several minutes and described a number of related and unrelated problems. Since it was necessary for both F and me to fully understand and clarify his concern, I invited him to select the one that he thought should be dealt with first. F chose to share about a problem of his younger sister. I showed some minimal encouragers to her, such as “uh-umn”, “mmm”, “yes”, “so”, “a-ha”, and repeating of key words to indicate that I was interested and involved.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
What sort of related problems did he raise? Even more important, what were the “unrelated problems”? Who is to determine what is “related” and what is not? It is desirable for you to report in fuller details since it would reveal how the client used the talk time early on in the first client contact. Asking the client to choose a ‘problem’ to be dealt with first is a ‘focusing skill’ in the present context. Given other problems F raised, did you have any idea why F chose this problem and not others as deserving attention first?
F told me that he hated his younger sister because she always did not do her homework. When he blamed her, she would cry to draw the others’ attention. After F had told me about the conflict he had with his sister, I asked, ‘What is it about your younger sister that frustrates you so much?’ I invited him to continue talking by suggesting that he gave more details about the conflict he had brought up. At that time, F remained silent. Therefore I gave time for him to think and reflect. After a short period of time, he said in a very frank manner that it was because his younger sister’s crying behaviour would cause his father to be angry. Then his father would beat the sister and make the whole situation very noisy. Although he had tried to talk with the sister, she argued and fought with him.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
Capturing the anecdotal account that F told in the interview would help to reveal the nature of the problem – the manner he framed it and why he considered it a problem (hence what might constitute a solution). As your reader, I couldn’t understand his “problem” and why he “hated” (exact wording?) his younger sister. Since you haven’t supplied biographical/family information, I had no idea at all how old the younger sister was. Hence, the practice in the Family Service Centre of providing a cover sheet containing biographical/family information would help.
I had no idea whether his sister’s crying was a problem to him, or the father’s handling (very noisy) that upset him. Thus, your reporting in this part is too sketchy to reveal what the client’s perception of the problem was.
Then I asked F, “How long have you had this conflict?” F replied, “When she was five-year-old.” Since the conflict was had lasted for a long time, I changed the focus by inviting F to think about the solution of his conflict with his sister. F said, “I don’t think I can do it. I had never been able to communicate well like that before.” I stated, “Your past experiences convince you it is not possible now.’ Then F told me about an unhappy past experience when he tried to solve the conflict with his sister.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
When you asked “how long”, you were doing something we call “exploration” or “assessment”. Why was it that you traced the “history” of the “conflict” (note that it is not clear what “conflict” refers to)? You should offer a practical argument for this. You didn’t follow through to explore the antecedents of the “problem”. Quite the contrary, you switched the topic (your topic!!!) again and asked F to think about solution. It was premature to explore “solution” at this point when the nature of the “problem” was not clear yet. The client’s reply (“I had never been able to communicate well like that before”) was not clear to me. You did not provide the client’s experiential data on this. When you reflected the client’s perception (“not possible now”), what “unhappy past experience” did he tell you? It is desirable to report this in the narrative account.
Furthermore, I also gave feedback to F’s feeling by using reflection of feeling. This could show understanding and support to F, on the ground that it could focus on his underlying or un-stated message. I reflected to F, “You were feeling a bit afraid to even try.”
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
As pointed out earlier, there is no point to regard the narrative account as a written assignment in the laboratory course – as a medium to demonstrate your understanding/execution of counselling skills.
At that moment, I saw F had his head down and I felt he had remembered an unhappy experience. So I invited him to share his strong feeling at that time. Suddenly he laughed, “I have had it. My sister always did that to me and I hated it!” I asked him, “You really seem angry about this?” Then F elaborated more about his angry feeling. It was about his sister’s negative attitude and talking style.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
It is good for you to attend to the client’s non-verbal communication. However, you failed to facilitate further elaboration on the client’s experience (“My sister always did that to me and I hated it.”) It is desirable to report in greater details “his sister’s negative attitude and talking style.”)
F felt his sister always did not feel apologetic about her fault. F said that his sister also was not concerned about the relationship in the family. I asked her, ‘How did that affect your relationship with her?’ It was used to help clarify an issue I felt would be worth exploring further. F told me he was sincere about reconciling with her sister, but he did not know how to do this.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
What did he mean by “his sister was not concerned about the relationship in the family”? You failed to report the client’s response to your probing question “How did that affect your relationship with her?”
And I facilitated F to talk about what he had done about this problem. When F told me that he tried to stop his sister’s activity so as to force her to do homework, I was smiling so as to show my appreciation and support to him. F said, “My mother let my sister get away with not doing her homework whenever she cries. I wanted to teach my sister in order to try to change her school performance. However, it not only increased the sibling conflicts, but also increased the family conflict, which was caused by my sister. But it seemed that no one knows me.” I told him, ‘I feel good when you say that. I appreciate your action to contact your sister.’
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
You missed the chance of helping the client to engage in self-exploration – “it seems that no one knows me”.
At that time, F requested me to give some advice on his problem. I offered selective disclosure of my past experience in order to provide additional experiential data for his deliberation, leading to alternative frame of reference. For example: trying to find another family member to cooperate with him. At that moment, I had remembered the teacher said: ‘Individual’s past experience would affect one’s counselling.’ For example, if we could not solve some problem, we also could not help a client to solve similar problem. After this peer counselling session, I found that it was true.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
When F asked for your advice, did you reflect on why he raised this request at this point? Did he really mean it – to get some advice from a social worker? Why did you choose to offer self-disclosure as a way to respond to the client’s request for advice?
After I told him my past experience about how to solve this kind of conflict. I had tried to apply behavioural therapy to this case. It was because I thought this method could offer a guideline for F to solve his problem and it was effective to be used with a child. I told him to try to find his sister’s favourite thing, which would be used as a positive reinforcer. He also should tell his sister and mother about the aims of this therapy. F told me that he did not have enough confidence to do because he did not know how to say this. I asked, ‘Are you concerned that your sister will not be able to understand your meaning?’ It could also encourage F’s self-exploration.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
I suppose you could wait for the client’s response to your self-disclosure before advising him to adopt behavioural techniques as a way to change the sister’s behaviour. It is not known here how the client perceived your experience disclosed in the interview. Why did you choose behavioural therapy?
Then F told me about his worry, but I felt he wanted to try again to change his sister’s behaviour. I gave constant positive emphasis on the positive goods of F, his ability to change, the previous successful experience and the process, although small but still achieved. I drew attention to the positive aspects in his statements on attitude. I said, “You sound more positive now. I was glad to hear it.’ It could also lead him to feel better and encourage him to do other positive things for himself.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
You failed to report what worry had F told you. Nor could I appreciate how you obtained the impression that the client would want to try again.
At the end of the counselling session, I summarized what we had discussed. I tried to pull together the most salient points, state them as simply and clearly as possible and ask him for my reaction to the accuracy of the summary. I said that, ‘In this session, we had talked about…’ I reflected to F, I expected him to think and do more about changing her sister’s behaviour.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
Involve the client in capturing what had been covered in the interview. It is better than taking up the control over the ending part of the interview. Why didn’t you find out how the client perceived his experience in this interview? Getting feedback from the client is important.
Reflection:
Since F took the initiative to find me in the counselling session, he could select and decide on the sharing topic. He chose to share his experience of his conflict with his sister. In this session, I tried my best to invite F to share his feelings. I was happy that he became more positive later. I asked the open-ended and close-ended questions. It was because open-ended question could lead F to elaborate more on his sibling conflict.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
It is difficult to arrive at the conclusion that “the client became more positive later”. There is no evidence in the narrative account to support this conclusion.
On the hand, I asked close-ended question to elicit essential information, the specific data that F had omitted. It was because close-ended question could focus on the extent of his sibling conflict. I also used questioning skills such as what, when, how, why and where questions at the beginning. It was useful to get more detailed information on F’s problem.
In addition, direct questioning was another useful skill to focus the discussion on a specific point. I also used self-expression by verbal mean to convey support and encouragement. Moreover, it could enhance a climate of trust and honesty.
Self-disclosure could also serve to provide support or guidance to him in finding solutions to his problems. It would be reassuring and supportive to F to hear that I had experienced a similar situation and what I did to cope with it. It could also lead him to know that his problem was temporary and common.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
Use the space here to reflect (and reflect as you write) on your practice experience and how you made sense of the client (and the client’s problem situation) rather than focusing on a display of the skills being used in this counselling session. Overall, the narrative account falls short of presenting a picture of the client (and his problem situation). You also revealed very little of your in-session thoughts, reflections, and judgement made.
A narrative account of the individual interview with C on 24/03/00
Background information:
C was a F.2 student. He was referred by his classroom teacher because of his special appearance, such as long hair. Some teachers had asked him to cut his hair but he had not responded to them. Many teachers reported that C always kept silent when the teachers asked him questions.
When I told a teacher to ask C to meet me, the teacher felt worried for me. The teacher was afraid that C would not come to see me. The teacher advised me to ask the class monitor to guide C to meet me. Then I asked the teacher why she had this thought. But she did not answer me.
Instructor’s comment/feedback:
We have a telling case here of how the school may be experienced by young people as a ‘suffocating’ life-world. I’m not sure how teachers make sense of the ‘problem’. Is it his hairstyle? Is it his passive resistance (remaining silent)? Or is it his non-compliance? When the teacher asked the student to see a social worker, what does she/he look for? Would she/he expect the worker to be ‘effective’ in getting the student to consent changing his hair style? Or helping the student to learn some larger lessons about life?
Content of interview:
Purpose:
I met C in the guidance room. C sat down and smiled at me. After I introduced myself, I asked him about his interest. (I suppose C would ponder on your interest about his interest. He was sent to see the social worker. Why is it that the social worker is interested in his interest? If I were C, I would be on guard. Is the social worker trying to get at something?) It was because I wanted to give him a comfortable atmosphere to sharing. C began to talk about his interest. He said, “I love to play the guitar and drum. I join a western musical team in school and the team practises in the last two lessons on Friday”. He said that he wanted more time to play the guitar and drum. However his mother only allowed C to play the guitar during the time his father was not home yet. Then I was facilitated C to share his feeling about it. He said, “I had a great interest in playing the guitar, but I did not get the support from my parent. They were more concerned about my academic performance”. (By now, I am convinced that the client isn’t on guard. He volunteers telling you something personal – about his parents control over him.) I then reflected, “You seemed to feel less support from your parent on your interest. You hoped they would be more concerned about your performance in music”. C laughed, “My parents would never do this, they only concerned about their wants”. I felt that C was a little disappointed with his parents while he said that. (Did you reflect that – as a way to pursue this aspect of her family experience?)
Then I summarized his feeling and C talked about his expectation on his future. C said, “I wanted to find a part-time job during the school holiday so as to earn some money. It could help me to buy a guitar and develop my interest”. (C impressed me as a young person with a sense of where he wants to go in his life, and he has thought about how to achieve it.) I told C that he should cut his hair before he went to an interview. Although C had the ability to do a job, he should give confidence to an employer first. It was because I wanted to induce C to think about how others felt about him. I supposed C desire for a job could encourage him to cut his hair. C remained silent for a moment and then said, “I would”. I appreciated his response and said, “I hoped to see your new look”. (So you are acting as a disguised ‘conduit’ of teachers’ wish. What matters more to me is his way of looking at his life goal, and where he is now, than to induce him to take a hair cut – unless this is how you frame the purpose of ‘help’. If the interview was concluded at this point, I wonder whether C had any idea of the purpose of seeing you, unless it was understood given your effort to encourage him to take a hair cut.)
Reflection:
In this counselling session, I was surprised by C’s positive response to see me. It was because many teachers told me that C always kept silent and did not respond to them. However, I found C talked actively through his disclosure of interest. I tried my best to get the feeling of C and reflect it back to him. I showed my acceptance on his musical performance and gave him emotional support. I hoped C could think about his perception of the problem. (Note that you didn’t mention about ‘problem’ in this interview. What is his problem then? He raised one – about his parent. But he never talked about his experience in school.)
In this case, I tried to use the psychosocial therapy/approach. I wanted C to discuss his perception of the problem. Therefore I used the skill of reflection of feeling and content. It could let him to think about his expectation in order to drive him to cut his hair. In this case, I did not directly advice C to cut his hair because I did not want him to follow my advice. Instead, I focused on enhancing C’s self-confidence. I chosed to appreciate his musical interest to express my confidence in C. I tried to stand on his side to feel what was his point of view and know more about his thought. (Is it Psychosocial Therapy? You identified one marker – reflection of feeling and content. But this helper response mode alone does not signify the use of Psychosocial Therapy. A therapy is not defined by behavioural features alone. In the absence of clear articulation of the problem situated in the person’s psycho-social space, I wonder how C would regard taking a hair cut as something to do with his problem.)
Sometimes, I might think that C would use his appearance for attention seeking. (This conjecture is ungrounded. Nowhere can I find any evidence – client disclosure – to support this view.) C hoped that the others would accept him. On the other hand, I knew the teachers focused on discipline. The teachers would see C as a misbehaving student because of his abnormal appearance. I hoped that C would know that I desired to help him to change the teachers’ view of him. (In that case, you have to identify the issue up front – teachers’ view about his physical appearance.)