Pest Analysis and Journal Learning

...

her about what her friends think and how she relates to it; she said that was the problem as her friends and spiritual partners, were against her getting a divorce – in their world a woman should bear irrespective of the circumstances she was going through. I tried to understand why she wouldn’t consider her husband back, her narration of her daughter’s death, was the main reason she did not want to go back to him, and this was exactly the interpretation I got.

I was very curious about her complains about people around her not been there for her despite all that she has done for them. Glassman, Glassman, & Hadad (2008) noted that people want to always get the same measure that they give to others. Furthermore, my client proved a conflicting personality on this issue, at the beginning she was empathic about people not wanted to help her, but later she said she did not care about them standing with her. Going further in the session, I learned that people are always there for her, unfortunately she is too occupied in her own grieve and world to recognise this. At this point, I asked the client how she felt about her sister coming down from the US to see her? She said she felt happy and narrated the sacrifices her sister had to make to ensure that she stood with her. Her face lit as she said it, but was quick to accuse her husband and his family of their actions and attitude during the trying times. I did not push for interpretation, instead I was guding the client to realise that people have been there for her but she is the one failing to recognise their presence (Howard, 2010).

One of the functional techniques in psychodynamic is transference. Frosh (2002) identified that transference is a daily occurrence in one’s life and it involves the transfer of one’s experiences from the feelings of the past into the generated present. The importance of transference cannot be upturned in therapy; it helps counsellors to understand the foundational problems clients have and how it is influencing their current behaviour, attitude, and actions (Grant & Crawley, 2002). As the client began to express the relationship she had had with her mum from childhood it was evident that her mum was the only thing she seem to be holding unto at the moment. She describes her mum as the God that she sees, and that she does not know what she would do if her mum were to die. Being a religious client, I regarded her description of her mum been a God as very deep. I can say that part of her depression at the moment brings to her memory things that her mum has done to her, and how they share similar traits, an indication that she is a replica of her mum (Howard, 2010).

Furthermore, to get more insight into the problem, I asked the client, “What is it about the culture and its beliefs?” because she kept talking about the culture and its effect on her and why she cannot divorce her husband and on why the children don’t understand that she is lonely. She presented this in a very twisted manner, hence I allowed her to untwist the problems that were confronting her. In another scenario, she presented a very bitter situation about her not wanting anybody to hold her to ransom because they render assistance to her. I needed to apply interpretative skill to understand her better. Howard (2010) described interpretation as a way of using the words of the client to guide them towards a place of new reasoning. Interpretation is the skill that requires a gentle and a bridled process so that the client does not feel intimidated but evolve into her own new discovery about the situation. So, I said to her, “people who want to help you will put you in a situation where they will want to take back from you”. She admitted that what I said was correct and she was unwilling to take that chance.

After a protracted discussion with the client, I gave a rephrasing of all we had discussed as I identified the death of her daughter, her mum’s illness, her relationships with friends and family, and her divorce process. In concluding the session, I asked the client how she was feeling now that she has expressed herself. She responded that she felt much better and relieved. Interestingly she too had her own internal evaluation of the process as my client noted that she was able to explore the situation much better now.

The session was very challenging, I kept thinking how do I get her to infer the past for the present. As she continuously referred to the present. I almost got lost in her narratives, as I struggled to capture what the loneliness was about she was feeling. Unfortunately, I could not emphasize on that. At the mid-session, I noticed I became a bit tired and probably lost in my own thoughts as I allowed myself place my own challenges in comparison to hers and even assumed we were going through the same thing, I was quick to bounce back though. Hence there was a counterference, as I found myself leaning towards her, and in my head I assumed the husband was wrong, and she was unfairly treated by friends and family. I failed to remain unbiased.

Some researchers (Howard 2010; Clarkson, 2003) noted that that there are two main popular skills in psychodynamic – transference and counterference. Thus, in a psychodynamic session, these two have to be present. Furthermore, I was able to utilise the principles of free association, transference, and interpretation. The free association allowed the client to speak freely I was quiet most of the time in the session. The free association was beneficial to the client because she poured out genuine emotions and feelings about the situation. Transference allowed the client to express her resentments as evidenced from the narratives above. The client came to recognise the problems and was able to explore all the issues to her benefit. My interjections in the session was helpful to the client. The client lead the therapy but my injections allowed for more clarification of her thoughts and her views of the whole process.

In conclusion, the client was very expressive about the situation and was able to break down the problems to a clear situation with my injections. I would say the session was well conducted, and with subsequent practices I will get better with it.

References

BACP, (2016). Ethical Framework for Good Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Leicstershire: British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy

Brooks-Harris, J. E. (2008). Multi-theoretical psychotherapy: Key strategies for

integration practice. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.

Clark, A. J. (2010). Empathy: An integral

...