Track1 Self-Awareness: Setting Goals for Residency
1) In 250 words..
For your initial post to this discussion, identify and explain what you see as your current strengths and weaknesses in the foundational clinical skills.
After identifying those strengths and weaknesses:
Provide some reflections about the reasons you believe these particular skills are strengths or weaknesses at this time and how you might work on these skills during residency.
Use your reflections to create three goals you would like to accomplish.
2) Role Playing
Attending and Reflecting is an important part of the therapist’s toolkit. For practice, listen/read to this brief statement by Rose, a client, and respond as you would in a clinical session. Be sure to use headers under each statement.
Express in writing the way you would demonstrate yourself Attending Skills (body language, tone of voice, and facial expression), and Paraphrasing Content of what was heard.
Statement from rose:
1."After hearing all about my life in the biopsychosocial assessment, I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m even coming to counseling. I really shouldn’t complain. I have a great husband, a wonderful companion with my sweet dog Molly, friends, a mother that’s alive, and I’m not struggling financially. It’s hard for me to reach out for help and I feel like I don’t deserve it. But I’ve just been so overwhelmed and anxious lately. I can’t pinpoint for sure when it started, when I first felt flooded with anxiety. But I think it might have been back when my father got sick and then died 6 months later. I had to hold in my emotions… my fears, my sadness, and my worry so that I could take care of my grieving mother, sister, and brother. They needed my support and I had to be there. But when I finally had the chance to focus on my own grief, my mother got sick. My husband says it’s time for me to focus on myself."
2. "I’m a spiritual person and I know that death is inevitable. I just didn’t think that losing a parent would be so hard. I knew I would have sadness… but the anxiety doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve always been a strong, independent and controlled woman that hasn’t allowed any set back to get to me. I want to get this anxiety under control."
3. "I think I need to understand where all this anxiety is coming from. Why it's happening. How can I manage it without medication? Exercising helps some but it seems that when I get anxious, my mind races. Then, I become even more anxious. It’s a vicious cycle that I need some relief from so I can be back to my old self."
4 . "As you can see from answering all of those questions, I’m open to this process. I understand what counseling is about. It helped my husband and I in the past. I’m glad to be here to try and work through all of this stuff in my life. Honestly, I don’t know where to begin in counseling. As I listened to the questions and tried to honestly answer them, I thought to myself, “I’ve been a caregiver all my life and that’s my role and why I became a teacher, why I take care of my mom and brother, and I don’t think that’s a bad way to live. I want to be known as a loving daughter, sister, friend, wife, and educator but I’m not sure where I fit into this equation. I’ve been doing this so long, I’m not quite sure why I have anxiety every day. It just doesn’t make sense to me.""
