Jessica's Frustration: Battling Unfulfilled Dreams in a CNA Job - Essay Sample

Introduction

The session is with a client named Jessica. Jessica holds a graduate degree in bachelor of psychology, but the work she does is not related to what she pursued. She works as a CNA in hospitals, home health care, and nursing homes. There a couple of things that make her frustrated to the point of feeling like she cannot continue. The first thing she talks about is how unhappy she is in her present job. Cleaning and grooming older adults are something she did not see herself doing at any point in her life. She says that money is good to live by, but it is not enough. The fact that she studied for four years, has written her resume, got opinions and updated it, applied for jobs severally but has not managed to secure a job in any one is confusing for her. Failing to secure a job in positions, she was positive she would get resulted in self-doubt. She feels like she is unworthy or not meant for upper-level employment. She wishes to enjoy working 8 hours a day rather than her usual, which range between 12-16 hours. He overall, unhappiness has started to affect her performance in her current job. She seeks career fulfillment and feels that if she got a job related to psychology, she would really exploit her full potential and be happy as well. Sometimes, she has been offered a lesser pay in interviews she has attended. Jessica expresses that she does not want crumbs but the whole bread. The pressure has made her fell, which has resulted in depression. She takes it out on family and friends whom she describes as they do not understand what she is going through since they have excellent jobs and get pay their bills when due. Her depression has made her bed-bound, not want to go out and laze on cleaning up. All her problems are career-related.

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Strengths and Challenges

From my point of view, the session had several strengths. The Client and I both were drawn in during the session. I also empowered the client to lead the dialog with which we managed to keep an eye to eye contact. This affected in that she felt I was listening. Head nods, asking for clarification and summarizing were imperative. The client feeling that I understood her only because I was a counselor and lacking a response to that was one of the challenges. I did not expect such a question. Other challenges are distractions affect me in that I lost a train of thoughts when the phone rang, and my failure to give a summary of what I understood but instead started with statements like, "Ok so what I am understanding is."

Skills Used

The skills that I used were summary, the reflection of feelings, confrontation, and a combination of reflection of feelings and summary. The use of summary in the session helped me to clarify the emotions that the client was trying to express, it helped me put focus when the client expressed feeling and points that there were scattered, helped me review the session to be at par with the client, and helped the session move forward. When summarizing I tailed towards the end, that is, I let the client know where ae almost ending by asking if there is something else that she wanted to cover. I used a reflection of feelings to approve what my client was feeling. Endorsing what my client felt was a way to show her that no matter what she said, her opinions are acceptable. This was of assistance to her in that she felt some relief, thus ease in combating what she was going through. This skill also made my client feel that I understood and listened to her. Reflection of feelings made my client aware of emotions that she discerned. A challenge of this skill is that my client felt that I understood her not because I have been in her situation personally but because it is expected of me in my line of profession. The confrontation was a skill I intended to bring forth something that my client overlooked, but it somewhat seemed like I was challenging her.

Next Session

The next possible direction I will take in the next session is a reflection of feelings to know whether the client feels what she felt earlier or has a new perception of feelings that resulted from the previous session. The session's goal is to help find a solution and create a desired attitude and aptitudes.

Theoretical Orientation

I believe I showed a strong theoretical orientation. A humanistic approach to counseling is the one I used. Considering my client's information, the problems that she was undergoing were caused by the way she experienced and responded to them. Many people have career problems but the way a person experiences the situation is what makes a difference.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the unhappiness or rather the psychological discomfort was a result of negative responses she received from interviews, family, and friends. Confidence and self-esteem are aptitudes that I should influence in the next session.