Case Study: counseling foundation

Michelle is a second-year counseling student with a 3.45 GPA. Earlier in her program, she reported to her faculty that she was having some struggles with her diagnosis and assessment class. Mainly, she stated that she was struggling to find time to study for the quizzes and, hence, was rapidly losing points. She reached out and called her faculty to receive support to help improve her grade. Her faculty gave her feedback regarding her case conceptualization skills and her need to take the time to review all faculty feedback for implementation in her upcoming assignments. Although disappointed, she agreed that she was not taking the necessary time to review her feedback or study for her quizzes due to “life stress.” She accepted and implemented the faculty feedback accordingly. However, Michelle continued to struggle with her time management and was also lacking in her self-care. Despite feeling she was “fine,” her faculty, parents, and significant other noted her struggle with taking on too much and told her it was negatively impacting her in several ways.

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Michelle later reported to her faculty that she struggled in her multicultural counseling course. On one occasion, her faculty inquired with her about exploring her biases regarding gender roles. Michelle shared in her class discussion that she believes women should always be the main caretaker of children, family, and home while working at a distinguished career, and that the needs of others should always come before her own, as this was, in her opinion, “a true caregiver and counselor.” Feeling initially defensive of her faculty’s feedback, she reached out to her faculty for clarification using a professional and respectful tone. On a phone call with faculty, Michelle developed an awareness of her gender role bias and the need to continue reflecting on her contextual and cultural competency. “I see how my views of a woman’s gender roles are not for everyone,” she said. However, she continued to struggle with work–life balance, which was noted in her inability to study, review feedback, implement course resources, and manage her personal stress.

Her struggle continued as Michelle began an internship. She reported never taking anything “off her plate” but simply adding more. Michelle began to submit application assignments and discussion responses after the required deadlines and was occasionally late to her frequent internship site meetings with clients, staff, and her supervisor. In Week 3 of her field experience at her internship site, Michelle received feedback from her site supervisor stating that she needed to be on time each day and that being late is an inconvenience to the clients and her supervisor. Michelle felt frustrated and anxious initially, but she also realized she needed to remain professional and resolve this conflict with her site supervisor. Additionally, despite fear of “failure,” Michelle wanted to ensure her site supervisor knew that she valued her opinions and perceptions of her performance. Michelle told her site supervisor that she recognized the lack of engagement and believed it was because she felt overwhelmed by her busy schedule and the multiple roles and responsibilities she was juggling with work, home life, and school. The site supervisor suggested that Michelle should incorporate self-care and wellness strategies. Together, they developed a plan of action to help Michelle manage her daily stress, emotional frustration, and work–life balance. Michelle agreed to be accountable to the plan they developed, which incorporated the ACA Code of Ethics and CACREP Standards for counselors-in-training. Michelle started her self-care plan by reviewing Standard F.5.b., “Impairment” in the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics and by understanding that she must incorporate self-care activities to prevent impairment. Next, Michelle defined those activities in supervision and began to integrate them in her personal and professional lives by removing her volunteer service, saying “no” to friends and family who asked her to help them with “trivial” requests, and hiring a housecleaner to come to help her out once a month. In addition, she used activities such as exercise, healthy eating, adequate sleep, and recreational playtime with her children. Finally, she included 10 minutes of daily meditation to build on her self-reflection toward understanding her deeper beliefs, ideas, and feelings.

In her final Internship quarter, Michelle had a proactive stress mitigation plan that included elements of time management, self-care, healthy boundaries, and managing her self-reported perfectionistic ideologies that led her to feeling as though she needed to be “superwoman.” She remained accountable by inquiring with faculty, supervisors, and colleagues periodically for feedback on her skills, knowledge, and dispositions. As a result, she was able to graduate with success with a healthy plan for transitioning from graduate school to competent counseling practice.

Discussion:

The School of Counseling’s Key Professional Dispositions inform students of the expectations of competencies for evaluation of their performance. Michelle faced some challenges along the way with a lack of self-awareness, time management, and self-care. At times, Michelle struggled with emotions and internal thoughts of needing to “do it all” and be “perfect.” However, her drive to be the best counselor she could be helped her grow through relationships with her faculty and supervisors. Michelle was able to not only overcome the obstacles, but to be an ethical and competent professional counselor. She recognized her need to seek support when she felt overwhelmed and was lacking in areas. Overall, her behaviors demonstrated the expected competencies as outlined in the School of Counseling’s Key Professional Dispositions.

Case Study: counseling foundation