Concelling

Unit 2 Module 1

Unit 2. Working with a clients past.

Bradley Morrison

1700 word count.

Second day of the second year Chrysalis course on the 18th February 2017 based at the Holiday Inn

Express in the centre of Dundee, at 10am sharp. As I drove in to Dundee to find the hotel was feeling

very low and sore. I was struggling today head was really sore, neck and shoulder was also sore to

the point I could hardly move my arm. My drive in took a lot longer. I also found it harder to get into

the parking garage with the tight corners but managed ok and parked out the way of other cars.

Walked down the ramp and walked into Dawn who took one look at me and asked “why are you

here?”. I told her I was better there, rather than being at home sitting doing nothing, at least I was

going to take something in. The course started at ten am on the dot with Maggie who also asked if I

was ok and should I be there.

1. Identify aspects of the clients past relevant to their presenting issues.

We went over again a brief look at Carl Rodgers and person centred counselling to help keep our

minds fresh and remember the one of the main people who started counselling but in this when you

are with the client usually with in the first session, your client will refer to their personal and

psychological history. We as the therapist are there to determine the possible type and amount of

energy that will be needed to be spent upon exploration, uncovering and resolution of elements of

that history. This will need to be open ended as it maybe different from session to session because

these sessions are client led and their thoughts and engages with change.

We as the therapist have to take a mental note as there past issues are first raised by the client, the

client is the first to bring up what comes into their mind when speaking about the past influences

upon their presenting issues.

This could be:-

• The date when they first started to employ a behaviour or
• A detailed story about there childhood and their relationship with there parents, siblings, peers and teachers and as of consequence the relationship they have with themselves.

It is up to you as the counsellor but you have to be mindful of how you are to conduct your sessions.

We need to know what techniques may be employed and how much time we spend on those

exploring with your client their past issues.

It is important to have an overall intuitive approach when listening to your clients personal history.

E.g. the client may have talked about there mother for 20 minutes but never mentioned their father,

we need to note this because the client may  feel his father isn’t important to the presenting issues

or is it because he is the problem. We learnt that when your client comes to you as a counsellor you

have to be aware that the client often talk about something else first before they come to the

underlying reason they are there.

The information we need to help the client is an overall general understanding of your clients past

History and to do this we need to build rapport to the client. We need  to gain an initial idea of what

areas of your clients past need exploration and therapeutic work. Thing of a treatment plan over all

the next sessions and what those sessions are likely to address.

The questions we need to know are there consciousness of their past and it’s effect on there

presenting ​issues i.e

• Is your Client themselves conscious of their past?
• Do they feel bound and shackled by their past and are they unable to move on with there future
• Do they have ‘whats done is done' attitude and not willing to revisit old sounds
• Do they wish to explore their past histories or are they inclined to avoid these issues
• How do they think their past is affecting their presenting issue

A good understanding of your clients attitudes to their past is needed to assist them in recovery.

1.2 Review own approach to working with the client to further investigate the presenting issues.

I felt this bit hard because all I could do on the day was active listening which is a main part to

counselling but I felt I had let my triad colleagues down because of the pain I was in. I feel after reading

more on counselling that I have to skill set that is needed but it is going to take some time and allot

of reading and help from others to be able to go out on my own, but then I remember it’s only the

second time we have been in. At the moment i am torn between the three commonly practised

approaches which are:-

• Psychodynamic
• Humanistic
• Behavioural

All three have strengths and limitations which is lucky as the first one on the list is the process we

worked on this Saturday.

2.1 Evaluate the strengths and limitations of the psychodynamic approach.

Psychodynamic counselling evolved  from the work of Sigmund Freud (1856_1939). Were during his

career as a medical doctor. Freud came across many patients who suffered from medical conditions

which appeared to have no physical cause. This led him to believe that the origin of such illness lay

in the unconscious mind of the patient. Freud’s work investigated the unconscious mind in order to

understand his patients assist in their healing.

Over time many of Freud’s original ideas have been adopted, developed, disregarded or even

discredited bring different schools of thought. However psychodynamic counselling is based on

Freud’s idea that true knowledge of people and there problems is possible through an

understanding of particular areas of the human mind. These areas are:-

• Unconscious – or subconscious material which cannot be brought into consolidated awareness.
• Preconscious – material that is not currently in conscious awareness but can be brought to that level easily. E.g. contents of memory.
• Conscious – the current contents of the conscious mind. E.g. you are aware that you are reading this line of text or feelings, emotions, anger.

Freud’s  main interest and aim was to bring things from the unconscious into conscious. This

practice is known as psychoanalysis. Freud also maintained that the personality consists of three

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