Becoming a Better Practitioner

Prerna Mahnot
 Introduction to Field Placement and Role

My field placement is with The Hive Community Circle. The Hive Community Circle works

for the underserved population who are sexually, physically and mentally assaulted. We

provide them with counselling sessions, group therapy, help in housing, grocery,

transportation and advocacy. The main motto over here is that survivors should be helping

other survivors. My role over there is as an intern. I shadow the work of my supervisor, take

the calls and help in building different information pamphlets. During the first 2 months I was

taught how to take calls and fill the correct forms, get back to them with the correct

information regarding different ways that we can provide them with help. After that I started

shadowing the work of my supervisor. She is licensed social worker. There are many therapy

sessions which I have been a part of. I have learnt how to transfer calls, to build rapport and

completed TF-CBT training and currently doing CPT training. Supervisor wants us to get as

many education that we can to make us a better practitioner in the future. As she knows that

this field could be tiresome she helps us in the self-care process also. During the starting she

gave a worksheet for self-care and due to that we were able to find out different methods os

self-care practices.

As I am shadowing the work of my supervisor I didn’t have a client of my own. So I got one

of my acquaintance as my client. We haven’t talked much so I don’t know him very well. He

understands that this would be a role play situation. This would be done in a hospital setting

where he would get services for stress and anxiety. He identifies himself as Indian who is

been living in the States for past 7 years. This year he had various hardships that he had to

overcome like he had bought his own store, had citizenship test, many of his friends had also

left him so this all had provided him stress which was making him anxious.

Client Case Summary

Sunny is a 23 year old male. He is an acquaintance for me. For the past few months he has

been facing some problems and wanted someone who would listen to him. In the past few

month he had bought his own store, had lost some friends due to distance or

misunderstanding, had to give his citizenship interview and had fallen into financial crisis. He

wanted someone to listen to him and make him feel that he is heard and his feelings are

justified. He asked his friends if they knew someone and one of them pointed out me and

through that we began talking and I had built a rapport with him. Before this we hadn’t talked

to each other but knew that we could trust each other due to our friendship with the mutual

person.

Summary of ORS/SRS conclusions

Weeks ORS(A) SRS(B)

1 32 30

2 36 35

3 40 38.8

4 26 40

5 40 40

Chart Title
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5

A B

We could see that Sunny was improving gradually but there was a time when ORS was below

the cut-off which is 25 (according to Duncan 2010). It was because of his external
environment but it increased drastically after he talked which meant that he was able to

improve.

His SRS score showed that I had improved a little and he was happy with my method. His

first week score was 30 but during the following weeks it had improved and I was able to

achieve 40 on the scale.

Client feedback and changes made

Overall, Sunny knew what he wanted and what was disturbing him. The first week his score

was pretty good the main areas where scored low on ORS was Socially and overall because

he had some misunderstandings with his friends which was also affecting his overall

wellbeing. He was open to questions when I asked him. In the SRS he didn’t like my idea of

giving him some exercises for concentration and to make him feel less stressed he felt that it

would distract hi from studying for his own citizenship test. I kept that in mind and thought of

implementing a different strategy that he would also like and at this time the session was

coming to an end so he left.

In the next session we started with me introducing the new strategy where I would give him

some options for him to choose where he would know every options of the same. He liked

this a little better but he didn’t want to think more about it because he felt that some of our

time was gone in discussing different strategies and because of that he wasn’t able to speak

much about the problems in his life.

After that everything was going smoothly we discussed different problems and while talking

he was able to find the answers himself which he liked and appreciated as he didn’t feel that I

was making him choose something which he wasn’t comfortable in. He started enjoying the

sessions and talked a lot about his problems. He had even done his citizenship interview and

he was happy to be a citizen now so he scored everything to 10 on his ORS.

The next week he was a little sad and angry at his friends and brother as he had thrown a

party for himself and none of his closest friends came and none of them congratulated him on

the same. Because of his external environment he scored low on ORS. But after talking with

me he started to see what his friends used to do before and he started connecting dots when I

asked him more about them and how would they usually hangout. After that he thought of

disconnecting himself with them and thought of finding new people who would appreciate

him for his real self. I was happy to see the progress on him. He still had the financial burden

but he thought of ways to overcome it himself.

The last session consisted of us going back to all of our sessions and seeing his progress. It

made him truly happy to see how far he had come and to look at the bright side. He still had

problems going on but now he knew how to overcome it. At first he used to make decisions

when he was angry but now he knows how to make decisions.

He decided to walk whenever he was feeling the upsurge in his emotions as it helped him

calm down. This was what we had done in 2 sessions when we were talking about his

problems and when he was feeling angry at his friends and brother and it helped him calm

down.

Conclusions

Evaluation Process:

Barriers: The main barrier that I had encountered was figuring out a better way to

communicate with him and what he would like. The other barrier that I had encountered was

he didn’t know much about SRS and ORS and has never gone to any setting for psychologist

and therapy sessions. So it was a little difficult for me to explain and in the ORS he was

measuring how he was particularly feeling that day and wasn’t able to see past that.
Implementation: I didn’t have any problems during the process of outcome evaluation and

the SRS because I used to time the conversation and would get enough time for both. This

way I could ensure that I would have enough time to discuss with Sunny about both the

forms.

Benefits: Through the ORS and SRS I was able to see that it was an opportunity for Sunny to

talk more about his feelings and it was beneficial for him. He liked that there was a time in a

week where we could talk about him as he had not experienced that. His ORS score also

showed that his life has improved and his rating in SRS score showed that I was improving

and was able to incorporate his suggestions which he liked.

Identifying lessons learned

I learnt that it is good to be flexible and incorporate any changes that your client might have.

There should be a flexibility in the therapy sessions because at the end we are doing it for the

client and what they would like. A client who knows what he wants from therapy was nice as

it was my first time conducting a session and having a client who knows what he wants was

good. I did not even feel like I had to convince to come to the sessions he was always eager

to come and felt a lot better after talking for weeks and his last session was where he felt the

happiest that he was able to talk to someone.

Sunny told me that he felt better and now he knows his coping mechanisms. He got a better

hold of how to cope with his feelings and how not to take rash decisions.

Self reflection:

As a practitioner I have noticed that at first I was a little scared because it was first for me but

with time I improved. I was always a good listener but I am not much of a talker and in the

session we need both the qualities. It even helped me for the future where I would be

conducting a therapy on a real client and all the learning would come back for me. I saw that
I could change some of my therapy session concepts. I could change some things about

myself for my clients to have a better experience in therapy.

This assignment would help me in my future experience. I learnt that the clients voice also

matters in changing some things in therapy sessions. After all it is for them. SRS and ORS

gave me a chance to fully understand this. I might use SRS and ORS in the future as it helps

the clients to voice out their opinions.