Portfolio on Counselling Observation

Client's Particulars Name: Nokuthula Ndlovu Date of Birth: 14 February 1968 sex: Female Marital Status: Married Occupational status: Vendor - selling vegetables Employment status: Not employed Standard of education: 'O' Level Residential address: 70369 Phelandaba, Bulawayo Referral agent: Media - radio 1. 2 Referral Details Musasa Project has some radio programs where they inform the public on a variety of issues pertaining to Gender Based Violence with an emphasis on domestic violence. These programs are normally question and answer sessions and a lot of information is disseminated.

Some of the issues discussed are the domestic violence act and how it is used as an instrument in dealing with domestic violence cases especially at the Police stations and at the courts. Accessing the protection orders is also run down for the public, and many more issues. At the end of the program a representative from Musasa gives the listeners the physical address, telephone numbers and hours of business and invites them to visit the offices for more information. This particular client said that she had listened to a p keep of the children and the right to have part of the property owned by a couple shared in the event of a divorce.What caught her attention was the fact that Musasa works with other organizations in their endeavor to give the clients a full package of the service including legal assistance for free.

The client had told herself that she was not going to fight her husband at all because she had no money to pay a lawyer so she was going to take whatever the husband gives her. 1. 3. Genogram for Nokuthula Ndlovu 1.

4. SESSION 1 The Joining stage The trainee counselor observed the counselor preparing the room for the session. She opened the windows and the room was well ventilated and bright.The counseling chairs were set in such a way that the counselor and the client were facing each other. The counselor was called by reception to say there is a client in the waiting room. The counselor fixed the room getting rid of scrap paper that was lying around and closed all files on the desk.

The counselor went to the waiting room and greeted the client and showed her into the counseling room. After they had sat down she greeted the client again and welcomed her to Musasa, and then introduced herself to the client.The client quickly intercepted and introduced herself to the counselor and wanted to start on her problem. Politely the counselor asked the client for permission to first introduce the trainee counselor and request for permission for the trainee to attend the counseling session. The client had no problem with that. The counselor then informed the client that she is a counselor at Musasa and elaborated on a credentials that she holds a degree in counseling from ZOU and a certificate in Systemic counseling from Contact Family Counseling Centre.

The counselor then requested some personal details from the client, full name, ID umber and home address and explained that these are for recording of statistics for the donor and it does not mean that her problems will be made public or shared. While doing all this, the counselor was smiling and having light conversation with the client on the hot whether and keeping eye contact. The counselor proceeded to explain the issue of confidentiality and its limits, time to be spent in the session and the referral process.Permission to take down notes during the session was sought and the client wanted to know where those notes will be taken to and the counselor xplained that the notes are for her to keep abreast with what the client is saying.

Presenting of problems The client who is 42 years old woman and has been married to a 65 year old man for the past 18 years with 4 children presented her problem as follows: Husband out of the country in Canada and has stopped supporting the children who are all of school going age.First daughter is in Form 5, second son is in Form 3, third daughter is in Form 1 and forth daughter is in grade 5. Husband has sent divorce papers to the wife and reasons given for the divorce was that he wants to be free and have Husband wanted children to live a high class life and now the wife has no means of maintaining that kind of life and this is frustrating the children. Client is HIV positive and has not told the children because she is not sure how they would take it.

She is not sure how to tell them and any other member of her family.Summary After the session the counselor and trainee counselor had a debriefing on the session. The trainee counselor was given the opportunity to analyze the session. The trainee counselor felt that the Joining stage was handled very well and rapport as built with the client but felt that too much time was taken in general talk.

The counselor explained that that was a good observation but with this particular client it was necessitated by the fact that the client was very tense and needed to be relaxed and the counselor was observing the shift, which took longer than normal.That also gave the counselor time to assess the clients way of thinking and come to her level so as to avoid Judging and advising. Had that not been done the client might have failed to open up leading to failure to get through to her. The trainee counselor had observed that the counselor had introduced herself and disclosed her credentials, which was ethically sound.

The counselor had requested details from the client and explained why she needed them this was all in a bid to win the client's trust in the counselor.