Interview with a Counselee

This interview was conducted one month after the counseling took place. The counselee was an average high school student who attempted to take suicide by slashing her wrist and cutting her tongue. The counselee informed the author of this paper that she made a suicide attempt due to feelings of abandonment by her family and friends. At present, the student is still undergoing follow-up sessions with the school counselor, and being observed by her class adviser.

During the interview, the student showed some mannerisms of biting her fingers, and narrowing her eyes. She and the author (interviewer) sat in front of each other in a small counseling room. 1. When asked about her thoughts and feelings as she prepared for the counseling experience, the student said that she felt a little nervous that the counselor would get mad at her for attempting suicide. She did not want to open up at first because the counselor was unknown to her.

Although she often saw the counselor in the school whenever she passed by the counseling room and during the orientation for freshmen, she had not come as close to the counselor as that time when she had counseling. Due to unfamiliarity with the counselor, she somehow felt that she could not trust her, and that the counselor would relay her secrets to other people. 2. The counselee also expressed that when she came inside the counseling room, the counselor smiled at her at once, and asked her to sit. The first words that the counselor uttered were, “How are you?
” When the counselor spoke this, the student said she felt appeased that the counselor was not mad at her. She sensed then that the counselor was concerned about her. During the session, the counselor said that she would value whatever the student would share to her, and her feelings are very precious. She also told the student that everything they would talk about would be confidential, and as long as the counselee promises never to do the attempt again, the counselor would not inform her parents of what the student shared to her.
Because of this, the student said she felt comfortable with the counselor and could not help but to express what she felt and thought that day. In assurance, the counselor said that she could be of help to the counselee if the counselee would allow her to help. In this particular counseling situation, we may note that the counselor was successful in building up rapport between her and the counselee. She did this by expressing that she values the feelings of the counselee (Wexler, as cited in Lambie, 2004 ), and the counselee could trust her with secrets. 3.
As regards the obstacles that hindered the counselee from sharing her experience with the counselor, the counselee commented that due to the friendly approach and concern of the counselor, she felt at ease with her. 4. When asked what she learned about the helping/counseling process after undergoing it, the student said that she was very glad that they have a service like this in school and through this program she realized a couple of things. First, she realized that some people are concerned about her and she could find a friend among them, such as the counselor and other counselors as well.
She also stated that she felt lucky that her school has a friendly and compassionate counselor who would listen to her, without condemning what she did. She also appreciated the fact that the counselor was not grading her for how she performed during the counseling session, and she did not have to be conscious of what she would tell the counselor. In other words, the process made her express her real self and provided her someone whom she felt was concerned. 5.
As we can see, the counseling process that took place was of great help to the student. Through the school counseling program, students like the interviewee in this report are given the attention they need. Just like any counseling process, it is very important for every counselor to listen attentively, offer advice when needed, and make the counselee feel comfortable. In the case of the student, we may say that a lot of students nowadays have a different view of counseling unless they have undergone one.
The misconceptions expressed by the counselee before the session include imagining the counselor getting mad at her, or relaying her secrets to her parents. These are the same examples of how some students view counseling. However, these misconceptions are proven wrong once they encounter the real counseling experience. Reference Lambie, Glenn. Motivational enhancement therapy: A tool for professional school counselors working with adolescents. Professional School Counseling. Retrieved February 1, 2008, from http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0KOC/is_4_7/ai_n6033401