Personal Reflective Essay: A Personal Experience

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By the age of 11, I had been molested by my cousin numerous times, heard my father threaten to drink poison and watched this same “poison-drinking” father hold my mother hostage in a room. These experiences haunted me for years. Upon graduation from college, I spent two years going to a general practitioner, haematologist, gastroenterologist, and an obstetrician and gynecologist to find a prognosis for my persistent nausea, loss of appetite and severe back pain. I missed many celebrations with friends and countless days of work because I felt an overwhelming need to be secluded. My mistrust, fear and anxiety permeated every aspect of my life.
However, like most challenges and triumphs in our lives, those experiences made me who I am today. I was not able to triumph over my mental and emotional challenges without therapy.
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I was relieved when after three rounds of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) during my first therapy session, my back pain—which I had experienced for years—ceased. Given my long history with fear and anxiety, I had an inexplicable interest both in gaining a deeper understanding of how my experiences had impacted me and in helping others who had been in similar or worse situations explore their mental and emotional state in order to achieve mental health, wellness, education, and career goals. That desire was, however hindered by fear — the cornerstone of low self-esteem for many people who grow up in situations like mine. My childhood and positive experience with counseling and mindfulness meditation helped me realize my passion and interest in being a counselor was attainable. Mental and emotional health can have interpersonal, and social impacts; I want to provide evidenced-based mental, emotional and behavioral health interventions within the context of families, communities and larger systems, to children and adolescents. My goal as a licensed counselor will be to develop a collaborative relationship where each client feels empowered to act as an expert in developing effective coping skills, manage anxiety, depression, navigate difficult life transitions, and enhance communication skills and relationships. Reflective practice and self-evaluation will be an intergral part of my practice. This also means being able to set my experiences aside during counseling sessions and allowing the clients goals and needs to take precedence. In order to be well-rounded in my profession, my day-to-day functions will include, assessments, psychological testing, counseling, personality testing, teaching, treatment plans, referrals, coordinate services, case-management, client-family- community education, documentation, professional/ethical responsibilities and advocacy. However, passion and experience are not enough for effective counseling practice and should be supported by theory. Theory gives a framework for integrity between understanding, interpretation and action. While I will employ knowledge of theories by Jean Piaget, Sigmund Freud, Erick Erikson and Urie Bronfenbrenner each theory is flawed to some extent and as such, I plan to utilize a theoretical eclecticism framework facilitation that allows various therapeutic possibilities to be explored as necessary. The focus of my theoretical approach will be holistic, contextual, and multicultural in nature and will focus on helping adolescent clients develop a sense of freedom and choice in defining boundaries in relationships; we will explore each client’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences to explore what kind of life he/she wishes to have, and what barriers prevent him/her from living fully, whether it be loss, trauma, or wounds that haven’t healed. It is critical that children and adolescents challenge their patterns and beliefs and replace cognitive distortions with effective thoughts that decrease emotional distress and self-defeating behavior. Years of research show that the teenage years are very critical and can impact a person’s life trajectory—it is during these years that adolescents become enamored with independence and begin to explore identities based on experimentation. Typically, puberty occurs during this stage, and brings with it a plethora of hormonal, physical and emotional changes that can be confusing and challenging for children who do not have a strong support system. Uncertainty and changes during these sometimes volatile years can strain parent-adolescent relationships, especially when new behaviors become routine and cause problems at school or home, or if emotional instability persists and results in anxiety or depression. To help teenagers and their families navigate this crucial period, I will employ treatment modalities that allow nonverbal expression, such as play therapy, sand tray therapy, art therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy as appropriate. For me, rigidly adhering to

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