My Work As A Recovery Consultant At A Family Drug Court

In my work as a recovery consultant in a family drug court, we work with very high stakes, a strict timeline and defined boundaries. As a result, I am a very systematic person and don 't usually have the space to build the type of therapeutic alliance that other clinicians have the luxury of doing. This assignment allowed me to reflect more than I usually would on my self-presentation and process as an interviewer. My goal with this reflection paper is to examine areas of my practice that need improvement, identify my strengths and purposeful consider ways that I can be more grounded, epithetic and deliberate in my practice.

As an interviewer I presented myself as warm and professional. From the very opening statement, my goal was to build

The first example of empathy that I used (in the interview) was when my client first discussed her ambivalence about voicing her concerns about Jake’s behavior with her fiancé Steve. When Alma began to describe her concerns, I immediately started to relate to her. I was just recently married and I have a stepson around the age of the Jake. I began to think about how I might feel if I was going through a similar issue as Alma. In this clip I would give my response a four. I give this clip a four because; this was a missed opportunity for me to explore exactly why Alma had concerns with talking to Steve about Jake’s behavior. During the interview when I asked Alma to identify the problem that brought her to therapy, her strained relationship with Steve’s son was the first thing she mentioned which was later identified as her main source of stress. Although Alma didn’t explore exactly what her concerns were about talking to Steve were I believe my response to Alma’s concerns created a safe place for her to talk about how she felt without the fear of judgment. This direction allowed Alma to open up more about the details of Jake’s behavior. The second example of empathy used in this interview was when I tried to help Alma identify what coping skills she already employed to help her get through times when Jake is displaying the behaviors that she is describing. I

During the interview I asked Alma to describe to me the problem that brought her to my organization. I think this question gave the client a space to vent her concerns and feelings but also helped us to isolate exactly what the problem was. This definitely helped move the conversation from a surface discussion to a deeper exploration of the problem. Since Alma stated that she didn’t have anyone else to talk to about this issue, I think giving her the space to vent all of her frustrations was an important first step in the progression of this interview. The second example of question formulation while in the interview was the closed ended question I asked Alma regarding identifying the problem. I decided to ask a closed ended question regarding the problem because it allowed me to first practice reflective listening, summarizing what I heard the client discuss as issues and lastly, helping her to concretely identify the problem that she would like to address in our sessions. I do believe that this type of questioning was effective in the session with Alma. My goal with using closed ended questions was to help us identify the problem and to help us set up a timeline and goals for the client’s future sessions. The one thing I would like to change in my future session with this client is to give her the opportunity to explore the problem more; this would include me asking her