Mental Health - Treatment Plan #2

This week I got another great opportunity to counsel a student about a problem they were facing. The counseling occurred sporadically and I had little time to prepare for it. The student had ADHD and was not very organized. It took a bit of time to understand what problem the student was willing to discuss with me. At first it appeared to be about a teacher, but it soon developed into concerns with homework. We examined possible causes for the homework problem and the student attributed the problem as a result of the teacher's failure to communicate. We then explored other concerns that the student had about homework, including when homework is generally completed and whether the information was difficult or simply too much. The student expressed that the subject matter came easily to them, but that the assignments were not explained well. After the counseling experience, I created a treatment plan that I am hoping will be beneficial to them.

It was difficult to help this student because they were all over the place. In my previous counseling experience, I needed to spend time letting the student develop their own perspective on the topic. However, in this situation, the student needed much more guidance and focus. It supports the perspective that a single therapy technique will not work with all students. My supervisor listened again to this counseling session and made another great recommendation. She recommended that when a student is all over the place that I can say "I'm sorry, I'm confused, you were saying ____." This would allow the student to understand when they are losing their focus and it also helps bring the conversation back to perspective.

Another interesting thing that I did not expect to happen this week was an opportunity to participate in a counseling group. My supervisor talked with a social worker at the school and asked whether I could participate in a weekly counseling group with her. I have not been informed about what the topic will be, but I will be meeting with the group once a week for about 45 minutes. We have not discussed too much about group counseling in this class, but I am certain I will be able to use some of the techniques I have learned this quarter. It sounds like it will be great experience for me.

For both of the counseling cases I have been examining over the last two weeks, I have been using the Treatment Planner Guide that we were required to get for class. This treatment guide is extremely helpful because it has suggestions for a number of categories with unique suggestions within each category. At first I was skeptical about using a preordained group of strategies, but I have found that many of the strategies are general enough to be adapted to individual situations. The most helpful thing about this book is that it creates triggers for effective brainstorming. I have found it most effective to combine multiple strategies and create a treatment plan with the strategies appropriate for the situation. There is a Homework Planner that I do not have that goes along with this book which might be interesting to purchase at some point as well.