Last night, I saw four new clients. All presenting with different conditions. Two of them in their teens (sisters) and severely hindered by mental and possible physical maltreatment. Their trust of others has been severely impacted for obvious reasons. I am going to have to approach the way I counsel them in a very different and cautious manner. First, I will establish a sound therapeutic relationship. I will include a lot of validation as I was advised to do during debriefing by my counseling supervisor and colleagues. Perhaps employing more non-talkactive measures like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) or even Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). The maternal grandmother has custody of the sisters. The sisters are evidently enraged at the world for the bad things that have happened to them, and the girls spare no animosity toward their grandmother - blaming her, too, for their negative life experiences these past five years. I have my hands full with these two, but hey, I did not decide on a career in counseling because it would be easy. Conversely, I have spent much time and beaucoup money on grad school to pursue this passion I have for counseling and helping others. Nowhere in the APA or ACA Code of Ethics or Principles of Counseling did it promise that counseling would be easy. Easy? NO! . . . Rewarding? Heck YES!
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