Case study: Malcom
I was asked to see Malcom by the nursing staff on his ward as he was being difficult and refusing treatment. I was working as a counselor for an MS society and I visited Malcom in hospital where he was receiving treatment for pressure sores. His MS confines him to a wheelchair. We established how helpless he feels when the nurses handled him without asking his permission or including him. He felt ‘treated like a piece of machinery not a person’ . Over several visits we spoke about his wish to be out of hospital and to have a girlfriend. The content of these sessions was confused, moving backward and forward, and I found Egan’s stages helpful to maintain an overview of what was going on. I thought he would say anything to keep me visiting on the pretext to other patients and staff that I was his girlfriend, and I shared my discomfort. In confronting him with this, we were able to move on to his admitting that he often did this with young female nurses, fantasizing that they were caring for him because they loved him rather than because it was their role. He expressed his jealousy towards the male nurses who bantered with his chosen nurse, and other such feelings. I wondered as Malcom was referred to me by the nurses whether he wanted counseling and when he admitted that he did not we looked at what he did want. His main aim was to get a girlfriend and be as ‘normal’ as possible and I put him in contact with the local MS society branch for social contact outside the hospital.
Using Gestalt
I find Gestalt helpful in bringing into focus the here and now when clients get stuck in the past. The ‘moving on’ skills of the empty chair technique are useful. In my personal experience I had a choking sensation following the death of John, an MND client. I received the news that he had died unexpectedly by a written message handed to me in a busy reception office. I wanted to mourn him but there was no time or place for this in a Social Services office. I suppressed the feeling and could not bring it up, hence the choking feelings. Using the empty chair I was able to say goodbye and cry for him. I know I was also crying for myself and the feelings around my grandfather’s unexpected death.
Using life span development
The counseling course helped me broaden my horizons in ways of looking at life. Life span development as put forward by Sugarman (1986) helped me realize that many of the issues and concerns brought to therapists by elderly people are common to those brought by disable clients. They are experiencing a continuation of losses that may be experienced by any of us in earlier life. The life span development concept helps foster the attitude that we all have issues in common at different stages of our lives, that we share common ground which breaks down the ‘them and us’ barrier that sometimes separates clients and therapists.
My frustration is having the potential but not the opportunity to help. Clients’ practical needs have to take priority as it is essential to make someone as physically safe as they want to be. I am limited as to the amount of time I can spend with clients and if I give priority to someone’s emotional needs through counseling, I am reducing the amount of time available to other people. Thus it is rare for me to set up counseling sessions. I become confused wearing the two hats of OT and counselor as to my priorities. In the end I am employed as an OT and pass on client’s needs to other social workers or rarely to counselors through RELATE. Disabled peoples’ needs are often neglected because a worker may not have the time or the skills required. The disable person may not have the income to visit a private counselor or the physical access to one when travelling or the layout of the building makes it impossible.
Disabled persons’ need for counseling is very often neglected. People often do not ask for help unless they know it is available. Perhaps schemes could be established to train clients and volunteers as counselors, to supplement the counseling skills of the professionals. Such schemes would need adequate support and supervision for those involved in the counseling. If such support is neglected, burn-out of the individual may result.
I gained enormously from the Diploma in Counselling Course and recommend that all health-care workers have some from of counseling included in their training. There is a lot of scope in looking at the role of counseling for health-care workers and the needs of disabled clients for counseling support.
Case study: Malcom
I was asked to see Malcom by the nursing staff on his ward as he was being difficult and refusing treatment. I was working as a counselor for an MS society and I visited Malcom in hospital where he was receiving treatment for pressure sores. His MS confines him to a wheelchair. We established how helpless he feels when the nurses handled him without asking his permission or including him. He felt ‘treated like a piece of machinery not a person’ . Over several visits we spoke about his wish to be out of hospital and to have a girlfriend. The content of these sessions was confused, moving backward and forward, and I found Egan’s stages helpful to maintain an overview of what was going on. I thought he would say anything to keep me visiting on the pretext to other patients and staff that I was his girlfriend, and I shared my discomfort. In confronting him with this, we were able to move on to his admitting that he often did this with young female nurses, fantasizing that they were caring for him because they loved him rather than because it was their role. He expressed his jealousy towards the male nurses who bantered with his chosen nurse, and other such feelings. I wondered as Malcom was referred to me by the nurses whether he wanted counseling and when he admitted that he did not we looked at what he did want. His main aim was to get a girlfriend and be as ‘normal’ as possible and I put him in contact with the local MS society branch for social contact outside the hospital.
Using Gestalt
I find Gestalt helpful in bringing into focus the here and now when clients get stuck in the past. The ‘moving on’ skills of the empty chair technique are useful. In my personal experience I had a choking sensation following the death of John, an MND client. I received the news that he had died unexpectedly by a written message handed to me in a busy reception office. I wanted to mourn him but there was no time or place for this in a Social Services office. I suppressed the feeling and could not bring it up, hence the choking feelings. Using the empty chair I was able to say goodbye and cry for him. I know I was also crying for myself and the feelings around my grandfather’s unexpected death.
Using life span development
The counseling course helped me broaden my horizons in ways of looking at life. Life span development as put forward by Sugarman (1986) helped me realize that many of the issues and concerns brought to therapists by elderly people are common to those brought by disable clients. They are experiencing a continuation of losses that may be experienced by any of us in earlier life. The life span development concept helps foster the attitude that we all have issues in common at different stages of our lives, that we share common ground which breaks down the ‘them and us’ barrier that sometimes separates clients and therapists.
My frustration is having the potential but not the opportunity to help. Clients’ practical needs have to take priority as it is essential to make someone as physically safe as they want to be. I am limited as to the amount of time I can spend with clients and if I give priority to someone’s emotional needs through counseling, I am reducing the amount of time available to other people. Thus it is rare for me to set up counseling sessions. I become confused wearing the two hats of OT and counselor as to my priorities. In the end I am employed as an OT and pass on client’s needs to other social workers or rarely to counselors through RELATE. Disabled peoples’ needs are often neglected because a worker may not have the time or the skills required. The disable person may not have the income to visit a private counselor or the physical access to one when travelling or the layout of the building makes it impossible.
Disabled persons’ need for counseling is very often neglected. People often do not ask for help unless they know it is available. Perhaps schemes could be established to train clients and volunteers as counselors, to supplement the counseling skills of the professionals. Such schemes would need adequate support and supervision for those involved in the counseling. If such support is neglected, burn-out of the individual may result.
I gained enormously from the Diploma in Counselling Course and recommend that all health-care workers have some from of counseling included in their training. There is a lot of scope in looking at the role of counseling for health-care workers and the needs of disabled clients for counseling support.
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