wwek4Meaning-Making Forum 1
arnita
week4mmfpaco500.rtfMeaning-Making Forum 1 (week 4)
PACO500
JUNE 15, 2018
JA'NAE MCDUFFIE
Ministry Context
· I do not work in a church setting at this time, and my only experience in the church setting was as a Praise and Worship leader, as well as a praise dancer. Currently, I am a stated employed Social Worker for Child Protective Services. More specifically, I am a front line investigator, esponsible for initiating, assessing, and making a case decison for all report case of child abuse. With my years of experience working with families in crisis, the area of ministry I would like to serve in, is Christian Family Counseling. The careseeker in the case study I chose is the father, Bruce. Although, at this point, Bruce's level of connection in relationship to God and his involvement with church has not been esablished, the church setting would be suitable for couseling Bruce.
Guiding Purpose Statement
· The main goal for all Christians is to live a life, seeking to imitate Christ. In a relational context (given Bruce's background), a focal point to consider and to help connect Bruce and the Counselor, is acknowledgment that Jesus is at the center all thigs. As a pastoral counselor, the nine guiding assumptions (Kollar 2015) will be key in the entire process of counseling bruce.
Rapport and Relational Alignment
· In order for the counseling process to be of any succes, building rapport with Bruce is the most important factor. Bruce's invitation to the couselor, is dependent up Bruce's level of comfort and trust gained with the counselor. The skills and techniques of being a good listener (Peteresen 2015) will allow for Bruce to feel that the counselor really cares about Bruce as a person, and not just his problems. This is not a matter of building friendship, rather an opprtunity for Bruce to feel that he can communicate his deepest truths with the counseler, without the fear of judement being passed by the counselor. Bruce's DISC profile appears to fall into the "D/I" or "I/D" Personality type. Bruce is success driven, and seems to relate from a distance (Carbonell 2008). Bruce takes on the roles of superiority, which effects his ability to connect to people the way 'they' would like for him to connect, however, Bruce wants his efforts to show love. I belive the interpersonal communication technique of active listening will help to overcome my communication trap of passive listening, by forcing me to take a step back in my excitment to share personal stories with Bruce. Taking this step will help me connect with Bruce on a deeper level for better understanding of his purpose. This will increase my ability to actively listen with empathy, genuiness, and graciousness. Bruce's choice to seek counseling may be due to his high level of mixed emoions; anger, hurt, confusion, etc. Theses mixed emotions may lead Bruce to initially be in a position ovf blaming.I will shift my relational style to align with Bruce's, by being catious of my "neutral tendies," so that Bruce does not feel disconnected from me.
Phase One distinctive features
· Purpose- The most important part of phase one is to get Bruce's present story, or "portrait" (Clinton & Hawkins, 2009). This is done by the counselor building rapport and cultaving a context for change for Buce; which will aid in both the counselor and Bruce, together, being able to assess and agree upon a desired boundary to accomplish the goals.
· Goal- The goal in working with Bruce is to get a full descrition of what he belives the problem is. The is a time where Bruce should do a majority of the talking, while still receiving proper egagement fromt he counselor, to assure Bruce that he is "being heard" (Petersen, 2007).
· Cheif Aim- the chief aim is to actively listen in order to fully understand the problem description. Good active listening "mirrors or paraphrases back to the speaker what he has just said", thus confirming for Bruce that he has "been heard," (Kollar 2011).
· Responsibility/Role-It is the responsibility of the counselor to build rapport and shift relational styles, in order to best aslign with Bruces style and behavioral position. The counselor should pay attetion to Bruce's body language, his tone and pitch of voice, and change in emotion; and respond accordingly.
· Guiding Assumptions- The counselor is also responsible for suggesting truth based principles that provide direction for Bruce. Kollar provides nine guiding assumptions, essential for successful counseling, on page 63. In phase one, the most important guiding assumtions are for the couselor to recognize that God is already active in Bruce, that Bruce is not the proble, the problem is the problem, and that the counseling relationship is positional (Kollar 2011).
Phase One Marker
· A marker that would indicate that I have been invited into Bruce's story, would be when the Bruce, in his own way, asks the counselor for help or for a suggestion regarding choices that Bruce can make toward chang. Bruce has to show that he has felt heard, and understood, and that he is finally comfortable to invite the counselor into his world. Bruce can show this by verbally asking for help, or signaling through the form of silence or even by making eye contact.
Food for Thought
· The counselor is prompted to actively listen to both, the Holy Spirit and counselee (SbStPC Handout). Active listening is important, becasue often the counselor is considerably the "first responder" to a broken person or family. Most of what the Triage and Referral links talked about what to do when a pastoral counselor recognizes that other community resources become necessary. This means that as a first responder, a pastor counselor can assess the prescence, through active listening, of mental health, family crisis's, abuse, or even domestic violence. These are some examples that would deem it necessary for the counselor to offer (refer) the counselee for the involvement of a mental health professional. The tricky part about this is for the proper introduction for further assistance for the counselee, without making them feel that they are "crazy" or that the counselor is not fit to work with the counselee. The end goal is to properally address and resolve the concerns of the counselee, even if that means making referrals for outside profesional agencies.
