Question

Discuss the stages of the counseling process when working with hypothetical client Nancy, a 12-year-old adolescent who was recently adopted from the foster care system and is having difficulties with her new younger siblings.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Firstly, it has to be considered that Nancy is in a state of transition. This means that the focus should not only be on getting her adjusted to a new life but, also to make sure that she has come to terms with her past. This would ensure that it is perhaps only a matter of nervousness or being shy that is causing her to take time to adjust.

Nancy needs to have various sessions in talk therapy. The number of sessions would be generally dependant on whether or not she has had a traumatic past that has brought her to this stage in her life.

Hopefully, if Nancy has not had too many bad experiences, the therapist could encourage her and the new siblings to conduct exercises where they got to know each other more. Perhaps the therapist could ask Nancy to talk to her new siblings about their lives and ask her to write a paragraph on each one of them. This exercise might make her talk to her new siblings dutifully since the exercise seems more like a homework assignment. However, upon actually taking up the project, Nancy might realise that she actually knows more about them than when she began. Such an exercise might take away a sense of shyness.

If Nancy’s circumstances have been unfortunate and she has had bad life experiences, it would be essential for the therapist to explore those instances and evaluate any damage that it may have done on Nancy. The therapist would have to give future sessions with Nancy direction, based on this evaluation.

Eventually, the therapist could even have a session where Nancy and her siblings are called together to simply share anecdotes or personal details about each other. Once Nancy is familiar with these children who are just like her in many ways, it might be fairly simple for her to establish strong relationships with them.

Once the past and the present situation is grasped well, it would be a lot less overwhelming for Nancy to leave her past behind and look positively towards her future with her new family at foster care.