7-1 submission cou 540
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School
Southern New Hampshire University *
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Course
540
Subject
Communications
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
4
Uploaded by indirajones513
Self-care to me is identified as ensuring my cup is filled mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically outside of my everyday titles. Often times it’s easy for me to hide behind the title or identity of a teacher, mother, wife, sister, aunty, graduate student, life coach, and the list continues. In doing so I forget about the most important identity which is simply being me. In this season of my life self-care is making sure I don’t forget about myself, as well as
ensuring that I’m intentional about taking care of myself in a preventative manner opposed to only after I’ve reached the overwhelming state. As I continue through the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program my self-care plan entails giving myself grace, as I put an insane amount of pressure on myself on striving in school. Grace would look accepting that every assignment will not be done a week advance, and that’s okay. My plan also includes dedicating uninterrupted daily alone time to show up for myself before showing up for the world, incorporating more things that I love into my daily routine such as listening to praise and worship, karaoke in the car,
and dates to the gym. Most importantly as I continue through the program my continued self-care
plan will no longer go on pause at the cost of depleting my mental, emotional, and physical health due to the ease of pausing my routine opposed to pausing my life. At the beginning of the term, I was completely oblivious to what micro-skills are, how to identify them, let alone apply them within a practice activity. I spent the beginning of the term ensuring that my informed consent was correct that by the time it was time to apply the micro-skills I could only remember non-verbals. So, my practice clinic consisted of reading the informed consent off my ipad, a lot of head nods, and winging the rest. In the process of faking, it till I make it; I learned that I was making it; however, I wasn’t sure how. The micro-skills were being applied yet unintentionally and it felt like I was a fraud to my clients as I put on a white coat like I was a doctor, in all actuality I was a nurse. Residency is when my imposter syndrome
started to subside as we learned how to intentionally apply our micro-skills as opposed to treating them like a task on a to do list. Having the opportunity to practice in the role of both the counselor and client in a fishbowl setting and small group setting instilled confidence and incorporating micro-skills became more natural. During Residency my CDCS scores reflected a numerical score of “2” which indicates that “the student effectively demonstrates the skill with varied consistency and instruction which meets the goal for residency yet not personal goal which is to obtain a numerical score “3”. My counseling disposition and behavior score is similar
however I scored a 1 in awareness of impact on others. Since Residency I have evolved in a multitude of ways starting with becoming more aware of my presence in class related settings. Although I’m still navigating how to shine bright while not blinding others my awareness is improving. My ability to apply the micro-skills in a natural way has come with ease as well as reciting the informed consent making it easier to wear the white coat opposed to feeling like a nurse imposter.
My professional goals are to open my own practice where I specialize in structured family counseling, as well as childhood trauma for women and families of color. I will
also house other therapist that have different specialties such as adolescents, couples, and more to work with clients. The goal is to create a safe space for women, and families of color to bridge
the gap of who they are and who they want to become through the healing of trauma. In doing so
my company will go on sold out arena tours where a team of BAC (Bad a** Counselors) are on stage promoting, and providing healing and changing the narrative within cultures. In order to make these goals along with other goals a reality it requires me to work in a private practice setting. A private practice indicates that one is working independently or as a small group in a direct one on one setting. Having a private practice allows me to control my schedule along with
the clients my team and I will see along with the fees that we charge. Within my life coaching business Brown Girls Heal Movement (BGH) we host yearly trauma healing events, annual retreats, and quarterly trauma healing tours. After obtaining my license I still want to incorporate these practices along with one on one counseling working in a private practice setting will allow me the ability to do both. Along with having my own practice my professional goal is to open a community center for young girls in middle school through high school where I offer free one on
one counseling services. Working in a private practice setting gives me the ability to control my schedule which not only allows me to continue my tradition of tours, events, and retreats, but as well as being present for young girls who are where I once was in life.
When reviewing the different dispositional characteristics that contributes to one being a good counselor it ignites an eternal goal to embody these characteristics effortlessly one day as the professors did at Residency. One of the dispositional characteristics that is highlighted as my area of growth is awareness of own impact on others. This area of growth originates from having a personality identified as very bright but ensuring that my brightness isn’t dimmed while
still not blinding others. I plan to focus’s on this area of growth by being intentional and aware of
my presence in both class related activities and interactions. I also plan on developing my dispositional characteristics by utilizing the S.M.A.R.T goal method. For example, I will develop
my professional ethical characteristic by reading the ACA Code of Ethics weekly to ensure I’m adhering to ethical codes before obtaining my license.
While working in the professional counseling field there are a few considerations that I will need to make regarding my client's culture as well as mine. Although my intended clientele come from a similar culture as me it’s imperative not to assume due to our outer similarities. In considering my culture I need to consider things such as meanings, attitudes,
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religions, roles, and hierarchies. For example within my culture the role of a woman is more than
a homemaker whereas someone else’s culture a woman’s role may only be a homemaker. If allowed my ignorance to be apart of my counseling identity I would offend clients often. My cultural ideologies are not going to be identical to my clients, they may be similar, and more than
often they may differ. As a counselor it is my priority to be aware of my own assumptions, attempt to understand the perspective of those who are culturally different in a non-judgmental way. As well as develop appropriate and relevant skills and intervention strategies that best align with my culturally different clientele.