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Holly Weber

Being the Counselor:
Being the counselor going over the results was a little awkward at first, as I wasn’t sure how to initially start reviewing the results with my partner. However, as we continued, I started to feel more comfortable in the role and it started to flow more easily. This could also be due to my partner and I knowing each other and feeling relatively comfortable speaking with one another. It was a good experience going over her results with her and seeing how they aligned with how she perceived her results to be and seeing how they differed. We discussed these perceptions and what that meant to her regarding these specific areas of her life and potentially what she could do in order to feel more in tune to herself and her needs. Overall, as a client she was easy to work with and was open to discussion and feedback. This may not always be the case depending on the assessment and the results and could maybe come as a shock to some people if their results don’t necessarily align with their perception of it.

Being the Client:
Being the client in this situation was definitely the easier job, as all I did was sit back and was prompted by my partner in the discussion of my own results. I think that this assessment was an easier one to discuss with and establish rapport with your clients with as it is fairy light and lets the counselor get to know the client more. I ended up speaking with my partner the “counselor” about many aspects of my life from discussing my results and in turn she got to know me better. Overall, I thought it was a fun lighthearted experience and I enjoyed getting to talk with the “counselor”. It felt more relaxed and less daunting than some counseling sessions can be sometimes and would be a useful tool in establishing that relationship with the client.

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As the counselor:

I think taking on the role of the counselor allowed me to get a better understanding of how to approach discussing test results with a client since this is something I have never done before. I started off by asking my client what she thought of the test and how she felt after seeing the results. I asked her whether or not she felt like she answered the questions to the best of her ability in order to gage the accuracy of her results. Once determining this, we discussed which areas surprised her, which results she expected, and why this was the case. This allowed me to better understand my client’s values, personality, and overall level of wellness. Because my client accepted the results in a positive manner, I found the process to be an easy one. However, I found myself wondering how my approach would differ towards a hostile client that strongly disagreed with the results.

As the client:

I think the counselor did an exceptional job in allowing me to carefully reflect on each aspect of the assessment. This careful introspection forced me to take a deeper look at my habits and was sort of a wakeup call in some areas. For instance, I think my nutrition could be improved. However, while our discussion enabled me to examine my weaknesses, it also enabled me to examine my strengths. For example, I acknowledged my social self is my strong suit compared to other aspects. The counselor did a great job in helping me see which categories I prioritized over others. Although I was a little nervous about the counselor seeing my results and potentially judging me, she made me feel at ease and positively reframed my negative thought process. Overall, I am thankful I had the opportunity to dive deep into these issues and come up with potential solutions to enhance my level of wellness.

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Being the client was fun to do as well. In my personal life I am used to being both the client and counselor so my comfort on these remain almost the same on a scale. Being the client was interesting, because it offered me time to really analyze myself through the questions the counselor was asking me. It helped me to really come up with things that will help me make healthy changes. The counselor was able to put those things into perspective for me, while allowing me the freedom to really think about what was most important to me.

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As the counselor it was very interesting. I was able to ask the client what they got out of the assessment and how they felt about their results. It was interesting to ask them about how their personal feelings matched their results or if they did not match at all. It also felt really counselor like when I asked the client how their results are going to help them implement healthy changes in their life. It was fun to be the counselor, because it allowed me to get a feel for what it will be like in the future for me.

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I though that being interviewed as the client was a nice way to develop rapport between the therapist and myself. It provided structure so I felt at ease yet encouraged the sharing of personal thoughts and experiences. I liked being asked to reflect upon my experience in completing the assessment as it provided the opportunity to verbally identify the response to the experience. Overall, reviewing my personal areas of strengths and challenges with regard to wellness was interesting. I particularly like the opportunity to support or debate the findings of the evaluation.

Being the Counselor:
I enjoyed using this eval as a jump off point and relying on it as a semi structured interview. It illuminated the areas that my client was feeling well developed in with regard to overall wellness. I found it interesting the areas in which my client reported on as deficits yet he discussed them as non essential components of his overall wellness. Had I just been reading the scores I may have over estimated the importance of these reduced scores.

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I thought it was important to discuss the strengths and weaknesses and go through all the sections. We discussed the meaning of wellness and importance it holds in life. It allowed an open-discussion about how they felt with their results. My client was allowed to recognize her strengths and weaknesses and have an open conversations about her thoughts and opinion.she was able to think about various habits to pick up in order to improve sections of her weakness.

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As the client, it gave me an opportunity to think about the strengths and weaknesses. As the counselor was going through each sections she guided me on different ways I can improve to better myself.She did a significant job explaining the importance of wellness and the importance of one’s well-being. As the client it made me realizes different habits that can be improve for the better.

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Being the counselor in this activity gave me the opportunity to be in the role of my future profession. To start off the activity, I choose to talk to the client about what wellness means to them. We all define things differently so I found it beneficial to get an idea of what this means to the client personally. I also took interest in how the experience was overall for the client. This shows caring and support and can further inform me on what works/ could have wet better for the client. As the counselor, I found it challenging going over everything with the client. As this was a lot of information, it can be overwhelming for the client and counselor.

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Being the client in this activity allowed me to reflect on my own wellness. Furthermore, I noticed how wellness has affected who I am as an individual. Something that went well as the client was that the counselor took the time to explain everything to me. I felt safe and informed, which allowed me to successfully complete the activity. I found it interesting seeing where I scored higher and where I scored lower.

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When I was the client, I felt like I spent more time thinking about how the counselor was asking me questions rather than how I felt being the client. One point that stood out to me was how the counselor connected a comment I made about one part of the assessment (a wellness area where I scored lower) to the one I made to another area (one where I scored higher). It was interesting because I did not make that connection before when I looked at my results myself, and I then saw how the different wellness areas can overlap.

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It was helpful to learn about the types of talking points I should bring up and how to clarify information if the client inquires about specific wellness areas. Overall, asking and hearing about the client's experience in taking the assessment went well. The role play also made me realize that having the test questions ready-at-hand would be beneficial when talking about an assessment with the client. For example, if a client is surprised by a result in one wellness area, the client and counselor can look together at the questions regarding that wellness area. It was difficult to remember exactly what questions were asked.

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Being the Counselor and Being the Client (Nora Zobele)

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Being the Counselor and Being the Client (Nora Zobele)

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When it came to being the counselor, I liked being able to discuss an important topic such as wellness and the meaning of it. Everyone's version of wellness is different, so it's interesting to hear what they have to say. When I was going through all the questions with my client, I found that some questions made us think more and opened the floor for a deeper conversation. Overall,  I liked it! When I was the client in this situation, I liked being able to talk about my own wellness because I believe that is important to me. I learned that wellness is such a critical part of our being and that we really need to take care of ourselves.

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Being the Counselor and Being the Client: Linda Salazar

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Being the Counselor and Being the Client: Linda Salazar

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Being the counselor:
Being the counselor felt comfortable and natural. I took techniques last semester, so I now feel prepared for mock counseling sessions. I liked this activity because it gave me a sneak peak of what it would be like to have a discussion on an assessment with a client. Doing this activity reminded me of the importance of building rapport with clients, and foster a safe space to be able to freely talk with the client about their views of the assessment and their results. I think that asking how the client personally felt vs their actual results worked very well because the client then opened up more on aspects of wellness in their life. As the questions progressed, the client explained more and appeared comfortable in sharing.

Being the Client:
At first I felt nervous to be the client because the counselor was able to see and access my results. However, the counselor was very warm and welcoming which made me feel at ease. Being the client made me realize parts of my wellness results that I thought I was doing poorly but had higher results. The counselor did a great job at helping me see the positives and explained how my results showed higher results than my self perceptions and motivated me to challenge my self thoughts and see the good instead. When I shared that I felt embarrassed at the low scores of some sections I need to work on in my wellness, the counselor encouraged me which made me feel more determined to make small changes instead of feeling embarrassed. Overall this was a helpful and insightful activity as being the counselor and then client.

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As the counselor, I found it very beneficial to first ask the client to reflect on the meaning of wellness, and what it signifies to them. I found this very useful because I was able to slowly work our way into each section and I was able to get a feel for what the client believed wellness meant to them. In addition, I was able to walk everything through with the client and emphasize to her the importance of wellness and taking care of oneself. Overall, I enjoyed participating as the counselor, however, something that I found challenging was discussing all of the information. I felt like a lot of the information can come across as overwhelming for the client, as the results are a lot to take in after completing the assessment.

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As the client, I was able to reflect on myself as a whole throughout this activity. The counselor helped me understand that wellness is a choice and I can choose to be well if I want to. I was able to recognize the importance of wellness and taking care of myself, as it puts many things into perspective of who I am. It was interesting seeing some sections that I scored higher in as opposed to others. The counselor did a great job at explaining each of the sections and guiding me through each category, as I found this to be very helpful.

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It helped me to think about how I understand my own efforts at being well when we talked about practical things that I can do related to, etc.

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I thought it was useful to discuss the general concept of wellness before going of the scores, etc.