Beginning: 

Patient perspective: 

Empathy Demonstration: 

End: 

Common positive core beliefs:

Common negative core beliefs: 

I value exercise very much as it is one of my main stress relievers. I have grown up playing all kinds of sports from a very young age, soccer was the sport I played most often but in school I tried to play as many as I could. Since I have stepped back from playing soccer, I find going to the gym is another good source of exercise. 

   

When I am stressed or feeling overwhelmed I find that spending time with my friends is a good way to distract myself from what I was stressed or overwhelmed about. 

Going for walks with my dog is a very good way to distract myself from any unwanted emotions. Walking my dog is very relaxing as I listen to music and go for a nice long walk. I really enjoy sunsets so I try to take her for walks during the sunset or I even take her to a beach near my house. 

   

Although these steps can greatly aid to solve others problems, there are also obstacles that may run into. One very major obstacle would be the inability to express emotions from the client. It is often very difficult for clients to express their feelings but this also makes it very hard for the one helping to fully understand the problem and think of a way to help. Something that can help this is giving the client time to open up and always providing a safe environment for when that happens.

Specific: what will be accomplished? What action will you take? The client will be able to make a study plan and will be held accountable to complete this study plan throughout the semester 

Measurable: what data will measure the goal? How much, how well? The client will reach out to the teacher and get extra school work, they will spend an hour a day completing this extra work. 

Achievable: is the goal doable? Do you have the necessary skills and resources? Yes it is doable as the patient previously mentioned that they had good grades and good work ethics last semester but are just lacking motivation this semester.

Relevant: How does the goal align with border goals? Why is the result important? The client expresses the importance of having good grades as it will benefit her in the future years of the program she is in and it will eventually help her get a high ranking job post college/ university. 

Time: what is the time frame for accomplishing the goal? The client mentions that she will work on the study plan throughout the semester. She has all semester to work on the plan and make any changes accordingly. 

Other factors to consider as a therapist when helping a client with problem solving are…

Motivational interviewing strategies: 

Problem solving strategies: 

A few other components that we tried to add to our role play was expressing empathy, empowering the patient, discussing the idea of confidence- efficacy, scaling questions, and letting them give their point of view and asking questions like what is holding you back? 

Personally I thought this role play was very helpful to understand how to effectively help a patient come up with a plan on solving a problem and helping them realize there is a problem. There were a number of points to think about when helping a patient solve a problem especially when using the SMART goals. You must ensure to explain what the SMART goals are. Explain each component and how you will apply each one of these components to their problem as an individual. Ensuring to summarize everything that was established during the session will also helpful for the client as it gathers all the main points brought up. Overall, the in class role play was very beneficial and I am looking forward to applying what I learnt in class in a professional environment.

3 main types of activity: Pleasure or enjoyment, accomplishment or achievement, social interaction 

Doing anything in general is exhausting such as taking a shower, making a coffee, getting your day starting on a good note as there is a significant amount of motivation that is lacking. Doing small things everyday is very beneficial as it can help build to do the bigger things. Being social is one of the major issues that can cause lots of stress on an individual. Going out to parties or big gatherings can be very overwhelming so starting off with smaller intersections such as talking to someone on the phone or even texting are good ways to start. 

Rumination: “The main determinant of why some emotions last longer than others. Emotions associated with high levels of rumination will last longest” ruminating less will help raise out spirits and mood. Behavioural activation diary is a good source to aid in the process of healing.

Physical-I will try and get some sort of physical activity everyday. This can be in form of a walk, or even going to the gym and doing weight training. I will monitor my progress by 

keeping tabs on my phone on the health app  

Psychological- I want to get in the habit of listening to podcasts about self- awareness and self-care. This will help me when I am feeling flustered about my life. I want to start listening to podcasts when I get frustrated or am feeling overwhelmed. I will try and keep a count of the number of times I get overwhelmed or frustrated in a day and see how many times I listen to a podcast after having those feelings. This will keep me accountable for completing this.

Emotional- An emotional self-care plan I would like to try having a journal. I will write in this journal every day, this will include simple things like what I have done during the day, feelings, and maybe include factors that I can do to make the next day better. I will make this part of my night routine to ensure I complete it everyday.

Spiritual- Meditation is something I’ve never tried but have heard it can be very beneficial to spiritually heal someone. I would try and meditate when I feel overwhelmed or stressed about something whether it’s school, or something else going on.

Relationship- I will make sure to maintain a relationship with my friends by texting them everyday, including my friends in Ottawa. I will also try to call my parents and grandparents once a week to check in on them and see how they are doing. I will monitor this by setting a reminder on my phone to ensure I do all these things.

workplace/ school- For school, I will ensure to get my work done well before the deadline as it will reduce the stress caused by rushing to complete the assignments. I will write down all my assignments and when they are due in an agenda to ensure I know everything that is due and when so I can get it done with enough time to spare. 

Overall assessment of what I have accomplished: Overall I have been working to at least get started on these goals. I can say that I have been more active physically as I have been going for more walks with my friends. The next step is to start going to the gym which I do intend on getting back to when I go back to Ottawa for the summer. For the psychological goal, I have been listening to more podcasts, these vary from podcasts about Gilmore Girls (my favorite show) to lighten up my mood to murder mysteries to get to a more serious and fascinating note. In terms of my emotional goals, I have not been journaling everyday but I have been journaling a few days a week. I personally think this is a good start and I will hopefully start increasing the amount of journal entries I complete a week. Meditation is my spiritual goal, I have not yet done this goal other than in class. I did like the experience in class as it was relaxing and I was able to be mindful but I tend to get very distracted and impatient. I feel that if I meditate more often it can be a valuable part of my day. Relationships can be hard to keep up with especially with school and in my case moving to a different city. I noted that I wanted to maintain a close relationship with my friends in Ottawa by keeping in contact with them. I can say I have definitely been keeping in touch with them either with text or even facetime. Finally, workplace and school. I have mentioned that I always make sure to get my notes written out before going to class as it gives me an understanding of what will be tough in class. I continue to keep up with this and I hope to do this for the rest of my school (and apply it to the rest of my life including my work).