Essay on Midterm: Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Client

Danielle Coleman
SWK 520
Professor Travers
School of Social Work
Midterm paper
November 7, 2013

I chose the same client for my two process recordings. I only just started to see him individually. I initially sat in on his psycho social evaluation. He is an African American male who is 32 years old. He has spent a good bulk of his years in prison. He is currently on parole.
He entered the facility, which is an intensive residential men’s drug treatment facility, on the recommendation of his parole officer because he was having difficulty remaining alcohol free.
Because he is unable to remain free of alcohol he is unable to complete the conditions of his parole. So, instead of getting violated, his probation officer decided to offer him the option of seeking treatment. In the first process recording, I did not know that much about the client. He says that he struggles with abusing alcohol. He recognizes that he drinks too much and really wants to slow it down. He says that he can stop at any time and really just enjoys drinking a lot. He does not see it as a problem. But, at the same time, he recognizes that he hides it from his friends and family because they all say he drinks too much. He also does not want to go back to jail and feels he has no choice than to be in the program. Initially, he does not seem to take the program very seriously. Because I was not working with the client one on one in the initial meeting and only just got my him as my own private client last week, I really just listened to the social worker that was interviewing him. I learned a lot about the questions that I should be asking the client. I also learned that we are there to guide the client but they have to make their own decisions. This client faces a lot of obstacles. He blatantly says that he wants to continue to drink but needs help in learning how to slow down. He is in serious denial. That is his biggest obstacle at the moment. He needs to realize how drinking is negatively affecting his life. In order for him to really start his road to recovery, he needs to admit he has a problem first. The problem is, that says he does not want to be sober. That is going to be a very big obstacle because that is ultimately his choice. Because he is so resistant to stopping drinking, this can negatively affect his future. It is obvious to me, that he is using drinking as a mask to cover up other issues. He is using it as a coping mechanism which is not healthy. I cannot make him realize that he has a problem but I can try to bring to light how it is affecting his life negatively and encourage positivity in his life. Some other obstacles that the client faces is that he has never really had a job and he has never been self-sufficient. While he is not exactly homeless, while I spoke a little further with him, he lives with an Aunt and he expressed that he wants his own place. It is good that he has a supportive family but since he is 32, I think it is important that he learns to be self-sufficient and not have others take care of him. After reading over his file, I discovered he is dyslexic and never received a high school diploma. The fact that he has dyslexia, I am sure has led to confidence issues. He probably felt overwhelmed in school and gave up because he did not have the support and help that he needed. He also never had a job. So he really needs some job training and education. I believe once he has a feeling of self-worth, he may not try to self medicate himself. I referred him to our vocational counselor who can help him with his educational needs and to an agency that will help him with housing when he gets out. I think I definitely achieved quite a bit in our counseling session. I dug deep to get some stuff out of him. When I asked him how often and how much he drank, I really made him think about it. I brought it to light and had him say it out loud. I am not sure if he

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