i have doubts about my profession.

 Taken from: Jordan and Neimeyer (2003)

 A Qualitative (or narrative) literature review involves a scholarly analysis of the existing literature, from which the reviewer draws reasoned conclusions about the state of knowledge in a given area of inquiry.

A Quantitative review (or meta-analysis) is a statistical technique (or group of techniques) that allows objective data from many different studies to be combined to produce a numerical answer to the question, ‘‘How effective is a particular type of treatment?’’

• Resulting measure EFFECT SIZE: standardized way of assessing to what degree people who receive the treatment do better on outcome measures than people who do not receive the treatment
• General effect size for psychotherapeutic treatments 0.8 = 80% of people receiving treatment better after treatment than those who do not receive treatment
   

 Countertransference: whilst speaking with a client the therapist experiences an emotion (rage, guilt, sadness), physical sensations (cravings, heavy feeling on chest/stomach) or images (walls closing in, heavy clouds). This is however, not the client’s experience. Rather, it is the therapist’s reaction to what the client has said. The therapist recognises and identifies with the content and reacts to it.

Transference: in transference the therapist also experiences an emotion, physical sensation or images. However this is a direct transference from the client. The client could subconsciously be craving to smoke. If the therapist is congruent with the client and in an empathic space then they may feel some urges or cravings themselves. However, this is not related to the therapists’ own experiences but the clients.

Person-Centered Counseling

- Originated by Carl Rogers 1940s

- Emphasis on therapeutic counsellor-client relationship

- Humanistic, experiential-existential apprach

- Present oriented and holistic

- Encourages client's self awareness, exploration, self esteem and competence

- Beneficial for people with adjustment disorders, relationship, occupational and identity problems as well as bereavement and grief

- This group of people usually already have some effective coping skills and are in good contact with reality. Thus they can be together in a therapeutic relationship with the counsellor on a more equal and effective level.

Behavioral Counseling

- B. F. Skinner 1930s/1940s

- Based upon the belief that personality is shaped by environmental factors

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I love how in John Lees article (1999) "What is clinical counselling in context?" he referrs to counselling and therapy as the 'talking cure'.

 so, i admit it's been awhile. ok, ok. a looong while. but it appears my long lost friend of yesterday is still here and is still welcoming me back with open arms LOL

started my second semester of postgrad studies a couple of days ago. i made sure i slept enough and as i am going through a healthy regime i've been exercising heaps and eating a full hearty breakfast. so surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) i actually got the opportunity to PAY ATTENTION and understand what the lecturers and tutors were talking about. i truly hope this lasts longer than the first week haha.

postgraduate studies in counselling psychology has been an interesting ride for me. this week has certainly been interesting. at certain types i felt myself look down upon the 'jamie' sitting in class and look around. what a hippie, interesting and mixed bunch of students here in counselling psychology. heck, what an interesting lecturer!!! robyn bett is the head of counselling psychology at murdoch university in perth, western australia. she comes across as a very soft spoken and caring lady. this semester she is taking the experiential counselling classes. however, she also works in private practice with family and children.

mandy browne takes the principles of counselling 1 lectures. initially, i recieved an email from her giving us the unit outline and the reading list for that priniciples of counselling unit with a suggestion to have a read of it BEFORE the first lecture. and in that instance i saw a very strict and structured obeying lecturer and i groaned inwardly. i walked into the lecture room and was surprised to see and experience what i got to experience. she waited with no sense of  impatience for everyone to come in even the late stragglers, she shared a few experiences from her personal past with us, she laughed and joked and was very carefree. she comes from a psychoanalytical background and also works in private practice counselling in the specialty of psychotherapy in fremantle, western australia.

the last couple of days has involved me trying to find some quiet time to be self reflective and be connected on a different level with my thoughts and views and opinions. it involved a lot of trust in the group and open honesty. it was explained to us students that to be a relatively good counsellor we need to be intune with our inner thoughts and opinions so as to be able to put them aside with a client so as to walk their journey with them during counselling.

one of the most memorable activity occurred in mandy's principles of counselling class. she got us to close our eyes, get comfortable and take long deep breathes. she then put on some flowing, music whereupon a lady sang in hindu or a similar language. it was flowy and bought images of slow flying silk in the air. soft, flowy but strong. after 5 minutes we were then asked to draw. draw what? anything that comes to mind.

the black space is my mind, the unknowns or the unconsciousness. the bright colored blocks in my mind are the knowledge i've gained growing up, learnt from life and university, through people and experiences. as you can see it is very structured each block going in the same direction each roughly in a block shape. here i am trying to show that in my 20yrs of schooling we have always been taught on a structured basis and thus our learning and hence our knowledge appears to be structured. there is a thin black line surronding my mind from the other colorful bits. this represents how my mind is in a sense quite closed to certain ideas and viewpoints. its not VERY closed to ideas but there is still that barrier there. i am hoping that soon enough the black line will dissappear and more colorful parts will enter my mind. the colorful parts on the outside represent the knowledge and experiences of my tutors and lecturers. as you can see their knowledge is not structured and interact with each others. there is also another color on the outside that does not exist in the blackness of my mind. it acknowledges that there are things out there that others have learnt and know about but i am yet to even hear of it. i am to hope that one day my mind will become colorful and be able to interact with the ones on the outside.

is it silly of me to want to frame this and put it up one day when i get my own office? 

Depression

Definition of Depression.

Depression is an emotional, physical and cognitive state. Depression can affect anyone at anytime with symptoms that vary from person to person. Almost 1.5 million people in Australia alone suffer from depression and depressive states. On average, up to one in five people will experience an episode of depression oncein their life time. This is slightly higher in females than in males – one in four females whereas only one in six depressed males. As such depression is actually very common, much more common than one would suspect.

There are five main categories of depression. Major depression, psychotic depression, dysthymia, mixed depression and anxiety and biopolar disorger which was formally known as manic depressive illness. Previously, when one spoke of depression it was meant to mean major depression which is a depressed mood that lasts for at least two weeks and may reoccur frequently. This is sometimes referred to as clinical depression or unipolar depression as well. In comparison to clinical major depression, dysthymia is less severe. It is usually seen as depressed mood that although not as severe as clinical depression lasts longer for years.

When depressed mood includes symptoms of psychosis then this type of depression is called psychotic depression. This depression may involve hallucinations, paranoia and delusions. People suffering from psychotic depression may feel like everyone is against them, may see or hear things that are not there or may not exist and may perceive things that are contrary to norm beliefs.

Depression will generally have attributes of:

• depressed mood
• loss of interest and/or pleasure
• feelings of guilt
• disturbed or loss of appetite and/or sleep
• low energy
• poor concentration
• impairs ability to function daily and to perform daily responsibilities
• loss in sexual arousal

Depressed people often feel downhearted, disappointed, detached, dispirited and can be easily upset and become angry. They often won’t be conciled or comforted and may brood and become withdrawn. They may have a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and will not engage themselves in many social activities as a result. Depression can lead to suicide and thus it is important for people suffering from depression to get help from an external, professional source (not from family or friends). Clinical intervention when suicide is likely is crucial.

Projective identification is sometimes recognised in counselling and therapy. Projective Identification is when a patient's unwanted feeling is projected out to someone or something else. Some examples of this in an every day situation would be perhaps a son who is late for a birthday party is feeling rushed and anxious he is late for the festivities. His anxiety is then projected to his mother who is dropping him off, resulting in her feeling similarly anxious. In therapy, if a counsellor is seeing a patient who has a history of being violent then the counsellor may similarly have a sense of impatience and "violently" direct therapy in a more confronting manner.

In some situations the projective indentification involves splitting the self and projecting this onto an external object and the patient identifying with these disowned parts of the self. In most cases the patient does not recognise that they are projectively identifying with the external object/person. In extreme cases projective identification can lead to depersonalisation and confusional states. An example of projective identification when splitting the self occurs would be when someone sneezes and another person covers their own nose as if they had sneezed themselves. Also if someone falls over and cuts their knee and another person feels a similar pain in their knee.

There are two important reasons why projective identification is used. One, it is commonly used to evacuate the unwanted self so it can be used as an attack against others. Second instance why projective identification is used is as a form of communication, to let someone else know what is unbearable and to seek their sense of understanding.

However, projective identification should not be thought of as pathological. In some cases it is useful rather than harmful. For instance, empathy is a form of projective identification. Empathy is defined as being "in someone elses shoes", feeling what it is like in someone else's situation and to be sympathetic and understanding of their sitaution.

Essentially, what is important in regards to mental health and counselling is the extent of projective identification. If a patient is completely lost in another person then this may lead to confusional and delusional states.

Reasons why people go to counselling.

Counselling Children.

I have an interview lined up with Lifeline next week.

Once accepted into the program volunteers must go through a rigourous 6month training period that costs $375. Upon completion a cert II or III in telephone counselling is awarded which is a nationally acredited certification. Not bad, still it is quite an expensive pastime considering it is unpaid volunteer work!!

A couple of weeks ago I went to the information night for telephone counselling. The speaker implied that they rarely turned away any offer of volunteering and in some cases will even consider people with a police record. Though I think it is fair enough to say that people with a record does not necessarily mean that they will be horrible counsellors, they may even be better ones with that extra life experience behind them.

In the booklet we received from LifeLine, there are a couple of essential criterias that need to be addressed. The most important being that volunteers must have the capacity and willingness to respond to all people in a non-judgemental and respectful manner. This then provides a strong foundation for volunteers to be trained upon and to gain valuable skills in addition to. Once past the training stage volunteers are expected to be able to demonstrate skills in telephone counselling including risk assessment, crisis management and caller referral as well as having an understanding of common caller themes and the ability to integrate counselling theory with practice.

After training, we get assessed to see if we are capable of being on the phones ourselves and then we are required to committ to a 12month contract with them. They need us to volunteer at least 4hours a fortnight (each shift is around 4hours) with 2-3 late night shifts a year. Late night being the 11pm-5am shift I think it was. I'm planning to volunteer once a week or once a fortnight (havent decided yet) on the evening shift 7pm-11pm after my paid work finishes at 6.30pm.

I have also applied to volunteer as a counsellor or something at the Womens Health Clinic because once a long time ago back in undergrad at UWA I planned to do genetics counselling and had completed a major in human anatomy and biology - reproduction as well as my double major in psychology. But then the depth of the human biology of it threw me off for a yr or two - that or I forgot about it in the crazy midst of trying to get into clinical psych. But I thought the Womens Health Clinic would give me a wealth of knowledge from a different side of the coin, not just drug and alcohol and abuse sort of issues but also womens health and gender issues which I also had a brief look at when I was in New York.

So will have an update on all my volunteering next week when I hear back I suppose. Fingers crossed.

Though I must admit there is less importance on the volunteering now that I have already been accepted into a Masters Program (which will in second semester provide me with practicals anyways).

xxo

So before the official letter of offer could be sent to me I had to have a police clearance and working with children certificate. These forms can be found at the Australia Post Office. You will need to bring along 100 points of ID. I brought my driivers license and my passport which sufficed. They also needed to take a passport photo of me for identification. The School (or workplace) will need to complete a section in the form before it can be handed in. The police clearance will be a certificate stating all public offences and crimes committed by that person. The working with children clears that particular person to work with young children. The police clearance will usually take about 2-3 days and the working with children about 2-3weeks to be sent to your postal address. Thats a REALLY long time!! Both these forms cost me a total of $70AUD! Thats pretty pricey don't you think?? But both certificates can be used for my counselling volunteering and also with other jobs which will be immensely helpful.

Afterwhich both certificates will need to be sighted by the school and then the letters of offer and enrolment procedures can then proceed.

But in other news -

It's my birthday! A new year, A better year =)

God gave me relief.

And this is my year to shine.

So it looks like this blog will continue for a long while yet.... because:

I GOT ACCEPTED INTO MASTERS OF COUNSELLING !!!!

The interview was conducted in one of their consultation rooms. There was two middle aged ladies there: Angela and Mandy. I assume they were lecturers or unit coordinators. Really friendly ladies. They sat me down and Angela immediately dispelled any nervousness I had by acknowledging my hands were shaking and I was looking quite nervous though I shouldnt be because essentially this interview should be a casual chit chat sort of format.

So we laughed and I relaxed.

They asked me 4 questions.

1. What was your decision process in choosing and applying for the counselling program at Murdoch? (ie. why Murdoch and not Curtin/Ecu/Uwa etc.). - I told them that I studied 4 years at UWA and did my 5-6th year at Murdoch. I found the difference between UWA and Murdoch to be quite startling. UWA focused a lot on theory whereas the units I completed at Murdoch I found to be more relevant and practical to the “outside” world. I gained more insight and more skills at Murdoch and the lecturers and tutors really engaged me. However in so saying I’m not sure whether this is because I did my basic foundation units at UWA and hence would explain all the theory involved.

2. Can you describe a situation whereby your basic counselling skills have helped someone? I described helping my sister a couple of years ago because she felt very overshadowed by my presence in the family. She always felt that my parents looked to me first before her and she had a lot to live up to in me. This wasn’t “exactly” true but it was true enough! Basically, I directly addressed the situation, brought it up frankly with the parties involved and made sure each party was aware of the situation.

3. Can you describe a situation whereby your basic counselling skills have not helped? In this case I thought it would be clever to describe a situation when someone ELSE’s counseling skills did not help to me. I told them of the time my pastor’s wife tried to help me but because she was coming from a religious pov that it was hard to relate to her even though I knew she had my best interests at heart. We also discussed how religion and personal opinion should not come into play when counseling or helping someone.

4. Don’t know what they were planning to ask because I answered no. 4 within no. 3 so they decided to skip it.

Overall, I made sure they understood the type of person I am – empathetic, sympathetic, direct and frank but also hard working and goal oriented. I also made sure to slip in that if I didn’t get in at Murdoch this time I would try again and again at Murdoch at Curtin and also at UWA until I got in. So determination =)

And yeah. They stood up at the end of the interview, thanked me for coming and just as I was thanking them for their time they said to me very direct that they did not want to play games. They didn’t want me waiting by the phone and losing sleep worrying about it and they would like to offer me an unofficial place in the program here at Murdoch.

I was, I am ecstatic.

The jobs advertised in Australia seems to me to be getting more and more ridiculous as time goes on. Take for example this advert I found on seek.com:

"Responsibilities include administrating and coordinating psych assessment procedures through to arranging feedback session and assisting in the preparation of reports and briefings. Depending on your skill level and development, you may have the opportunity to support the Psych Assessment Consultant with report writing and facilitation of feedback sessions.

Working closely with the Assessment Consultant and the Project Management team you will also use your strong administrative and organizational skills to assist in delivering program related support.

The successful candidate will have excellent communication (both written & verbal) and strong interpersonal skills. You will have a very high attention to detail, along with a desire to learn and develop. With numerous opportunities for career development within this supportive and dynamic culture, you will have the tenacity and flexibility to adapt in this client focused consulting environment. Project administration experience is also desirable."

There are two positions available, working 3 days a week.... all UNPAID. Look at the amount of responsibilities this position involves not to mention the requirements of the successful candidate! It would all be well and good if I was in Sydney to devote 3 FULL days of my week to working unpaid but since I am in Perth with little to no prospect of getting PAID work to accompany this UNPAID work it would be very, very, very unwise to relocate my life to Sydney. But even so, it is alot of work to be asking for without any sort of financial renumeration.

However, in so saying... some people do actually pay a fair sum for a registered psychologist to supervise them on an ongoing basis for two years. Some charge up to $150/hr and you need to see them for at least 2-4hours a week for two years!!!

Nevertheless I still find it disconcerting that companies are advertising such an involved position with no monetary benefits whatsoever.

xxo