Introduction
Assisting a child in their development is critical to the further growth and the development of a cognitive, emotional, and communicative insight. In order to identify challenges that a child may face during the developmental period and assist them in coping with the emergent difficulties, one should pay special attention to their interactions with their peers (Carey, Harris, Lee, & Aluede, 2017). Due to the lack of proper understanding of sharing as a concept, students may have conflicts at the school playground, which have to be addressed by offering therapy aimed at shaping their sense of empathy.
In the case under analysis, a second-grade student starts a fight with his peers after refusing to share a swing set with them. Jonathan, the student, is a Native American and the only child in his family. While his cousins often come to visit him at his home, he usually assumes the role of a leader and makes his cousins follow him. Therefore, the lack of empathy and the inability to build an emotional connection with others, thus learning to value their feelings and needs, should be seen as the key problem in the described scenario.
The role of a counselor in the case mentioned above includes helping Jonathan define his emotions, acknowledge and accept the needs of others, and learn the essential playground etiquette. Jonathan is the only child that should be taken into consideration since it may indicate that the upbringing strategy that his parents use may have led to him failing to acknowledge other people’s needs. Alternatively, the student may suffer difficulties at home and vent his anger or irritation on other students. Thus, a counselor should assume the role of a mediator, conflict manager, and leader.
Transcription and Analysis
Table 1. Transcript of the Conversation with the Student.
Theory and the Interview Questions
In order to approach the case described above, one should use the Psychodynamic approach as the key counseling theory. By definition, the Psychodynamic framework implies that each person is unique and thus needs to be approached in an entirely original fashion, thus allowing a counselor to incorporate the Humanistic and Psychoanalytic strategies (Foxx, Baker, ‎& Gerler, 2016). Particularly, the Psychodynamic framework will allow determining the external factors that may be damaging the development of the child (Barish, 2018). For instance, the factors that motivate the child to behave in a specified manner and refuse to share the swing set with other children, as well as a fight instead of communicating calmly, will be located.
The questions of the interview align with the selected theory fully. Particularly, at the beginning of the conversation, the counselor does not attack the child by accusing him of violence but, instead, asks about his feelings. The unexpected turn of the dialogue takes the child by surprise, and he explains sincerely what bothers him. Afterward, the discussion diverges smoothly to the analysis of the factors that make the student feel the urge to fight.
Thus, anger management issues are identified and discussed successfully. The specified step leads to the next stage of the conversation when the counselor asks the child about the worries and anxieties that he has. Consequently, the counselor discovers the core of the problem in the process. Specifically, the fact that being the only child, Jonathan does not have the habit of sharing is recognized and taken into consideration.
The final questions launch the negotiation process and help the student to recognize the fact that his behavior is unacceptable, also prompting the desire to change. Consequently, the child becomes open to the suggestions that the counselor has to offer, and the student selects the behavior with which he is most comfortable and which helps him manage conflicts on the playground constructively. The Psychodynamic framework allowed facilitating awareness in the child and assisting him in shaping his behavior and recognizing his emotional and social needs, as well as the needs of others.
Self-Reflection
The case described above provided a profound insight into the theory of counseling and the use of counseling skills as the means of prompting a behavior change in students. Specifically, the case has shown the significance of recognizing the need for individuals to develop positively and socialize effectively in the academic environment. Utilizing the Psychoanalytic approach helped the student to acknowledge the problem and strive to resolve it by shaping his behavior. Thus, the self-knowledge that was acquired during the session included the ability to distinguish between different scenarios in which appropriate counseling theories should be deployed.
In addition, the case helped to develop the self-knowledge associated with emotional intelligence (EI). Although sometimes being underestimated, EI as a counseling skill is critical for identifying the presence of a problem in a student’s development, which the case in question has shown quite clearly. Particularly, the dialogue with the student has revealed that the counselor was capable of locating a problem in his development based on the changes in his emotional patterns. In addition, the selected theoretical framework, which allowed appealing to the learner’s emotions directly, served as the tool for giving the learner agency in his further self-improvement actions. Therefore, the counselor has learned to provide students with independence and encourage self-introspect in them to motivate them to change.
However, the transcript has also shown that the counselor could improve certain skills and focus on acquiring new abilities in the future. For instance, the counselor did not use open questions in order to invite the student to contemplate the problem under analysis. Thus, the counselor should use different techniques for prompting dialogue and eliciting information. In addition, the counselor may need to acquire the skill of self-disclosure (Barish, 2018). Being a powerful tool for helping students to share their emotional experiences, self-disclosure can be deemed as a critical skill that the counselor has to develop.
Thus, the overall counseling experience can be regarded as positive. The student has been convinced to alter his behavior, whereas the counselor has learned to deploy the theory rooted in the understanding of external and integral factors shaping a child’s choices. Due to proper timing, adequate responses, and the selection of the appropriate theory, the counselor managed to elicit a positive response from the student and convince him to shape his behavior.
References
Barish, K. (2018). How to be a better child therapist: An integrative model for therapeutic change. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.
Carey, J. C., Harris, B., Lee, S. M., & Aluede, O. (2017). International handbook for policy research on school-based counseling. New York, NY: Springer.
Corey, G. (2015). Theory and practice of group counseling (9th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Hohenshil, T. H., Amundson, N E., ‎& Niles, S. G. (2015). Counseling around the world: An international handbook. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Foxx, S. P., Baker, S. B., ‎& Gerler, E. R. (2016). School counseling in the 21st century (6th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.