Counseling Children and Adults - Assignment Example

1. Counseling children is both different from and similar to counseling adults. Discuss how grief counseling with children and adolescents differs from adults. What aspects of counseling remain the same? Grief is indeed something that is truly hard to deal and cope with. Amidst that is an inevitable occurrence, it still doesn't change the truth that grief is a very struggling and unwanted part of life. During the period of grieving, both children and adults experience uncomfortable feelings which often include bewilderment, restlessness, anger and confusion. The pain that comes with grief might be too much to handle that is why counseling is a great and helpful resource. However, since children and adults have different ways of responding with grief, the way of counseling that will be used towards them can vary. When counseling a bereaved adult, the process is mostly focused on conversational therapy. Unlike children, grown-ups can easily express their emotions using verbal communication because their knowledge of words is immense. Meaning, adults are mostly good in associating their feelings with the appropriate words. On the other hand, children are offered more options or activities when it comes to counseling. Their counseling therapy usually comes in form of play or drawing. Conversations are not always effective for children for they have a tendency to become disinclined or uninterested with words. They are often encouraged to express their feelings using creative outlets that don't always involve talking. Counseling a young individual is more complex in the beginning for the sole reason that he still doesn't have a concrete notion of sadness or loss. In his book, Jewett explained the thinking of children: Children also lack the ability accurately to discriminate reality from fantasy, which can compound their confusion. The child at this stage sees the world as a place of magical endings where everyone lives happily ever after or where death and violence are casual, reversible events. (p. 9) This means that there is a huge possibility that young minds can be too hopeful that their grief will eventually lead to a “happily ever after” story. To avoid further confusion, a trained professional need to give extra effort in making a child understand what he is experiencing. More than anyone, adolescents are the ones who commonly deny and refuse to deal with their emotions. They might appear unaffected on the surface but deep within they are very lonely. Counseling them necessitates a huge amount of understanding for they will usually consume a lot of time before they finally disclose their emotions. Before devising a certain therapy to be used, a counselor will primarily need to earn the complete trust of an adolescent so that he won't be reluctant in opening himself. Another difference is that adults take lesser time to assimilate the loss in their lives. Though they always have the tendency to fluctuate back to their feeling of grief, they can immediately teach themselves to do the things that they used to be responsible for. The ability of both children and adolescents to think clearly might be impaired because of the intensity of their grieving. They might take lengthy time to bring back their enthusiasm for things that he used to enjoy or worse, he might be totally disinclined with everything that is surrounding him. From an article written by Owens (2008) for a medical journal, he explained that: Studies have shown that children and adolescents that have unresolved grief are at a higher risk for developing depression and anxiety as adults. It’s important then that palliative care and hospice practitioners, as well as other family members, recognize the needs of grieving children and help them access the resources they need. (p. 10) For these reasons, it can be said that counseling of young individuals are often more sensitive, cautious and crucial cases. This can possibly be the result of their misunderstanding about anything that involves grief. According to Doca and Tucci (1994), “The child has not fully distinguished the concept of death from other concepts or that he or she has not grasped its full implications (Doca, Tucci, 2000, p.8).” Nevertheless, it must also be noted that in a counseling, a child tries his best to establish a definitive notion of death, loss or violence based on the things that he was able to grasp and understand. The result of a child's thinking is commonly simple that's why it must be carefully explained to them that a cause of major grief mostly has numerous implications and dimensions. The third difference is the chronological aspect of the counseling. Once an adult has already entered the “adult stage” or is beyond 25, his way of understanding or grieving won't be categorized in specific ages. This implies that if they undergo special counseling, their age isn’t really a very vital factor since they already acquired a mature or “sharpened concept” of grieving. Compared with a young person, the age always belongs in the most essential factors that should be given a high regard because their thinking are constantly changing. For example, children in the age bracket of 2-3 years old are totally not capable of comprehending loss. For the most part, they are just assuming that someone who died is just engaging in a deep sleep. Aside from the fact that both types of counseling are handled by professional specialists, they are clearly similar when it comes to their goal of making the pain of a person more bearable. With this goal in mind, the counselors tend to maximize their skills in order to help their clients see the brighter side of their lives amidst their struggle. 2. Your school asks you to do an in service on adolescents' suicide for teachers. Select a population such as elementary, middle or high school. Outline what your presentation might look like. Presentation Title: The Truth behind the Lethality of Suicide Among Adolescents Population Chosen: Adolescents (High School Level) I. Introduction 1. Suicide is a social deviant act wherein an individual attempts to kill himself to end the incredible pain or turmoil that he is experiencing. 2. Based from a factual sheet released by www.suicidology.org, suicide is the third leading reason of death of young people aged 15-24. This statistic clearly implies that more and more adolescents are committing suicide to find a relief for their problems (Adolescent Suicide Rates, n.d.). 3. Suicide is now considered very alarming and moving factor in the society for the threats that it poses to adolescents. II. Body 1. For the most part, an adolescent doesn't immediately commit a suicide. He usually engages himself in deep thinking and judging whether to do the act or not. This stage of deep thinking is indeed very significant for the adolescent unconsciously manifests several warning signs. a. When an adolescent has suicidal tendencies, some of the vital warning signs or manifestations to look for include: having a low self-esteem social isolation noticeable withdrawal from the things that he used to do or enjoy lack of enthusiasm on his immediate surroundings being promiscuous with the way he communicates with other people failure to do the tasks involving school performance or other extra-curricular activities loss of concentration or preoccupation when it comes to class discussions sudden outbursts of anger, impatience or irritability even without a concrete reason carelessness with usual tasks being too generous with material possessions (assuming that he won't be able to take them in his death) b. Apart from the mentioned explicit signs, other factors must also be recognized. Primarily, the family or environmental background of an adolescent should be keenly observed for things that might cause him to inflict harm upon himself. It is also considerable to know if the adolescent is under the abuse of any drug substance or alcoholic beverage. 2. As the adolescent's mentor, you are also responsible for the behaviour of your students. If you have noticed that most of the key warning signs are exhibited by your student, you should really be disturbed and immediately take an action by doing these things: An adolescent who possesses a suicidal attempt tries to put on a strong and unaffected face but inwardly, he feels helpless and tremendously insecure. The first thing to do is to treat his feelings as if it were your own. Refrain from being and sounding judgmental. The last thing a bereaved adolescent needs to hear from you is a pointless blame. Make your student realize that your concern to help him is undoubtedly genuine. They might seem to deny their emotional turmoil and might reject you at first, but if they're able to feel safe, they will eventually warm up to you. Suggest activities or tasks that your student might be interested in. This part is indeed significant for it will divert your student's rebelliousness and morbid thoughts of harming himself. If you are doubting your capability of stopping your student in committing a heinous act towards himself, never hesitate to ask for professional help. III.Conclusion 1. A young adult's life is indeed full of twists and turns. Apart from the bliss and excitement that comes with development, an adolescent is likely prone to depression and frustration. Numerous situations in their lives can overwhelm them and make them feel insignificant. As a result, they resort to thinking about killing themselves. 2. Adolescents are preoccupied and dragged by their worthless notions about life that's why they see suicide as something that is not wrong. Instead, they view suicide as an easy relief for the pain that they are experiencing. 3. Your job as an instructor is not only to educate your students but to also steer him in the appropriate way. He might be in a crisis period but you have a considerable amount of power to help him see the beauty of life. It is true that death is an unavoidable part of life, but intentionally killing one's self is very gripping and painful. Thus, you must go as far as you can to bring back the semblance of normality in your student's thinking. 3. Tina, a ten year old girl in your school, is returning to school after Christmas vacation. During that vacation, Tina's father murdered his wife (Tina's Mother) and then committed suicide. (Tina remains in the area living with her maternal grandparents.) The case is widely known in the neighbourhood, sensationalized by the press. Your principal calls you and asks you to develop a plan for intervention. What happened to Tina is a tragedy that is unquestionably too much for a ten-year old child to know and handle. First, Tina must have completely thought that her family will just joyously spend their holidays together. She didn't have the idea that her anticipated merry vacation will turn out to be the greatest nightmare of life. Second, the fact that her mother was murdered by someone who's supposed to be their protector and fortress is a crushing thought. Third, her father also left her by viciously killing himself. Worse, Tina needs to go back to school and face the prying eyes of the people in her community and the press. After a tragedy, it is an expected reaction that Tina will find it difficult to return to school especially at the beginning. Her mind is brimming with lots of fears and uncertainties that she has to be forced to go back to her school. Jewett (1994) provides a detailed explanation of what might happen in an educational institution when children coming from a family tragedy arrive: Their schoolmates, fearing that they, too, could suffer a similar catastrophe, may avoid them and the resulting social isolation is likely to cause them to behave in ways that annoy or irritate others which in turn isolate them all the more. They may become more and more withdrawn, develop ever more serious behaviour problems or fall even farther outside the community's pale where they may become scapegoats or the subjects of their classmates' reaction and ridicule. (p.19) Apart from her school, the press even contributes more to the dismaying trauma that Tina has. Since the press evidently sensationalized and promoted the news about her family, she will continuously be the subject of gossips and be the talk-of-the-town. Tina will be more ostracized by people because of the negative exposure and ingrained social stigma that she is getting because of the news. After the horrifying chaos that she experienced, Tina definitely deserves to be provided with an intervention program that will give her extra comfort and support. Since she is just ten years old, she basically relies on her feelings and emotions. She primarily needs to feel a sense of belongingness and acceptance coming from her immediate surrounding. The first step that must be done is to orient her classmates about her situation so that they won't be indifferent to her. As Jewett (1994) puts it, “Children can be brutally cruel to one another, but they can also demonstrate a strong capacity and desire to help if someone suugests ways for them to be supportive (Jewett, 1994, p.20).” The children in Tina's school only possess the tendency of being mean for they are way too horrified with their schoolmate's situation. They lack appropriate explanation that's why they get confused when it comes to how they will act when Tina is around. The role of the school administrators in this situation is to carefully tell the students that Tina is having quite a hard time and so they need to be there for her. In fact, they can even create a scrapbook or letters to let Tina know that a lot of people love and care for her. Moreover, the teacher is the primary source of reassurance in the classroom since she's the one who has the total capability of monitoring Tina. She must always be mindful in order to respond to the girl's emotional needs while in the premise of the classroom. She can involve Tina in more classroom activities for her to actually feel that she's a part of her environment. After her school activities, the help of a child psychologist or the guidance counselor is highly suggested. Tina needs to have someone whom she can freely express her reactions about the happening. Encouraging her to share her thoughts is challenging at first for the sole reason that everything is still fresh, but by continuously giving her time, Tina will gradually learn to assimilate the happening in her life. It must never be forgotten that forcing her to talk will just increase her pain. What's important is that someone will be available when she is ready to express herself. It is also anticipated that she will have lots of questions because she is relatively curious with the aspects of her parents' death. The assigned person to look after her should always be ready to respond to questions which will commonly include, “Why dothey have to die?”, “Where are they now?”, and the most complex of all is “What will happen to me now?” Another part of the program that will greatly help her is the involvement of creative activities. Her tremendous fears and anxieties should be diverted into other outlets such as drawing, singing and playing. Many opportunities should be offered to the child so that she can choose an activity that she feels comfortable to engage with. The school will also need the full support of Tina's remaining family relatives. In every step of the intervention program, they have to make themselves available in case she intensely yearn for her parents. The guidance of the school alone is not enough without the love that she can get from her other family members. Although Tina's emotional need must be the top priority all the time, her health should not be neglected as well. She will eventually feel tired and helpless if she is not always able to have adequate nutrition and rest. Lastly and most significantly, the intervention program should never remove its goal in mind despite the positive or negative reactions that it will earn from Tina herself. It must be clearly understood that losing both parents because of morbid occurrences greatly affected the development of Tina. Her mood will drastically change every single day so it is very effective to foster a devoted relationship with her. In the end, the most essential ingredient of the intervention program is unconditional love that knows no boundaries. Reference List Doka, K. J., & Tucci, A.S. (Eds.). (2000). Living with grief: Children and adolescents. America: Hospice Foundation of America. Jewett, C. (1994). Helping children cope with separation and loss. Harvard, MA: Harvard Common Press. Owens, D. (2008). Recognizing the needs of bereaved children in palliative care. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 1, 10. Worden William, J. (1996). Children and grief: When a parent dies. New York: Guilford Press. Read More