Narrative Therapy Role Play - Essay Example

Critique of Narrative Therapy Role Play Critique of Narrative Therapy Role Play Introduction In the narrative I take the client through a counseling session. From this we can see that narrative therapy is a session of vivid interrogation (Abels & Abels, 2001). As the counselor I start by wanting to know why the client has paid a visit. The client attests that she is not pretty sure about the reason for her visit but states that it is becoming difficult for her to do things and also finds it hard to move out of the house. I learn that the client is uncomfortable with leaving the house. At some point, the client accepts that she has a problem and her daily life is not running as usual. The client affirms that she has been nervous, since her kids left home. The client feels scared to do anything that might upset the kids when they come over. In the course of the dominant story, I deduced that the client is faced with a problem of anxiety after using the active listening skill of asking confirmatory questions as the customer described her problem. In fact, the client laments that anxiety has imprisoned and limited her freedom to experience life. I suggest that the client should not dwell on anxiety, but move on from it and get to experience life. At last the client accepts to return to the normal routine of life, that is the life before anxiety settled in. Critique of narrative therapy According to the narrative, it can be deduced that people are not the problem, but instead anxiety is. There is a clear boundary between the problem and the people (Davies & Linnell, 2010). According to my close analysis of the client in the narrative, I have discovered that there are actually a number of different types of anxiety disorders some of which generally include social anxiety disorder, phobia, panic, and post- traumatic stress disorder among others. According to the narrative I can affirm that anxiety causes distress and interferes with the normal running of an individual’s life; for instance the client says that she is finding it harder to do things. Basing my argument on the narrative, I can attest that there are different categories of anxiety and each display different unique signs. For instance panic disorder may result in restlessness which may subsequently cause the affected person other complications such as chest pain, unusual heartbeat, sweating a lot among other symptoms. In fact, people experiencing panic always feel like dying or losing consciousness. Of note is that the fear of having panic attacks might result to development of phobias. Other symptoms of anxiety as evident in the narrative includes flashback of traumatic experiences, sleeping problems, nausea, nightmares, inability to be calm, uncontrollable repeated thoughts among others (Fransella, 2005). In fact, anxiety occurs in uncontrollable and unavoidable situations. A vivid analysis of the narrative shows that there are several causes of anxiety. Some of the causes of anxiety presented in the narrative include; loneliness, medical complications, environmental settings, genetics, social standing, previous life experiences, fear of being disappointed, state of mind among others. The major cause of the client’s anxiety in the narrative is loneliness, and being idle. I am certain that when people fear rejection of their opinions by others or disappointing others by the statements they put across, anxiety sets in. For instance, the client in the narrative affirms that she is nervous that when the kids come over, she fears that she might say something that upsets them. She fears negative reaction from the kids towards her actions. Additionally, losing or being left by the ones we love brings loneliness and perhaps gives birth to anxiety. The client in the narrative laments that when the kids grew up, they moved away from home. In my experience, when children grow and walk out of the home compound to seek for jobs or further their studies, parents are left lonely. The void left in the parents heart is prone to accommodate anxiety (Dorland, 2011). The parents keep worrying about the lives of the kids in the new world. The parents anticipation about how their kids’ progress makes them nervous and anxious. According to the narrative, the client stopped working in the garden and going for shopping when the kids left home. Therefore, it is affirmed that staying idle and being confined in a single place for extended periods of time increases the chances of anxiety. Being alone and staying in one place for quite some time builds-up fear and brings about over-imagination of what might happen next. The heightened expectation due to over-imagination can make someone anxious. For instance, the client in the narrative reflects on the past life when the kids were around. She remembers how they used to keep the garden beautiful but now, it is in a mess. Consequently, it is of essence to point out that gender and learning experiences to some extent, contribute to the development of anxiety. Several researchers have confirmed that women have more chances of being anxious than men (Cassady, 2010). This is better understood on the cultural construction of gender roles and responsibilities; according to this construction, women are perceived as usually being emotional and very nervous. Inversely, men are perceived as rulers and family-heads and are thus expected to manage their emotions and balance their anxiety . The client in the narrative laments that she needs some friends and people to have coffee with. Additionally, the client expresses her desire to work but she is too anxious to attend an interview. My view on this is that lack of socialization can cause anxiety, in light of this, I advice the client to get involved in social groups like in volunteer work to meet other people and socialize. The narrative outlines various effects of anxiety. For instance, anxiety might lead to health complications. The client attests that her heart beats several times faster and as a result of this, she’s scared of getting a heart attack. In the contemporary world, expectant mothers suffering from anxiety may end up giving birth to underweight babies. Underweight new born babies are faced with a number of medical problems in their lifetime. The brains and thinking capabilities are negatively affected. Anxiety might also lead to a deterioration of expectant mother’s general health condition not only during birth, but also after birth (Bemak, Chung & Pedersen, 2003) According to Sharf (2012), anxiety results in depression and behavioral change. For instance, the client in the narrative is shy of attending an interview. The client is also depressed to a point of succumbing to a heart attack. The client is anxious and worried about life without the company of her kids. Depression is associated with other evils such as attempting murder. In fact, I can attest that teens and children who experience anxiety perform poorly in their academic work at school and in other life matters. Poor performance is associated with low paying jobs and poor lifestyles. According to the narrative, anxiety may result in temporal ailments such as headache and other serious diseases like heart attacks (Sharp, & Cowie, 1998). Additionally, one might have a low appetite, become fatigued and run short of energy. In fact, some will display characteristics such as shyness and poor public expression. Other than the physical impact, anxiety will inflict serious psychological effects such as low self-esteem, panic attacks, mental stress, poor memory and many more. After identifying the problem of anxiety, some of its causes and its far reaching effects, it is necessary to externalize the problem and seek means of reducing or eliminating it. In my opinion as the counselor, the first step in solving the anxiety problem is by first externalizing the specific issue and accepting that one is having anxiety problems. In essence, one cannot solve a problem before acknowledging its existence. Acknowledging that someone is anxious lays a platform to finding a solution (DuPont, Spencer & DuPont 2003). I believe socializing with other people helps to drive out anxiety. Some of the unique outcomes I suggested in the narrative in an attempt to build alternative stories include that the client could end the anxiety and get to enjoy life more by joining a gardening club or a community group to meet other people. Meeting other people will expose the client to new and favorable experiences. Engaging with other people provides an avenue for discussing issues, and solution to many problems. Conclusion Narrative therapy is an alternative treatment for anxiety (Besley, 2006). The counselor digs into the genesis of the anxiety through an interrogative session with the client. I believe the most important information the client wanted to know from me as the counselor, is how to eliminate the anxiety and most presumably, how to handle it in future in case it recurs. I introduced the client suffering from anxiety to a new way of facing and defining the anxiety problem (Nelson-Jones, 2002). Externalising the problem by a counselor helps to place a boundary between the problem and the person (Fromme, 2011). In the narrative, the counselor presented the client with various solutions like being active and joining social groups. However these options are not exhaustive. Bibliography Abels, P & Abels, S. 2001 .Understanding narrative therapy: a guidebook for the social worker. New York: Springer Pub. Bemak, F., Chung R & Pedersen, P. 2003. Counseling refugees: a psychosocial approach to innovative multicultural interventions. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press. Besley, T. 2006. Counseling youth: Foucault, power, and the ethics of subjectivity. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Cassady, J. 2010.Anxiety in schools: the causes, consequences, and solutions for academic anxieties .New York: Peter Lang. Davies, B & Linnell, S. 2010. Art psychotherapy and narrative therapy: an account of practitioner research. Oak Park, IL: Bentham Science Publishers. Dorland, S. 2011. Exam Stress: No Worries! Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. DuPont, R., Spencer, E. & DuPont, C. (2003).The anxiety cure: an eight-step program for getting well. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley. Fransella, F. 2005. The Essential Practitioners Handbook of Personal Construct Psychology. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Fromme, D. 2011.Systems of psychotherapy: dialectical tensions and integration. New York: Springer. London [u.a.]: Sage. Nelson-Jones, R. 2002. Essential counselling and therapy skills: the skilled client model . Sharf, R. 2012.Theories of psychotherapy and counseling: concepts and cases. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. Sharp, S. & Cowie, H. 1998. Counselling and Supporting Children in Distress. London: SAGE Publications. Read More