Michelle Davis

000229719

Raynor-001

October 4, 2010

Critical Evaluation of Nutrition Counseling Role-Play

In order to get a feel for how a nutrition counseling session would go, we had

a role-play in class. With a partner, we practiced both as a client and as a counselor.

During this exercise we evaluated each other’s performances as counselors. The

following describes an overview of each counseling role-play session as well as a

performance evaluation for both my partner and myself as counselors. This exercise

was effective in teaching my partner and me our strengths and weaknesses as

counselors as well as how we can improve our techniques.

Role Play Counseling Session 1:

For the first counseling session my partner played the role of counselor, and I

was the client. As the client, I informed my counselor that I have hypertension, high

cholesterol, and a high body mass index of 35. I have a sedentary job and do not

participate in much physical activity. I skip breakfast and lunch, and around 3 pm I

am hungry and eat constantly until bedtime. I usually eat snack foods but not a lot of

fruits and vegetables. I also told my counselor that I do not feel very educated about

my health conditions or how to better my habits.

 My counselor helped me through our discussion to pick out my real issue,

which was that I felt uneducated about my health conditions. She empathized with

me when I told her I just did not know what to do to help myself and my

hypertension, high cholesterol, or obesity. I told her that I would be willing to attend

classes, if they were available, to learn about my conditions and how to fix them. I

did not know where to begin to search for any sort of class. To close our session, my

counselor set a goal for me before our next session. That goal was to research food

and exercise classes that I could possibly attend.

My counselor’s strengths out-weighed her weaknesses, I thought. Throughout

the session, instead of telling me what she thought I should do, she helped me to

figure out what I thought I should do. She was able to effectively identify what issue

was most critical and what I wanted to fix the most. As a weakness, I felt that my

counselor could have presented her advice in a more sympathetic way. During the

session she did emphasize with me, but as she presented her advice to me, she seemed

a little harsh. Overall, however, I think that she did very well as a counselor.

For my partner, I would recommend that she have a friendlier atmosphere in

her counseling sessions. That is not to say that she was unfriendly to me during our

role-play session. I only recommend to take into account the client’s attitude towards

that counseling session and situation and to adjust to that client’s behavior. Since I

thought my partner did a pretty good job, this is the only recommendation I can think

of for her.

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Role Play Counseling Session 2:

For the second counseling session, I played the role as counselor, and my

partner was the client. My client explained to me that she has Type II Diabetes and

has hypoglycemic “episodes”. She drinks regular coke when she has these episodes.

She does not pay attention to her carbohydrate counting and eats three meals a day

plus snacks twice a day. My client also does not exercise and has a high body mass

index of 30. My client explained to me that she wants to have better control of her

diet.

As counselor I identified that my client knew what her challenge was. This

was that she has a busy lifestyle. She had explained to me that she would like to have

better time management skills in order to manage her meal portions and be able to

count her carbohydrates better. She also mentioned that she could start helping

herself by switching to diet coke as a drink instead of regular coke. I assessed that my

client understood that her daily activities put her at further risk of diabetes-related

diseases. She has an understanding of what diabetes is and how she obtained it, but

she does not apply that understanding to her daily life.

I identified that my client seemed to be in the preparation/action stage to begin

monitoring her meal portions and counting her carbohydrates. This means she is

ready to make a change in these areas. In the way of exercise, she is still in the

contemplation stage, meaning she is not ready to add this activity to her daily life.

Together, we came up with some ideas to incorporate time management skills into her

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daily life, which seemed to be the main issue my client wanted to work on. We

decided that she would try to get up early before work and pack a lunch, or she would

take the time in the evening to pack her lunch for the next day. After accomplishing

this goal, she would try to set aside time to add physical activity to her day.

I believe that one of my weaknesses was in identification of the client’s main

issue. I had a difficult time picking out what my client wanted to change for herself,

but as the session carried on I was able to decipher the main problem area. I also had

a hard time finding the right words to say to my client without sharing my own

opinion about her situation. I felt strong in empathizing with my client. Even though

it was difficult to hold my opinions to myself, I was still able to do so, and I feel that

this was a strong point as well.

If I had to make a recommendation for myself to better my performance as a

counselor, it would probably be to pay better attention to what the client is telling me

in order to identify the main problem. Listening skills are critical in these

circumstances and are areas that I should work on. I also believe that more practice

would be beneficial in becoming a better counselor.

Evaluation

Overall I believe this exercise was very beneficial. Without this exercise we

would not have been able to identify areas that we could begin to work on before we

are able to practice in the future. We also would not have known what areas we are

capable of doing well in. I feel that my partner and I were able to teach each other

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how we can improve our weak points in the area of nutrition counseling. This was an

effective exercise that allowed us to apply what knowledge we have gained in our

coursework to a counseling session and to be able to help a client using that

knowledge.