COUN 533

Self Reflection Part 2

Ashley Shultz

1. SELECT ONE of the following to write an essay on:

1. d. Gift Giving:

In this scenario a client (student) gives me a tin or plate full of homemade cookies from their

family for the holiday season. I think this will probably be the most common scenario I would

face as a school counselor. In this case I would consider the cultural ramifications of the gift.

Would declining this gift be more of a cultural slap in the face than accepting it? Depending on

the culture and background of the student, they may see refusal as a sign of disrespect. Also,

in the U.S., the holiday season is typically the time of year when presents are exchanged. I

know personally, that my family does a lot of holiday baking and dropping off trays and tins of

cookies. For us it gives us a chance to say a quick hello or thank you to our neighbors or

colleagues without having to go out and spend money. This might be a way for that student and

their family to feel like they could show appreciation without having to spend a lot of money.

That leads me to my second thought - was the gift expensive? In this case I would see that the

value of the gift would be less than the gesture behind it. I know that when my family does

holiday baking we don’t usually spend more than about $20 or $30 in supplies, but that will yield

us enough to make multiple trays. I would imagine that the student and their family did not

spend lots of money on this gift.

Overall in this scenario I would probably accept the tray of cookies and tell the student thank

you, but also explain that they didn’t need to do this. If need be this would be a great

opportunity to speak with a student who lacked some social skills about making sure that gifts

weren’t used to “buy” friendships or fulfilment. I would just want to potentially make a quick note

about the gift so that if an issue in the future came up with this student about additional gift

giving I could explain why I accepted this one, but not the cookies. It would also be an area in
which I could send an email or quick call to the parent as a thank you for the cookies and give

the same explanation - that it wasn’t necessary but a thoughtful gift nonetheless.
 2. Competence:

To be competent as a counselor, I need to be able to have knowledge in the specific content

area, having a solid background in ethics and laws in counseling, and having good relationship

skills. In making sure that I am knowledgeable in the specific content area that means that I

have taken all the necessary classes or professional development to work with clients facing

particular issues. For example, if I have a client who comes to me and is struggling with

depression, that is an area that I should have content knowledge about and techniques to try

and help them. If I have a client that needs counseling due to drug addiction and I have not

taken any professional development in treating clients with drug addiction, then ethically I

should refer that client to someone with experience in that area. All of the major professional

ethics codes make mention of recognizing their boundaries in competence of an area and

knowing when NOT to treat someone. As a professional I also need to make sure that I’m

keeping up with legal and ethical issues in my profession. That means joining a local

counseling organization so that I can make sure I’m keeping up with changes in ethics codes.

Finally, the last area of competence is not in the content area of counseling per se, but rather

working on maintaining good relationship skills for my clients. For me, some of those

relationships will come with experience, but continuing to take classes and attend professional

development opportunities will also enhance those skills.

I think back to my first years as a teacher. I worked really hard at knowing my content, but was

weak in classroom management and student supports. Over the years I have worked hard to

attend professional development that focused more on those areas that I needed work in and

feel much more competent than I did 15 years ago. Maintaining competence and

professionalism isn’t just something that I want to say I’m doing, but rather I want to make sure

that I’m still actively engaging in development opportunities that will make me a better school

counselor.
 3. Supervision:

As a someone who went through a student teaching process prior to certification, I believe that

the process will be similar for supervision as I do my internship. From a student point of view, I

believe it is important to know what type of supervision will be conducted, how feedback will

occur, and any multiple relationships that may happen.

Typically supervisors have three main methods of supervision - self report, verbal exchange,

and direct supervision. While each has benefits and drawbacks, I believe it would be most

beneficial if my supervisor had some type of combination of all three. For example, during my

student teaching semester I was under the immediate supervision of my cooperating teacher

who I would frequently have informal conversations with, but would also have an outside

observer come in throughout the semester to report on my progress. I was also asked to record

lessons that I taught and do reflective feedback on those. I believe that having different types of

supervision made me a better teacher in that I could have those informal conversations with my

cooperating teacher without feeling as though everything was going to affect my outcome. If I

had an internship semester that relied only on self report I don’t think it would be as beneficial

as I wouldn’t have someone to bounce ideas off of, or help me in an immediate situation. On

the other hand if I had a supervisor who was in my sessions with students 24/7, it may be

harder to build those relationships because there was another person there.

Another ethical issue that may come up during supervision is how a supervisor provides

feedback. Feedback is important for understanding what happened and potential ways that an

issue can be solved in the future. Just like using the decision making model, feedback should

include identifying potential issues involved, consultation, and considering all possible

outcomes. Depending on how a supervisor views supervision, they could focus only on the

positives and achievements that happened during the internship or they could end up only

identifying the weaknesses and areas that need to be corrected. Just as before, I believe that a
supervisor should balance somewhere in between. It is important to focus on the positives that

a student has accomplished. This can help build confidence in their professional abilities. It is

also important to identify areas of weakness for a student counselor, especially if ethical or legal

dilemmas are involved. In this way, the supervisor becomes a person to consult with throughout

the internship.

Finally, as I am going into the school counseling pathway, it is important for me to consider the

multiple roles my supervisor may play. My supervisor may end up being an administrator within

my building or a current counselor that I work with. If it is a supervisor that is a current

administrator it is important to distinguish the supervision will only focus on the counseling and

that different methods may be used than during traditional teaching observations/evaluations. If

it is a current counselor that I work with as a colleague it will be important to address the

potential imbalance of power during that internship. Their goal should be to help evaluate me

as a potential school counselor which means understanding that I have less experience than

they do in those areas. I will say that I am looking forward to working through these courses

and getting into an internship and putting what I’ve been learning into practice.
 4. Diagnosis:

I definitely think that there is a time and place for a diagnosis, but that they are not always

necessary. When looking back through my chapter notes, I found that Behavioral Therapy

seemed like the type of counseling that fit best with what I know about counseling so far. In

behavioral therapy, assessment is part of the initial discovery of a client’s problem or issue.

While not the primary focus of behavioral therapy, it is still critical that diagnosis is considered so

that appropriate techniques are used to address the issues. One of the big reasons that I think

diagnosis could be important is so that goals can be specific towards not only the client’s issue,

but how they think, feel, and see the world based on their diagnosis. Diagnosis can also give

me the opportunity to evaluate the progress of my client. Because I would have a frame of

reference to a diagnosis, I could check and see if the criteria or symptoms had lessened from

my initial diagnosis. Finally, if I ever decided to go into private practice diagnosis might be

necessary for the client to have insurance pick up part or all of the sessions.

While I think that diagnosis can be important for many reasons, there are also some concerns

that I have. If I diagnose a student there is a chance that I could stigmatize that student if I had

to speak with other counselors in the school about how to help them. Even more so, I think that

I would have to be very thoughtful about not stigmatizing that student myself in any future

sessions we had. This means that I would need to make sure I was treating the whole student

and not just their condition. Along with that, if a student asked about their diagnosis I would feel

morally obligated to tell them. I worry that it could lead them down a rabbit hole of searching

their diagnosis or even playing into that diagnosis and using it as a possible crutch throughout

school. Overall, I don’t think that I will probably be diagnosing students as a school counselor,

but I think doing an initial intake and identifying themes to explore in sessions would be more

beneficial than making sure I checked all the boxes of the DSM-5.
 5. Ethics in Group Work:

As a school counselor I would have an opportunity to create different groups depending on the

needs of students. At the school I currently work at as a teacher an area of need I see is for an

LBGTQ+ group. In doing some searching, the most commonly started school group to support

LBGTQ+ students is a Gay-Straight Alliance or GSA. One of the things I would first need to

consider when creating this group is why I believe it should be started. At my school right now

there is not a very supportive environment for LBGTQ+ students and many within the school

contribute to the toxic culture with slurs and harassment. I would want to make sure that I

defined the purpose of the group before starting.. Do I want this to be a support group for

students who are struggling with identity issues or for those dealing with harassment at school?

Or should it be more social giving students a community of their own and reducing isolation of

those students? At this point I believe the group would best be served by making it both a

support group and a social group. I would need to create a document outlining those two areas

and what that would look like. I think it would even be best to create almost a skeleton of a

calendar and what issues will be addressed at those meetings, but also leaving some dates as

open for discussion so the group had a chance to decide what they wanted to talk about.

Once I created the group and got support from my school I would open membership to all

students and create a group that continued to have open membership. At the initial meeting I

would make sure to spend lots of time on informed consent. This would include explaining the

limits of confidentiality - in that I will keep confidentiality at all times except in the case of harm to

self, harm to others, or suicide. I would also make sure to explain to the group that others are

not bound to the same level of confidentiality as I am, but that in order for the group to be open

and transparent within our meetings that confidentiality is of the utmost importance. I would lay

out some group norms of my choosing - confidentiality, the right to leave at any point, one

person speaking at a time without interruptions, and keeping language positive and harassment
free I would also want to give students the opportunity within the first few meetings to create

their own group norms to allow for buy in and participation. I did find these guidelines created

by GLSEN that I would use (https://www.glsen.org/activity/guidelines-respectful-gsa-spaces).

I find that in a school setting the most important ethical issue that I would face is confidentiality

and making sure that the space was open for everyone. By starting every meeting off with

confidentiality expectations I believe that will help. I may also need to discuss with individual

students as necessary about remaining confidential about other students and how that affects

the relationship of the entire group.

 6. Advocacy:

Having spent my last almost 15 years in rural Kansas communities, I can say that many

communities could benefit from having social justice advocacy within their community. Social

justice advocacy is important because it makes sure that categories of people who have

traditionally been oppressed or ignored have someone fighting for them. However, in my

experience, small towns are often those most fearful of changing at all, especially if that change

goes against traditionally held values.

The last school that I taught at (middle of Kansas, approximately 2,000 people) had roughly

65% of students accepting free or reduced lunch. The community had also struggled with higher

than average meth usage and addiction rates. As a school district we focused on whole student

teaching and understanding what many families were going through. A group called CIRCLES

came in and did a handful of presentations and even began working within the community to

develop direct client and direct community services. Individuals in poverty were partnered with

a circle leader who helped work with them individually to develop plans to help get them out of

poverty. This wasn’t a handout, but rather a person that could be within their “circle network”

and have someone who could mentor them. The group also provided many direct community

service presentations not only about the program but also specific financial or educational

nights. Many small towns in the surrounding areas were able to pick up this program while

there were not thousands affected by this, getting one person out of poverty often had a better

effect on many around them.

Social justice advocacy can be difficult in small, rural communities because they face

resistance. However if an advocate can work within the community finding resources or

services to help their clients, then there is probably a better success rate. I think the most

difficult part would be the high burnout and turnover rate. Because a small, rural community

probably has a harder time drawing in counselors in the first place, it would be difficult if one
were to leave. It would also be difficult for a new person to come in and understand the

dynamics of the community and want to push a social justice perspective. I think that if I were

ever to go back to small, rural communities, that I would work to create school wide “community”

opportunities for my students such as FAFSA night or career exploration days. This would give

some students who had traditionally not considered a post secondary education or a different

career would have someone opening them to the possibilities.

 7. Critique of the movie, GOOD WILL HUNTING:

After watching through the movie Good Will Hunting, I found a handful of ethical, moral, and

legal issues that I never really thought about until taking this course. A number of ethical

dilemmas occur including informed consent, confidentiality, multiple relationships, physical

contact, and self disclosures.

One of the issues that face therapist Sean at the beginning is failure to provide informed

consent to Will at the initial session. According to the American Counseling Association’s 2014

Code of Ethics, “counselors have an obligation to review in writing and verbally with clients the

rights and responsibilities of both counselors and clients” (American Counseling Association,

2014). It is important that counselors share with their clients about counseling and the process

of counseling so that a client can make an informed decision as to whether they are going to

participate or not. Part of informed consent also addresses issues of confidentiality and multiple

relationships. Those ethical issues by Sean could have been avoided later if he had created an

informed consent document and went through it with Will initially. A probable course of action

Sean could take would be to consult with colleagues who did not go through informed consent

at the outset of treatment for ideas. As Sean goes into the next session with Will he should

make sure that informed consent is discussed at the beginning so Will can make decisions

about continuing therapy with Sean. I was surprised that Sean would have chosen not to go

over informed consent with Will. As a counseling professor himself, he should be well versed in

the legal and ethical requirements. If I were in Sean’s place, I would have made it part of my

intake routine to discuss paperwork with the client and answered any questions they had about

the counseling process before diving into the actual counseling session. This way the client

could address any hesitations or concerns they had before confiding in me. If I were a

colleague of Sean’s and found out that he had not done initial informed consent, I would

recommend to him that he makes sure to address informed consent with all clients during the
initial session and follow up at the beginning of sessions to make sure clients have all the

information they need.

Another ethical issue that Sean faces throughout the film is confidentiality. Sean has the

obligation to let Will know that he may not be able to keep everything confidential as counseling

is a condition of his release. According to section A.2.e of the ACA’s Code of Ethics, even with

a client who has been mandated to attend counseling “counselors also explain what type of

information and with whom that information is shared prior to the beginning of

counseling” (American Counseling Association, 2014). In this case some of the potential issues

involved include that Sean may have to disclose information about Will’s sessions and his

progress. If Will knew that at the beginning, he may have been more or less reluctant to

participate in counseling. Similar to informed consent, Sean will need to make sure that he

addresses this issue with Will at the next session and inform him of not only the limits of

confidentiality, but also that if he chooses not to continue with counseling due to the limited

confidentiality, there may be legal ramifications for him. I will say though, that Sean did make a

good decision when he at the first session he asked Professor Lambeau and the other professor

(or maybe graduate student?) to leave so that it was private. Even if they have a vested interest

in Will’s counseling, it is ultimately up to Will whether they are part of the session or not. Similar

to the last ethical issue, it would be surprising if an actual professor of counseling did not inform

the client of confidentiality. While that would have made for a less than exciting part in the film,

it is something that would occur in real life.

Had I been in Sean’s shoes I would have gone through confidentiality and informed consent at

the initial meeting. I would explain the limits of confidentiality in this scenario and that I may

have to break confidentiality if the legal system required an update or if Will was potentially

going to harm himself or someone else. If I had not gone through confidentiality at the first

session, then I would make sure that I address the issue at the next session. I would want to
apologize for not doing it at the first session, but that it is important that Will knows when I may

have to break confidentiality.

One of the more interesting dynamics in this movie was the multiple relationships that Sean had

with Professor Lambeau and living in the same area/neighborhood as Will. The movie implied

that Will knew that Sean and Lambeau knew each other from college (I can’t quite recall if

Lambeau told Will that Sean was his roommate, or if that was given to the audience another

point). However, even if it was implied, Sean should have used the initial meeting where he

discussed informed consent and confidentiality to also address the multiple relationship. If I

were in Sean’s shoes I would have explained to Will that I had known Professor Lambeau in

college, but that whatever is said between Will and I would remain confidential. Just because

Lambeau was the reason Will was released from prison doesn’t mean that he is privy to the

conversations that take place in session. I would let Will know that because we live in the same

area, we may end up seeing each other out and about and that I can either ignore him

completely or I can make a general hello - but it would be something that we discuss as part of

our first session. If a colleague of Sean’s had the chance to speak to him, they may recommend

that Sean make it clear to Will that his relationship with Lambeau would not affect his counseling

and that Will had the right to request a referral if he did not feel comfortable with the

relationship.

One of the more serious issues that happened during the film was during the first session when

Will was pushing Sean and Sean grabbed Will and pushed him up against the wall. In this

scenario Will was pushing Sean to see what would get him riled up and for a while Sean had

been doing a good job of listening and bringing the questions back to Will. When Will brings up

Sean’s wife though is when he snaps and pushes him by the throat up against the wall. Beyond

being an ethical issue, it is also a legal one in which Will could push for assault charges.
Pulling back a bit, if Sean had known from the initial meeting with Lambeau that Will was a

difficult case and was one who liked to prove his intelligence, then Sean could have met with a

colleague prior to the first session to get some ideas on how to proceed. This would have given

Sean the opportunity to think about different techniques to use with Will that might have diffused

the situation more. Once the assault happened, Sean should have immediately taken himself

off of the case and given Will the chance to get a referral. He should also let Will know that he

is able to press charges because it was inappropriate of him to touch Will. I think that Sean

taking Will to the park for the next session was an odd “apology” of sorts and wasn’t even a real

apology for what happened because it was more just pushing at Will’s inability to have

experienced anything more at life than just his small neighborhood. Had this between myself

and a client I honestly don’t know how I would proceed. I would probably let the client know that

it was inappropriate of me to do that and that I will refer them immediately and they should press

charges. I know it would mean the loss of my license, but if I’m to the point where I’m hurting

clients then I need to be out of the profession.

The final ethical issue that I saw happen between Sean and Will were Sean’s self-disclosures.

One of the first times this happens is in the park during the next session after the assault. Sean

talks about his time in the military, his love for his wife, and the battles that he and his wife faced

with her illness. Later Sean tells Will the story of how he and his wife met. One of the concerns

with self disclosure is thinking about why it is happening and whether it helps the client or

burdens them. In this case Sean begins making self disclosures to poke at Will and make him

realize how much he doesn’t have. By doing this Sean is acting unethically because he is

contributing harm towards his client. Section A.4.B. of the ACA’s Code of Ethics states

“counselors are aware of—and avoid imposing—their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and

behaviors” (American Counseling Association, 2014). Sean should realize that while he focuses

on having love and a soulmate to make him a complete person, that not everyone else values

those ideas. Sean should do some independent work to consider what his values are and how
they may affect different clients. He should keep self disclosures to a minimum unless it helps

make a connection to an idea or goal of the client. Another reason to be concerned with self

disclosures is that the client may want to engage in relationships outside of the counseling

sessions because they feel as though they have developed a relationship within counseling.

I will say that I have been known to use self disclosures in my classroom from time to time.

Sometimes it is at the beginning of the week when asking students what they did over the

weekend and they ask me what I did. Sometimes self disclosures help me explain a particular

concept more to students - for example, I often tell students that I was really bad at taking notes

in college and that had I taken better notes in my first few semesters of college, it might have

been easier for me. I then give them examples of ways that they could take notes. Not a

personal self disclosure per se, but for me I find that it helps personalize the educational

process. I will have to make sure that I am aware of my self disclosures in counseling and that

they are used to reinforce a concept, not just that I want to “make friends” with my clients.
 8. Shifts in Your Thinking about Ethics:

One of the things that hit home for me most was when reading through Chapter 3 (section 3-4a)

in which the author states that “counseling is about the client, not the counselor”. I know this

seems like such a simple and obvious statement, but much of what this course was about was

how to handle issues in which the utmost care was taken for the client. One of the things I

didn’t realize was how much work it will take to make sure that I’m remaining ethical. I honestly

thought much of this class was going to be presenting us with issues in which there were clear

cut black and white sides, but often that was not the case. For example, I knew that it was

going to be important to keep confidentiality among my clients/students. However, how that

changes within a group dynamic was not something I had considered. What if a student within

a group decides to spread information across social media? Should the student be asked to

leave the group? What if they are mandated to attend this group? What if the rest of the group

struggles because of the single student’s posts on social media? I had to adjust my thinking

and not think of ethics as a black and white issue, but rather something that I will need to

continually evaluate as I practice counseling.

Along with this may be the multiple roles that I take on within a school. As a counselor in a

school I may be asked to take on multiple roles such as individual counseling, hosting college

seminars, working within a teacher’s classroom on social and emotional learning. It is important

that I have dialogue with students, teachers, and even parents about my responsibilities within

each of those roles. I think the issue of multiple relationships will become even more hectic the

older my children get and when they come up to high school. I will need to make sure that I let

my children and their friends know of what they can expect of me both at school and at home.

If I had to give myself a grade for participation and assess my learning, I would award an 85%. I

worked to make sure that I was taking the survey and reading some of the chapters early in the

week. It would give me the opportunity to post my initial discussion early enough that I would be
able to read and respond to others. There were times in which it became difficult to read

through and respond to enough posts if I had other responsibilities. I know there was one week

that I “finished” everything by Friday so that I could devote the entire weekend to activities that I

was doing with my family, but that meant that I did not read anyone’s posts from Friday,

Saturday, or Sunday. I also did my best to try and write some thoughts on this paper each week

that we were in that chapter. That way the entire paper was not completed at the last minute

(although I did wait to do the Good Will Hunting review and this last question until the last

week!!). I will say that I enjoyed reading through the discussion forum posts much more in this

class than I did when working on my last master’s degree. For that one, most of the time I was

just required to write one response to a question and then do the assignments. Whereas in this

course I felt that I got a lot more out of reading each of my classmates' posts and comparing my

answers with them. I will say my only concern about going forward in this program is just feeling

overwhelmed with the time and depth of assignments. I’m hoping that right now is just an

adjustment period working during a pandemic and learning how to go back to school. Thank

you though for a great first semester. I look forward to taking more courses with you in the

future.