First
I want to say that I enjoyed reading through all of the other blog entries thus
far for Week five. Not that I take joy in the fact that you guys are suffering
from stress, but rather as I talked about somewhat with my group members last
week during class it is alleviating to know that others are dealing with much
of the same stressors that I am as well.
Obviously the chapter within the Corey & Corey
(2008) text mentioned an incredible amount of stressors some of which were much
more serious than others in regards to scope. In regards to those that present
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder I can say that I am fortunate enough to not have
experienced one in my life. However, the notion of striving for unrealistically
high goals basically has my life written all over it. Whether it be in school,
work or life I feel that I routinely set optimal goals without first examining
the steps necessary to achieve them. However, I feel that entering the school
counseling program has certainly started to teach me how to take these aspects
one step at a time in order to try and achieve these goals by implementing
process goals to make product goals attainable.
The weeks we read Chapters 3 going into Chapter 4 I
had kind of forgotten this aspect and had definitely experienced burnout
forcing myself to complete school work and paperwork for work before ever partaking
in free time for myself. After getting a little free time I was able to start
focusing on getting free time for myself and realized that I needed to focus
and work on my process goals before attaining my product goals and it made this
week much easier to work through.
As for
the Greason & Cashwell (2009) article I thought it was pretty interesting.
After getting “mindfulness” better explained to me and how it differs from REBT
this article was much easier to understand than last weeks. Some of the points
made to me about counselor self-efficacy touched home. I think that the belief
that you can do it is probably the most important aspect arguably more so than
the knowledge. I was very happy to get acceptance into the program but did not
know if I was going to be able to counsel people even with the proper education
and training. However, working with practice clients thus far has made me feel
much better and has improved my confidence and reduced my stress levels
tremendously. As for empathy I feel that it too is an incredibly crucial aspect
of being a counselor as well. If you don't genuinely care for someone's success
or trials they will be able to tell. I have to disagree with the article’s
findings although I realize that their research means more than my personal
feelings. As for the mindfulness aspect of the article I can now see how
mindfulness can relate to self-efficacy and, although the findings weren’t
significant, empathy as well. The idea of picking up on nonverbals in relation
to what is being said as a part of mindfulness is something that is being
discussed in all three of my courses currently and something I really want to
work on going forward in this program. I think seeing “mindfulness” as the way they
say at the end of the article - observing, describing, non-judging, non-reacting,
and acting with awareness - will definitely help me going forward.
Corey, G. & Corey,
M.S. (2008). I never knew I had a choice: Exploration in personal growth (9th
Edition). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole
Edition). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole
Greason, P., &
Cashwell, C. S. (2009). Mindfulness and Counseling Self-Efficacy: The Mediating
Role of Attention
and Empathy. Counselor Education & Supervision, 49(1), 2-19
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