Running head: CLIENT REPORT

Client Report Alissa A. Wulff The George Washington University

CLIENT REPORT CLIENT REPORT FOR CAREER AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Client: NaTia Reid Counselor: Alissa Wulff

Date of Report: August 21, 2013 Intake Completed: July 31 and August 14, 2013

Introduction: NaTia is a 29 year old female who comes into counseling today on a self-referral. Although she is currently working her way through a masters degree in a clinical mental health program she is very satisfied in, she wanted to discuss long-term goals and other interests that shed like to pursue. She has disclosed in our intake interview various difficult life situations that have shaped her career path. These included painful family deaths, transitions in careers, as well as religious implications to be discussed below. NaTia came across as a very intelligent, kind, responsible, and open individual. She has a very positive outlook on life, pride in her achievements, and appears to want to continue to succeed to the best of her ability. Given her upbringing and struggles throughout life, she appears to have a strong motivation to fulfill all of the life goals she has set for herself. She was previously in counseling 8 years ago to address issues related to a family death and 7 years ago during transition into civilian life after completing her tenure in the Air Force. At the moment, the client is currently residing in an apartment in Bethesda, Maryland. She is taking part-time graduate classes at the George Washington University, while also being employed part-time by the Department of Health and Human Services working as a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration Program Support Specialist. NaTia disclosed that she enjoys working in conjunction with her studies to allow her steady income while she is going through her formal clinical training. Based on the conversation with the client, she is here to further explore additional career options outside of her path to becoming a mental health practitioner. The sessions ahead will help NaTia explore the other career options and interests she has and hopefully integrate those more readily into her life either personally or professionally. The client is very self-aware coming into the session, so there may be a limited necessity for client to stay in long term counseling for these career related struggles. Regardless of which area she chooses to focus the majority of her career on, it is clear that she strives to work in a field which involves directly helping others. Background: NaTia comes from a close family of two parents and her two older sisters. She is the baby of the family and the only member thus far to complete formal education degrees in both undergraduate and graduate work. Not only did she achieve a college education, she grew up quickly in her description of enlisting in the Air Force upon her graduation of high school over 10 years ago. NaTia described that time of her life to be quite an adjustment, but one that forced her to

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mature, take on responsibility, and paved her way into adulthood. Her fathers career was focused in the construction industry, while her mother teaches elementary education. She spoke further about how her mother holds a very conservative outlook when it comes to work. Her mother believes that if someone has a job they enjoy, gets paid enough to be financially independent, and excel; there is no reason to take any risks in trying to gain upward mobility or growth in that industry. This seems very counterintuitive to the client, as she is not afraid of taking risks and realistic about the lessons to be learned upon potential risk of failure. Due to the fact that the client is the first in her family to achieve such academic endeavors, it is understandable how these conflicting ideals cause confusion for NaTia. She also disclosed feeling a lack of mentorship within her immediate family due to her personal accomplishments that had not been achieved previously. In a broader illustration of her familys past career fields, they predominantly fell under education, nursing, childcare, and business. Although her family members were very successful in these fields, she strived to create a lasting family legacy that could be passed on to future generations. Part of this motivation stems from her commentary on how after the passing of her father, her mother struggled as a single mother in providing for her children. It was this struggle that she hopes to avoid in the future for herself, her children, but also to have the capability to pay back her mother financially. She also shared that it also stems from a general caretaking perspective as she worked so hard throughout her life to give her the resources she needed to be successful and thrive. There have been a few events in NaTias life that have been devastating, but which she also draws positive lessons of appreciate of life and self-awareness. Very tragically, eight years ago she lost her father to a sudden brain aneurism, while a year ago she lost her close aunt to cancer. Both cases were sudden, unexpected, and really devastated NaTia and her family. Throughout telling these painful memories, she continued to speak calmly and stay positive in the face of what was clearly the most painful of times for her. There was a also a past relationship she disclosed which ended about a year ago in which she left a romantic relationship with a significant other of six years after he questioned and showed disapproval of her career and life goals and desires. The client was very brave to leave what was a very serious relationship, which was planned to end with marriage and having a family together. She disclosed that she is thankful she realized how much the lack of support impacted her confidence in wanting to pursue those avenues and dreams. The client disclosed that all of these losses helped give perspective and drive for NaTia to pursue her interests and she is quoted with the following thought, I now knew that life is not promised to anyone, and that we should make the best out of each day we have here on Earth. This powerful statement is very representative of the clients motivation and positive outlook on living life to its fullest. During our conversation about her employment history, the client discussed her first time entering counseling following the death of her father. This happened while still serving in the Air Force and she sought help to cope with the loss of such a loved figure in her life. She felt the typical symptoms of a death in the immediate family, to include sadness and depressed symptomology. Although the Air Force was such a positive and joyous learning experience for the client, she was mandated to seek career counseling following her completion of service about a year after her fathers passing This was something all servicemen and women were required to

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enroll in and she found it helpful in narrowing down the potential areas of focus. At this time she disclosed that during her service she worked with a staff psychologist whose compassion and impact on the soldiers lives peaked her interest in working in such a helping field. Following her completion of service, the client began working on her undergraduate bachelors degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing. Although the client describes her view of money as irrelevant when it comes to happiness, that it is a means to an end to provide the resources and opportunities for one and their family. She did enjoy the helping field, but decided to get a degree in business with the knowledge that she wanted to try our her entrepreneurial skills in the future, as well as the skills given through that education is transferable to numerous types of settings, to include potentially opening her own practice one day. Her first job post graduation was a position with the Department of Defense working at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a Program Support Specialist. The client described that position as administrative and customer service oriented, which she enjoyed. She stayed with that position for three years until transferring over to the Department of Health and Human Services that is currently where she is still employed. This line of work has given her the interaction in helping others indirectly through her project support and daily interaction, but she felt compelled to have a more direct approach to helping. That is when she decided to begin a graduate program in counseling to get her degree in Clinical Mental Health. She has been continuing to work while she is studying and finds the combination very busy, but rewarding thus far. Throughout the challenges and heartbreak she dealt with, her faith was in the forefront guiding her through her struggles. As a practicing Baptist, she describes having a temporary question of her faith shortly after dealing with the passing of her father. The client described feeling alone, sad, and angry with a failure from Gods end to take care of her and her family as they were all good Christians, which ended up bringing her family closer together. NaTia recounts having a shift from feeling let down by her faith, to embracing it as a motivator to live her life fully and whole-heartedly. At this time she also felt a deepened connection with her mother, who she said, showed her the will of God and how magnificent he is. Upon discussing her areas of interest outside of her counseling program, the client communicated that she also wanted to test her entrepreneurship abilities by opening her own doggy day care. She also has great interest in traveling the world, taking acting classes, and becoming fluent in Spanish. She has played with the idea of becoming a personal trainer as another helping profession due to the great benefits it provides her physically and mentally. Lastly, she describes gaining enjoyment out of watching movies and trying out new restaurants and hot spots around the DC/VA/MD area. Currently, NaTia reports being in a happy relationship with a very supportive and caring man. She is excelling in her graduate program and has obtained a great internship she is excited to begin in January 2014. Although she feels that she is on the right track for her with her career, she still wants to discuss other potential ways she can incorporate her interests into a part time career in addition to her counseling.

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Behavioral Observations: NaTia was very well spoken and confident of the woman she has become through the struggles and accomplishments shes already achieved in her life. She reports being very active with exercising on a daily basis, which helps her both physically and mentally. There were no behaviors exhibited that would warrant further exploration of any type of psychopathology at this time. Due to the fact that the most recent death in the family has been within a two year period, any disclosed symptoms of sadness are deemed typical when grieving the loss of a loved one. Should these symptoms increase and manifest throughout a long-term period, then it may be necessary to check back in with the client and assess further. Assessments: Due to her numerous areas of interest, the client was administered the Strong Inventory to gauge the levels within these numerous areas of interest. Her Holland Theme Code was EIR (Enterprising, Investigative, Realistic). The Enterprising component scored a high level of interest, while the Investigative and Realistic both had moderate standard scores. According to the Strong Inventory, enterprising individuals typically choose career areas such as business, leadership, and entrepreneurship, while valuing the ability to motivate or influence others, take risks, in fast paced environments. This doesnt come as a surprise based on the clients interests in starting a business or practice, as well as her military background that consisted of major themes of leadership and direction of others. The Investigative component correlates to her past employment history working for the US government in areas of interest to include medicine, research, and writing while valuing independent thinking, curiosity, and learning. This can be seen reflect in her administrative and customer service approach in both of her positions held with the Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services. Lastly, the Realistic score in this assessment suggests that one value of doing through working with machines, computer networks, athletics, and working outdoors. This certainly coincides with the clients fondness of physical activity and desire to create and build (a practice or company). The resulting data from the assessment reported that the strongest areas of interest with the combination of the Holland codes suggest the clients five strongest areas of interest include medical science, entrepreneurship, military, marketing and advertising, and performing arts. Based on the intake discussion with the client, all of these areas were touched upon by the client as having an interest. The first four all have connections to her past and present employment and educational endeavors, while the latter is an outside interest she disclosed through out discussion. Based on her personal scales of the interest, NaTia appears to benefit from working with ideas and things, analyzing data, learning through hands on experience, assuming leadership, voicing ideas or opinions on projects, ability to take risks and pursue new opportunities, and work both dependently and independently. Her current position has traits of all three of the Holland codes and fits well with her interests, but does not seem practical to sustain happiness and accomplishment for the long run. The client is motivated to reach above and beyond what she reports doing now and this current job does not

CLIENT REPORT appear to have the comprehensive edge to keep her satisfied for the long run. The client explained that she desires integrating multiple interests into her personal and professional goals. Summary and Recommendations: NaTia appears to be satisfied and moving forward in obtaining her future career as a mental health practitioner, but upon our discussion of integrating some other interests into her career path, the writer is offering the following recommendations for further discovering how to integrate these areas into her life while she continues to work on her professional development.

1. Continue Education and Professional Requirements: Its suggested she continue with her studies and complete her masters degree and associated internship required to practice as a mental health counselor. Upon completion of all educational requirements, if the client decides she would like to practice independently, she would need to focus on obtaining the required number of supervised hours and take the National Counselor Exam to qualify for licensure to practice privately in the future. 2. Explore Her Entrepreneurial Interests: Due to the clients natural ability and desire to test her entrepreneurship, she may want to further explore how the different areas of interest could be integrated into her own company or supporting another. She has a high drive for leadership and research that should further explore what it would entail for her to open her own doggy day care, have a personal training business, or start her own counseling practice. This could be done through reaching out to local entrepreneurs who have successfully started up their own ventures or perhaps a financial advisor who could help give insight into the business model and upfront costs. The clients background in business provides a strong foundation that further research may be integrated to fill in the gaps of how it could all be executed. 3. Defining Professional Identity: The client is very multifaceted with her skills and talents, that it may be helpful to hone down on one particular area to focus on the moment; whether it be the mental health practice, doggy day care, or personal training. By focusing on trying to do all three simultaneously, there is potential for that to be very overwhelming and it may overextend the clients current ability to manage all of these various areas. This can change throughout time, but for the short-term its suggested the client focus on one area to begin building upon for the future. Given the client has also suffered a devastating loss recently, with time this may change without conscious effort. 4. Meet with a Financial Advisor: Due to the clients concerns about financial resources, it may be beneficial (outside of entrepreneurship) for client to seek financial consulting. As she verbalized in our intake, there is a great importance for the client to be financially sound and have the ability to provide for her and family one day. As it is still early in her career, it may be important to address these concerns and values now while she is growing professionally to set a long-term plan in motion for savings. This can also provide insight into salary and other benefits that may clarify the types of positions the client holds in the future upon graduation.