Role playing for me is very anxiety inducing. I am not a good public speaker and I hate it when all the attention is on me. I am an introvert to the core. Going into the role play I was nervous and uncomfortable and was anticipating a challenging experience. After seeing the other role plays I knew that the topic I would cover would not be an easy one, but honestly in life when in life are topics ever easy?
For my role play I was a Faith-Based Social Worker that has a client base of social work professionals, clergy, and women in transition. My client was a young woman who had just found out that a friend had been out running and had been struck by a car and killed. Before the role play Thea (the client) and I decided that we would have rapport built before this session and had been seeing each other for some time. Immediately when the client entered the room I could tell that she was emotionally distraught. I could read it in her face and in her body language. I greeted her and immediately began assessing what was bothering her. As soon as she told me her news I replied with an empathetic response and shared that I was sorry for her loss. She then continued to describe that it was unfair that her friend had lost her life and asked me why God would do something like this.
Strengths/Weaknesses and Ethic Issues…
Our role play was timed so that it took place a few sessions in. A spiritual assessment would have been done early on in the counseling relationship. From this point forward though I think the client’s spirituality will play a huge role in her counseling sessions. She questions why God would allow her friend to die. She always described how spiritual she was and how much she depended on her faith. She described how since her friend’s’ death she was faltering on some of her spiritual rituals. Working with her and getting her back on track with her spiritual rituals could go a long way in helping her…
