Running head: THREE TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS OF WELLSPRING COUNSELING
Three Transformative Projects of Wellspring Counseling
Riley Murdock
Arizona State University
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THREE TRANSFORMATIVE PROJECTS OF WELLSPRING COUNSELING
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Three Transformative Projects of Wellspring Counseling
Introduction
During my work at my second internship, Wellspring Counseling, I focused on three
projects. These projects each align with one of the nine core competencies of social work. They
each represent either a micro or a mezzo intervention. In each project, I found out more about
myself. I developed and changed through my internship with Wellspring Counseling. This
report attempts to showcase some of those changes
Hero’s Leap
Hero’s Leap was a group that met weekly for four weeks. It focused on helping group
members develop motivation, confidence, social support, and progress toward individual goals.
Members accomplished this through completing daily goals, and a weekly check-in group.
During this weekly group, members would update one another on their progress and take part in
a tabletop game. Table Top games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, often involve multiple
players assuming roles or characters in a role-playing scenario. For the most part, the game
follows Dungeons and Dragons 5e Format (Dndbeyond n.d.) This gaming portion of the group
provides a fun outlet and an opportunity for meaning-making. As the facilitator, I crafted the
story to act as an exciting metaphor for the accomplishments and challenges experienced by each
client during the week. One of the hypotheses I wanted to test was if these game sessions taught
visual lessons to group members that were impactful or memorable.
I was able to recruit 4 volunteers to do the first group. They all volunteered for this
specific intervention. Each identified as wanting to have more motivation in their lives. I first
provided a short form asking several questions about their goals and what they would like to see
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in this group. I then met with each member individually to identify their goals and collaborate
with them to create daily tasks in efforts to achieve each goal. I put all of that information
together and created a scenario and character templates for each group member. I created a log
web page where group members could record and see their progress toward their goals. On our
meeting days, I structured a two-hour session. Initially, there were 20 minutes for group
members to check in with their team on their weekly progress. We then had 75 minutes for the
gaming experience. After this, I encouraged group members to talk about the quest and how it
correlates with their real lives. I encouraged members to discuss the conclusions or deeper
meanings they’ve been able to draw about themselves this week. Throughout the group planning
and implementation, I was able to address questions, concerns, and progress with my supervisor
and fellow counselors.
The intervention level of this activity qualifies as a mezzo intervention because it works
with small groups or families (Langer and Lietz, 2017). Mezzo- level work focuses on working
with clients on an intermediate level. Mezzo work can take place in hospitals, at schools, military
facilities, or many other locations. The key factor is that working with a mezzo population means
you’re not working on the individual level. It also indicates that you’re not working so large a
level to be considered a community (Langer and Lietz, 2017).
The core competency that best fits this project is to “Engage Diversity and Difference in
Practice. Men and mixed cultural groups often struggle with traditional therapies (Cleary, 2005).
For men, part of the struggle comes from poor social connections or poor skills in acquiring
support (Cleary 2005, Bryan-Bedell and Waite, 2010). Mixed-cultural groups often view
themselves as a collective culture which is at odds with the individualistic nature of western
therapy modalities (Chen and Davenport, 2005). Narrative therapy, and by extension, this
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project, seek to provide an alternative therapeutic service that focuses on metaphors and visual or
experiential illustrations. A focus on metaphors often bypasses cultural limitations (Satir 1991).
One of the goals is to ease clients into social support environments by engaging groups in
collaborative, role-playing games. In this way, Hero’s leap seeks to provide better support to
underserved populations.
I chose this project because it meets my own needs for support and meaning-making. I
learn visually and would like to have a form of counseling that relies heavily on visual
experiences, and metaphors. I’ve struggled with addiction throughout my life, and I’ve disliked
the heavy feelings present in 12-step groups. I thought to myself - what would it be like, to have
a system of support that provides more meaning (through metaphor) and is structured in a way
that rewards me for attending? Better yet, what would it be to quickly and naturally develop
relationships of trust with my team? I recognize that the audience for this type of intervention is
very small. For those of us interested in this niche service, I believe this intervention can be
astoundingly helpful. This project has been a huge part of my learning experience. I’ve been
able to incorporate my classes to improve this group. It feels right to be working on this. I’ve
discovered that I am good at researching and planning groups. One of my weaknesses is taking
action. It has taken me literally months to select volunteers, prepare campaigns, schedule, and
complete groups. A valuable lesson I learned was that this group (and others I’ll create) is not
about proving that this approach works. Rather, it’s testing if it does. When I approach this and
other tasks with the feeling of experimentation and creativity, I bring with it a playfulness to
everything I do. Clients and staff pick up on my feelings. It changes the entire experience.
Providing Therapeutic Service
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In my second project, I supported a small caseload of Pro Bono clients. Before taking on
a caseload, I observed sessions of the clinicians for approximately three-months. After this
observation, I was given referrals by other counselors. I worked with clients to complete initial
assessments and their treatment plans. Then I met with the clients weekly to help them meet their
goals. I was given a wide variety of clients and issues to address. This included focusing on
trauma, couples’ work, family work, grief work, ADHD support, and pornography addiction. I
received significant mentoring from my supervisor and other counselors to help me address each
client and situation. We also had weekly ethics training. In addition to meeting with clients
weekly, I would reevaluate their progress according to their selected goals. It was quite satisfying
to see the breakthroughs and progress of clients.
This project classifies as a micro intervention (Zastrow & Hessenauer, 2019). So does
work with couples and families (Hepworth et al., 2016). By being solely focused on the growth
of my clients, and not larger groups, I maintained my focus at a micro-level. All of my
interventions were focused on helping individuals, couples, and families. In this project, I didn’t
use any of my time working with groups or larger families (Mezzo) or larger organizations/
communities (Macro level).
This project focused on the core competency of Demonstrating Ethical and Professional
Behavior. I recognize that I am an intern and student. It is my responsibility to build skills so
that I can serve the needs of my clients. I am not yet a counselor and foreseeably won’t feel
entirely prepared in this field for several more years. In this project, I am focusing on improving
my education in ethics and professional practice.
I chose this project because I love working directly with individuals and families. I love
focusing all of my energy on supporting others. I appreciate the individual learning that I get
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when I’m involved in a client’s growth. I improve as an individual and in my understanding,
empathy, and skills as a clinician. I often felt unequipped to address situations with clients or in
other aspects of the work. Paperwork can be daunting. One lesson I learned is that self-care
most-often includes doing my emotional work. In this way, I was able to recharge my batteries
and have a good perspective. One of my strengths is deeply understanding clients and their
experiences. A weakness that I discovered is that I often get bored if I’m not ‘going deep’ with
people. I always want to be exploring new ideas. I also noticed that I had a hard time connecting
with others if they weren’t my clients. At one point, I realized that I got the most satisfaction
out of the time I spent working with clients. I changed my schedule and essentially doubled my
caseload. My mood improved, and my learning increased. The biggest lesson I learned was from
my Boss, Bob. He easily trusted and cared about me. This is a real-world example of
unconditional positive regard (Langer and Lietz, 2017). It was an almost magical internship. I
felt that his positive regard for me paved the way to me trusting and loving myself.
Teaching the Outward Mindset.
The Outward Mindset is an intervention prepared by the Arbinger Institute to help
families and individuals increase in love towards their children (Arbinger, 2017). It prompts
parents to overcome self-deception. It identifies that parents sometimes villainize the behavior
of their children. Parents often don’t realize that their own words, expressions, and body
language send a message that the youth are unacceptable (Anasazi, 2018). This model helps
parents see the goodness in their children and the way that the parent’s negative views have
sabotaged the relationship. The model focuses instead on seeing the youth’s ‘seeds of greatness’
(Anasazi 2018). This process of changing from a view of the child's defects or rationalizing the
parent’s actions is called ‘getting out of the box’ (Arbinger, 2017). It refers to removing the
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‘boxed in’ thinking or mindset. The second principle grows out of this first one. It’s called: The
Teaching Pyramid (Arbinger, 2017). Following this principle, most efforts should go into
helping things go right (Arbinger, 2006) The majority of effort should be focused on changing
one's heart to be at peace with the child (Anasazi, 2018). In my work with this intervention, I
worked primarily to help parents to rebuild love and trust for their children. I also prepared a
presentation on this intervention and shared it at a clinician training. One counselor commented
that this approach was “ amazing” and it would “transform the way I work with clients- starting
today”.
This project was completed at a micro intervention level. It falls into this category
because it involves one-on-one work or couples to work directly with clients (Zastrow and
Hessenauer, 2019). Micro means working with individual needs or concerns. To help
individuals see and appreciate their family for their intrinsic qualities, there must be a
relationship of trust. Much of this work requires a deep and personal connection to address the
habits of blaming, justification, and self-deception.
This project is focused on the following core competency: Intervene with Individuals,
Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities. This core competency recognizes that
engaging with clients in an evidence-informed intervention is a vital area of social work practice.
Arbinger’s Outward Mindset is an evidence-based intervention (Arbinger 2017). My work with
this model helps families to heal and learn better relationship skills.
This project rose naturally out of my work at my previous internship. I had been trained
in this model thoroughly. It was an entirely unintentional happenstance, but this model seemed
the perfect tool to address several situations in my clinical work.
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I realized that this is one of those models that improve me as I work it. I become more
conscientious of myself and my relationships with others. I noticed that it helps my clients to
value themselves more and respect those around them more as well. One of my strengths is that
people trust me almost implicitly. It takes me very little time to develop a strong rapport with
clients. Maybe this is because I bring all of myself into a session. A weakness I noticed was
feeling less prepared than I would like. I would have to refer to my training manual from time to
time for guidance. I think the biggest impact this learning had on me was when I saw all this
teaching start to take hold. Parents start to be cognizant of their children’s hopes, dreams, goals,
but also their weaknesses. Inevitably, they have new and creative thoughts on how to offer
support to their children. Afterward, we do some role-play to determine how the intervention
might be received by the child. It’s amazing, sometimes we predict that the youth will hate the
new supportive measure. Maybe it’s enforcing consequences, or cutting them off financiallybut invariably, the parents feel in their hearts that this is the right course to pursue. There is a
feeling there- when families start to see their children with a new love. Parents begin to honor
their children, and they start to honor themselves. It’s amazing to watch this transformation.
Conclusion
In my work at my second internship placement, I had powerful experiences. These
experiences helped me develop myself as a social worker and a counselor. I was able to identify
the different intervention levels, and core competencies associated with my work. I was able to
use my time to build up, empower, and educate those around me. These projects lent themselves
to creating a motivating and life-changing internship.
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References
Arbinger Institute. (2006) the Anatomy of Peace. Arbinger Properties LLC.
Arbinger Institute. (2017) Living with An Outward Mindset. Arbinger Properties LLC.
Anasazi Foundation. (2018) the Walking of We, a Daily Workbook for Families of
Youngwalkers. Anasazi Foundation.
Bryant-Bedell K. & Waite R. (2010). Understanding major depressive disorder among
middle-aged African American men. Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Chen, S. W. & Davenport, D. S. (2005). Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy With Chinese
American Clients: Cautions and Modifications. Psychotherapy: Theory,
Research, Practice, Training, https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.42.1.101
Cleary A. (2005). Death rather than disclosure: Struggling to be a real man. Irish
Journal of Sociology.
DnD Beyond. (n.d.). Dungeon Master’s Guide. Dndbeyond.com.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg
Hepworth D. H. & Rooney R. H. et al. (2016) Empowerment Series: Direct Social Work
Practice: Theory and Skills. Cengage Learning.
Langer, C. L. & Lietz, C. A. (2015). Applying Theory to Generalist Social Work Practice: a Case
Study Approach. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Satir, V. & Banmen, J. et al. (1991). The Satir model: Family therapy and
beyond. Science and Behavior Books.
Zastrow C. & Hessenauer S. L. (2019) Social Work with Groups: Comprehensive Practice and
Self Care, 10th Edition. Cengage Learning.
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