Name: Sophia Zook-Stanley
Theory Reflection Journal Entry Week # 13
3 Aha!
Moments
(3 points)
My 3 Aha! Moments of learning from this unit are:
1)​ I enjoyed reading about the White Identity Models in this week’s
chapter of the textbook. I didn’t know that something like that
existed, but I am glad to hear that it does! As a white person,
reflection on my own privilege and role in the world is very
important to me so that I do not cause harm. It is good to learn
about tools that will help white therapists become more culturally
competent counselors, especially because that has been neglected
historically in the mental health world.
2)​ I liked the article that we read for this week regarding
dysregulation in couples. In particular, it was helpful for her to talk
about the diffuse physiological arousal, or DPA, because so often
while I am able to pinpoint when dysregulation occurs in myself, I
sometimes struggle to soothe myself only when faced with the
dysregulation of another. This usually occurs with anger. I am very
familiar with mindfulness and meditation, and I know that it is
something that is important to me. I am curious to work with
clients in situations where I am more likely to be dysregulated
because of another person’s dysregulation, and to see how I am
able to adapt those skills to help me in those situations.
3)​ I thought it was very interesting to hear in Cozolino’s book that
therapists who have had to parent their parents as children make
violating therapeutic boundaries feel more natural because of the
early role reversal and boundary violation. I do consider myself
someone who had to parent one of their parents starting from a
very young age, and I believe it is in part because of this necessity
at a young age that I have learned how to be a competent and
sensitive caregiver. While it makes a lot of sense to me that this is a
pattern, I have done lots of my own therapy and redefining of my
relationships in order to ensure that I am maintaining healthy
boundaries that feel good for everyone involved. Because of this, I
cannot necessarily see myself slipping into violating therapeutic
boundaries, but it is definitely something to be aware of because of
that early childhood aspect.
Question
One question I still have is:
(3 points)
My question for this week is rather broad and open-ended. Reading
about mindfulness and meditation while also having recently read
Stark’s Working with Resistance was interesting. It seems to me that
mindfulness could be difficult when applied to more resistant or
defensive clients, because of the amount of effort and tries that it
can often take to see benefits. Do you feel as though mindfulness
and meditation might be better suited when clients are feeling less
resistant?
Utilization I can see myself utilizing this method in my future work by…
(3 points)
It is very important to me to be a culturally competent counselor.
While I believe I am generally a multiculturally competent person, I
want to learn more about how I can translate that to sessions. My
family has quite a few adoptees, and so because of that, I have seen
firsthand the pain and trauma that can come from multiracial
adoption. It has made me feel passionate about working with
adoptees in particular, which then opens up a whole variety of
cultures that may be present within the therapy room. I am going
to take some of the resources that the textbook talked about and
learn more about them.
Continued Two things I will do to continue learning about this content:
learning
(3 points)
1)​ I am going to look more into the Whiteness Identity Models! I do
lots of my own anti-racist reading and work, but I think that it
would be great to do something that is more tailored towards
counselors and therapists.
2)​ I am pretty familiar with mindfulness and meditation as
interventions, but I would love to learn more about how they are
used in couples counseling. In that case, it is not just one body that
needs to be regulated, but two. I am curious to look more into this
and whether there are specific exercises for the use of a couple or
family.
[3 points for correct grammar and graduate level writing]