Process Recording

Client’s name: yulaydi Date of Interview: 10/30/2012 Section # 2 Assessments 2 Client’s information: yulaydi is 22 years old she is a single mother of a 5 year old son. She is unemployed and is residing in her mother’s home.

Presenting issue: The client was referred to this agency because of her anxiety and depression problems she is seeking help in dealing with the pressure being put on her as a mother and as a daughter living under her mother’s roof.

Systems the Client is involved in: SNAP (Food Stamps), Public Assistant, and Unemployment, Medicaid.

Client’s Strength: Pride’s herself in being a good mother, deals well with stress, analyses advices.

Purpose of Contact:

The purpose of contact is that the client feels a great amount of pressure from her mother to live life the way her mother says she should live her life and the client feels that her and her son are both a bother in her mother’s house. She says she needs to leave just so she won’t have to do whatever her mother tells her to do so she doesn’t get kicked out. I called the clients name in the waiting room and I asked her to come into my office it is a small room with only enough room for 3 chairs a computer and a desk the computer was turned off and the lighting was a little bit dim and the windows where close but were very clear for the sun to shine through giving the room enough light to make it comfortable.

The client came up to me I extended my hand and I said hello miss Xulaydi, my name is Yuldenia Tavarez and I will be your social worker if you can please follow me to my office , so we can get to know each other a little better. The client followed me and once in the office I asked her if she would like to take a sit and make herself comfortable she sat and took off her coat, I then asked her if she would like something to drink and she asked for water so I gave her a small bottle of water.

I asked her some personal questions like her name and her birthday to make sure that she is the person I am supposed to be seeing once I was out of the way I asked her to tell me what brings her to the agency? She looks at me and says “I don’t know what to do with my life anymore , I am the mother of a 5 year old son she is the light in my world but my mother is trying so hard to change that about me,” I asked her “how so?” she said “ she keeps gaining up on me because she says that since he was born I have not been able to do anything with my life that why should I pay so much attention to him and not to what I should really be doing which is bringing money into the house.”

As I sat there listening to the client I suddenly notice that the client eyes were getting very watery ,and her nose became red, and her voice became deeper, she started to cry and handed her a box of Kleenex and let her cry. She apologized and I told her that it was ok to let it out. The client was a short chunky woman, cooper skin with dirty blond hair, her eyes sort of like a grayish- greenish eyes. She was dressed in loose jeans and a red t shirt that said rock it. She wore no make-up and no jewelry.

When the Client first walked into the office she looked like she has had her feelings hurt, she looked like she had been crying for a long time. She looked very confused as to what she was doing there. My feeling and attitude in the meeting was one of compactions for her situation of feeling that she had no other choice than to seek help or be homeless with a child or stop being a loving mother to be whatever her mother wanted her to be.

I felt bad for the girl because she wants desperately to be a loving mother to her son but she also did not wanted to be kicked out of her mother house because she was not what her mother wanted her to be she was seeking employment and even though I wanted to help her so much with this issue I had to realize that our agency was not an employment agency so I felt I should refer her to a work force agency and have her follow up with me for counseling in how to deal with the pressure she is under. She was constantly said and crying obvious signs of depression.

Content| Skill Used| Gut Reaction| Thoughts/ Analysis|

Social Worker(S) –“What brings you to our agency?”| * Verbal behavior * Sounding calm relaxed but at the same time intrigued. * Simple encouragement * Client- initiated silence.| * Something is definitely wrong in her life because of her facial expressions.| | Client (C) – “My mother is forcing me to choice between being a good mother to my son or being the person she wants me to be!”| * Active listening, comforting the client was in tears crying hard.| | * What did she mean?| (S) – “What do you think is the “person she wants you to be”? Would this be harmful to your parenting style?”| |

* I am trying hard to understand her reaction, she was crying very hard and I felt like I wanted to comfort her so badly but at the same time as a professional I needed to just do the next best thing so I gave her a Kleenex and let her take her time to get together once again| | (C ) – “My mother wants me to go out there and produce money no matter the cost , and since there is no jobs that I should go out there and prostitute myself so I can pay for my roof. I asked her to just give me more time to get myself together so me and my son can leave ,but she said that she is not going to support anyone else anymore that she did what she needed to do which was raise me that her responsibility is done.”| | * Empathy, |

* I was so scared for her to make the decision of listening to her mom, but at the same time I am scared for her and her son to be homeless. * I was thinking that maybe I can refer her to a work force agency to help her gain a job and maybe refer her to a public housing agency to help her gain hopefully a room. But I was not sure so I decided to listen to her a little but more.| (S) (As the client started to calm down she looked up at me and apologized for crying) “It was okay that we are all human and we sometimes need to cry to let out that naught in our hearts. What do you want to do apart from your mother’s thoughts?”|

* I tried to be very warmth to how she was feeling and also I tried to be very genuine to her situation, make her feel comfortable enough for her to tell me what her first solutions to her situation is. * Open ended questions| | * I wanted her to just open up to me to tell me what she had thought about doing before coming to the agency. I wanted to know what her decision is.| (C )- “My first reaction was to not lose my son’s shelter even if I had to lose myself dignity, but I thought about it before I went out there and did it instead I came here.”| * I notice herself empowerment, her strength both as a good mother and as a woman.|

* I felt she knew she had to get help she was open but at the same time I saw her as not a regular clients but as a person that just needed help in this point of her life.| | (S) “Do you feel you are ready to gain some help in this area of employment and of housing if you are seeking it?”| * Open ended questions.| | * | (C )- “I am seeking this help because I feel that being around my mother is not helpful for me or my son.”| | | * I knew I needed to refer her to these other agencies but I also felt she should follow up with us as well.|

(S) “I am going to give you these numbers and referrals for public housing and for the work force agencies. But would like you to continue seeing me to help you deal with anything else that is disturbing you?” | * Genuineness| * I felt she needed a listening ear every once in a while and a supportive person to be there.| * My thoughts were I really don’t want to see this mother and her child in the streets.|

( C) –“I really want to thank you for listening to me it has been a long time since anyone did that, I also want to thank you for the referrals and yes I would like to come back and continue seeing you.”| | | * She was honest in her thanking me .| (S) “We only have to 10 minutes to our section. How do you feel about our interview coming to a close?”| * Terminating the interview.| | * Handed her the referrals. She seem to be looking a little bit better than how she came in.| ( C) “I am really starting to feel that something positive can come from this interview”| | * genuineness| |

I believe that my interview with the client was a positive one she seek help before getting involved in what he mother was asking her to do. I felt in a way very connected to the client’s situation, but I tried hard to not make her situation my own. I tried to focus on the client’s confusing issue of whether to indulge in her mother’s pressure or to seek out other types of help. I want to improve my termination of the interview and beginning of the interview I felt that my gestures to start the interview were right but the words were not I felt I was genuine in leading the client to trust me but I felt that my words were not exactly professional.

The termination of the interview I felt was not good at all because even though I told her there is only 10 minutes in our sections, do you think this section helped you express you difficulties; I don’t believe helped the client end the section it sort of pushed it back to me diagnosing the clients which is not what we as social workers are supposed to do. The client responded well to the interview but in a way a little bit hesitant on whether to continue in the intervention process. I believe that my lack of knowledge in the termination of the interview might have persuaded her to not continue with me. But overall, I believe the interview itself did help me know where I need the most help at.