ex 2.3 : Solution Essays

What ideas and strategies do you use when you are confronted by your own problems in living? What is your preferred coping style? Take some time to reflect on and make notes about two or three recent episodes in your life when you have been troubled or under stress. For the purpose of this exercise, your focus should not be on the actual situation itself, but on what you personally thought and did in order to resolve the situation. Once you have mapped out at least some of your favoured coping strategies, go through each of them in turn and identify the underlying cultural assumptions and discourses (e.g. religious, medical, psychological, philosophical) that they are drawn from. It can be valuable to carry out this learning activity in a small group as a means of becoming aware of the diversity of assumptions and strategies that people use. Finally, in relation to your counselling role: how do you react when you have a client whose ideas about dealing with personal troubles are different from your own?