A REBT Mock Counseling Session

Could you briefly please share your thoughts or comments on how well you feel that this person has done on their discussion? Evaluate the effectiveness of this person's mock REBT counseling session. Do you feel that this person applied the Ellis' ABC model in a mock counseling session effectively? Based on this person discussion on Ellis' ABC model comment on how valuable and the knowledge these types of mock REBT counseling session exercise are to a student's learning how to become a therapist .

This person will describe their mock counseling session. Explain the "client's" concern by applying the ABC model. Identify the (a) activating event, (b) belief about the event, and so forth. This person will discuss how effective they were at helping their client discover irrational beliefs and replace them with more rational ones?

Here is their discussion:

Introduction
This assignment went better than I had planned in some ways, but not as I had planned in others. This assignment did however give an introduction to what I might expect in a real session. This session went well, but was awkward because it was made-up. The ABCDE part went well, but it was hard to keep on track with the final point. I think that it was effective for the most part, but there were still areas I had issues with. This assignment was different than what I thought it would be, but I think it helped let me begin to think about how these sessions work.

Describe the Mock Session
The mock counseling session I think went well, however it was a bit awkward. The person that I did the mock session with we came up with the idea that she would be very sad about the death of her dog that she got from her uncle who died a year ago. I think that it really helped me get a very basic idea about that it is like to work with people in a counseling session. What made it awkward was that I knew that it was a made-up story so it was weird to be talking about this. It was like improv-acting in a way except I had to follow guidelines on what to say and not to say.

ABCDE Model
When looking at an issue like loss one can view it with regards to REBT. In REBT it will challenge someone's emotional believes to help them make better choices (Wedding & Corsini, 2014). The A in this case was the death of her dog. The B was the belief that she was not able to live without her dog. The C was that she was very sad right now, and has only gotten worse with time. The D in this case was that she has happiness in other areas of her life. The E in this case was that she should be able to find friends or even another animal that come into her life. This area, the E, was where we did not really get too much too because it was getting hard to really keep going in the right direction.

Effectiveness
I think the basic seed was planted, but overall it was not changed. I had an issue with the last part because the person I was working with I think she thought she was meant to keep going so it started to turn into other issues; such as more issues she was bringing to the table. We were running long so we did what we could, but there was no true resolution. I think if I had time to think about it after I would be able to come up with a more direct way of dealing with it. Another issue I had was I kept looking at my notes because I was not sure what to say, but I do not think it hindered the mock assignment at all.

Conclusion
The assignment I thought gave me a very basic idea about what might happen in a real session. This session was a bit awkward, but only because I knew it was not real. I was able to use most of the ABCDE method, but struggled with the last part. There was not real resolution, but for this situation I do not think I hindered anything. This assignment helped me understand that I have a lot yet to learn, but also that I have the ability to learn it.