Please no plagiarism and make sure you are able to access all resource on your own before you bid. Main references come from Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017) and/or American Psychological Association (2014). You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation regarding treatment. Please respond to all 3 of my classmates with references separately. You need to have scholarly support for any claim of fact or recommendation like peer-reviewed, professional scholarly journals. I need this completed by 03/07/2020 at 5pm.

Expectation:

Responses to peers. Note that this is measured by both the quantity and quality of your posts. Does your post contribute to continuing the discussion? Are your ideas supported with citations from the learning resources and other scholarly sources? Note, that although it is often helpful and important to provide one or two sentence responses thanking somebody or supporting them or commiserating with them, those types of responses do not always further the discussion as much as they check in with the author. Such responses are appropriate and encouraged; however, they should be considered supplemental to more substantive responses, not sufficient by themselves.

Read a your colleagues’ postings. Respond to your colleagues’ postings.

Respond in one or more of the following ways:

· Ask a probing question.

· Share an insight gained from having read your colleague’s posting.

· Offer and support an opinion.

· Validate an idea with your own experience.

· Make a suggestion.

· Expand on your colleague’s posting.

1. Classmate (A. Lac)

Discussion – Week 2 Sexuality Language in a Counseling Context

As the introduction article stated, there are many ways to use language to describe sex. Each culture and groups have certain words, phrases or innuendos to describe body parts and activities. Counselors should be aware of the terms and even slang words that are used to describe sexuality thus these words can be offensive and hinder the counseling process (Murray, Pope & Willis, 2017).

Example of a Statement

As I sat and thought of a scenario, I did my best to understand that there are words, phrases and even slag that can or even cannot be used during a counseling session. I agree with the rest of the class that it might depend on the type of client you have. There might be a scenario where a client might find the counselor’s straight forward attitude to be offensive. While another client might take it to bond and build that client-counselor relationship.

However, there are times that a sexuality therapist may conduct a session and make a statement or even ask a question that a client might feel is inappropriate (Hendricks, Bradley & Robertson, 2015). For example, a woman goes to seek guidance from a sex therapist about her and her husband’s intimacy issues. She tells the counselor that she thinks her husband is homosexual because he enjoys self-pleasure. The woman firmly believes that self-pleasure is a sign or symptom of being homosexual.

In this moment a sexuality counselor might ask the woman has she ever engaged in self-pleasure. Conversations about self-pleasure or masturbation are quite personal, therefore at this moment I can see a client being offended by the question or find the question to be inappropriate. However, I can also understand the purpose of such a question. With a yes or no type of question, a counselor could be trying to gather as many details as possible to identify what factors are influencing the client’s mentality on self-pleasure.

Slang

Counselors should continue to be mindful that the words we choose and use as humans play a significant role in how we see the world and how others view us and interpret our statements and feelings. In the topic of slang words, word choice becomes the focus of how counselors address their clients (Shevell, 2009). An appropriate slang word that counselors can use is the word clients. Surprising enough many individuals feel that the word client is slang for patient. Because the word patient is more of a medical term that means the one who suffers, individuals seeking services may feel more comfortable being called a client than a patient during counseling sessions (Shevell, 2009).

Summary

 

This week’s discussion question taught me a lot about how the words or statement counselors use can reflect how they think or fell about their clients and on the type of help they are offering to them. My goal as a future school counselor is to use approximate words and conversations with clients to build a therapeutic collaboration relationship.

References

Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

Hendricks, C. B., Bradley, L. J., & Robertson, D. L. (2015). Implementing multicultural ethics:

Issues for family counselors. The Family Journal, 23(2), 190–193. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Shevell, M. I. (2009). What do we call ‘them’? the ‘patient’ versus ‘client’

dichotomy. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 51(10), 770.

2. Classmate (W. Guz)

Offensive Statement Example

When discussing sex or sexuality with a client, it is important for sexuality counselors to be mindful of the language that they use so as to avoid offending the client. However, this can be difficult at times due to the unpredictability of client beliefs and attitudes surrounding sex. For instance, any statement that a sexuality counselor makes in a counseling session that assumes the gender identity of a client’s partner could be interpreted as inappropriate or offensive. If the counselor says to a male client, “You mentioned that you were married. How long have you and your wife been married?” The client, if gay, might find the assumption that his partner is a woman offensive. Interestingly, the opposite strategy could backfire as well. If the counselor instead chooses to ask, “how long have you and your partner been married?” the client could interpret this as an assumption that he is gay. If the client is, in fact, straight, he might take offense to this. Even if the counselor simply asks the client what the gender identity of his partner is, the client still might be offended. One way that a counselor can respond to a negative reaction from the client would be utilizing the intervention of immediacy and bringing up the issue as it arises in session (Murray, Pope, & Willis, 2017).

Propriety of Slang in Counseling

Part of fine-tuning language in the context of sexuality counseling involves determining whether the use of slang is ever appropriate. As is true for many controversial topics, I think that the answer to this depends. Although counselors are trained to build connections with clients, they are human and are not immune to mistakes. One type of mistake that counselors can be guilty of is the tendency to be ethnocentric in their view of clients (Hendricks, Bradkley, & Robertson, 2015). Ethnocentricity shapes what all individuals, including counselors, consider “correct, proper, or moral” (Hendricks et al., 2015, p. 191). This includes language. What counselors consider “slang” might, for the client, be the most common and appropriate terms for describing a particular object or activity. It is crucial then for the counselor to ask the client what a term means when unfamiliar to them, as well as to ask about the connotations of the term in the client’s experience (Murray et al., 2017). By doing so, the counselor demonstrates to the client a willingness to adapt to the client’s needs, while also learning how to more appropriately behave towards clients of diverse backgrounds.

References

Hendricks, C. B., Bradley, L. J., & Robertson, D. L. (2015). Implementing multicultural ethics: Issues for family counselors. The Family Journal, 23(2), 190–193. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

3. Classmate (L. Gre)

Inappropriate or Offensive Language

Sexuality counselors encounter clients that may be comfortable with certain language while other clients may feel uncomfortable by the same language. There are many different terms and topics that may be brought up during counseling sessions which may be deemed “inappropriate “by the client. One example of this would be if a counselor asks a question about the client’s sexual activity assuming they are sexually active with the opposite sex. This can be displayed by a counselor asking a female client if she is using contraceptives and when answering no asking is, she trying to get pregnant instead of asking what sex she is sexually active with. Often, counselors just may assume, and this can be inappropriate and make the client feel uncomfortable. Some counselors may feel uncomfortable with asking the client their sexual preference, while others may experience discomfort in other topic areas (Murray, Pope, & Willis, 2017). There should be a training implemented where counselors can develop an extensive vocabulary to use when discussing sexuality issues so they can refrain from doing harm to the client and potentially damaging the rapport with the client (Murray, Pope, & Willis, 2017).

Appropriate Use of Slang

It is important for counselors to have knowledge of professional and slang language when providing sexuality counseling. There will be times where clients may come in referring to certain terms in slang language and the counselor should be able to determine whether it is appropriate to use slang or professional language at this time. By the counselor understanding and using slang language appropriately, this may build rapport with the client. Counselors are expected to use language that is in line with clients’ worldviews (Murray, Pope, & Willis, 2017). Overly clinical and technical language can decrease the emotional aspects of clients’ experiences, whereas overly informal language, may be interpreted as crude or offensive by clients (Murray, Pope, & Willis, 2017).

References

Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis , B. (2017). Sexuality Counseling. Thousand Oaks: SAGE

Required Resources

· Course Text: Murray, C., Pope, A., & Willis, B. (2017). Sexuality counseling: Theory, research, and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

· Chapter 2, “Assessment in Sexuality Counseling”

· Chapter 3, “General Interventions and Theoretical Approaches to Sexuality Counseling”

· Article: Goren, E. R. (2017). A call for more talk and less abuse in the consulting room: One psychoanalyst–sex therapist’s perspective. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 34(2), 215–220. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

· Article: Hendricks, C. B., Bradley, L. J., & Robertson, D. L. (2015). Implementing multicultural ethics: Issues for family counselors. The Family Journal, 23(2), 190–193. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.