Reflective Summary

I felt sad for Mr. Gill, one of the main reasons being that I have personally been in a MVC myself which brought up the similar feelings, such as anxiety and chronic pain that Mr. Gill expressed. It felt like despite the differences in our age or situation, the pain he was expressing I could relate to directly. Another reason for feeling sadness for him was that he reminded me so much of my own father in appearance and nature. During the session, he referred to me as someone who is like his daughter and that he felt comfortable sharing information with me. I think this moment caused a shift in our therapeutic relationship, in which I felt even more inclined to show him respect and to provide encouragement on his development. The language barriers he faced in getting treatment made me feel angry towards the system. Unfortunately, MVC are common occurrences in our society thus, I imagined that the support systems would have been set in place for survivors to reduce the effects of physical and psychological harms.
The approaches included CBT and supportive counselling techniques such as, education about trauma reactions, as well as problem solving skills. During the counselling sessions, the counselor provided Mr. Gill with education and resources specific to MVC such as, accessing physiotherapy, obtaining a lawyer and income assistance support. Cognitive behavior therapy “aims to isolate dysfunctional thoughts and assumptions about the trauma which serve to perpetuate distress” (Clapp & Beck, 2012, p. 127). This cognitive intervention focuses on challenging the negative automatic thinking, and substituting it with more balanced thoughts (Clapp & Beck, 2012). I believe that CBT has worked effectively to manage Mr. Gill’s thoughts, as he described few instances when he actively applied this technique and found it helpful in maintaining his