Case Study of Kirra

Running head: CASE STUDY OF KIRRA
CASE STUDY OF KIRRA
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CASE STUDY OF KIRRA
Effective communication is an important foundation of the counseling profession. This is
because it paves the way of treating clients in ways that help them to overcome barriers and live
better quality life (Bor & Watts, 2016). In this assignment, a case study of a patient named Kirra
would be analyzed and accordingly counseling strategies would be discussed to shed more light
about how such attributes can help in best quality service to patients.
Rapport can be defined as the harmonious relationship between people while
understanding and accepting feelings and ideas of each other. Studies opine that it is indeed
extremely important for the counselor to make the client feel comfortable as well as safe with the
counselor. It must be remembered that if the client is not able to experience the comfort and
safety, then she will be hesitant in disclosing herself fully and would be found to be vulnerable in
front of the counselor. Five important steps need to be taken by the counselor in order to develop
rapport with Kirra. Firstly, he should be prepared and read the notes of the client before the
beginning of the session (Hodgson et al., 2016). Developing an idea about the critical issues
faced by the clients would help the professional to be prepared beforehand which would
contribute to a smoother initiation of conversation. Secondly, for effective rapport building, the
counselor would be listening to the patient without judgment. Active listening without judging
patient mainly help the patients feel that the counselor wants to know about them in details and
are not judging them. This helps in developing liking and trust on the counselor easing the
relationship between them (Krabbenborg et al., 2016). Third, another method of building rapport
is exhibiting the attribute of empathy. Through empathy, the counselor can show that he
genuinely cares for the well-being of the patient and can feel the suffering that the patient is
going through. This help in enhancing trust as well as mutual respect leading to emotional bond

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CASE STUDY OF KIRRA
development. This would increase not only revealing every detail about the life of the patient but
also increase adherence of the patient to the interventions that the counselor would advise.
Counseling with younger adults like those who have just crossed teenage-hood might be
particularly difficult as they still retain some forms of adolescent behaviors and thinking
procedures. Like adolescents they might be quickly affected by negative remarks, might be quick
to reach conclusion, may feel confused about taking the right decisions, might feel judged or
discriminated, and exhibit strong voice or show intolerance to society which are rarely exhibited
by older adults (Oftedal et al., 2019). Kirra is only 20 who have just crossed adolescence and
therefore she might be vulnerable to the stated actions. One of the most important
communication strategies that would be implemented in the case scenario is the effective
“attending” which is done in the way by which counselors can be actually “with” the patient
both physically, emotionally as well as psychologically. The professionals attending Kirra can
adopt the SOLER approach as this helps the professionals to show their inner attitudes and
values of genuineness and respect to the client (Myers et al., 2018). This would include
“Squarely” facing the client, maintaining an “open” posture, “leaning” towards the client,
maintaining “eye” contact, and trying to be “relaxed as well as natural” with the client. Another
important communication strategy would probing or questioning strategy. Probing mainly
involve statements as well as questions from the counselors which would enable clients in
exploring more fully as well as relevant issues. The communication strategy of probing would be
done in the form of statements, request, questions, single words as well as phrases and non-
verbal prompts (Boniolo et al., 2016). This step would help the counselor to understand why
Kirra is having low mood as well as eating disorders mainly helping the professional to learn
about the life stressors that are resulting in such situation. The third communication strategy that

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CASE STUDY OF KIRRA
the counselor should follow is “summarizing”. Studies are of the opinion that with effective
summarizing professionals can understand what is said in the session as this would help in
providing focus to what was previously discussed with patient and also challenge the patient to
move forward (Papayianni & Cooper, 2018). At the beginning of the a new session, the
counselor would give summary of the points to be given directly to the Kirra if she does not
where to start from and this would prevent Kirra from repeating what is already discussed. When
the session would be going nowhere, the summary would help counselor to focus on the client
and when Kirra would be stuck, summarizing would help clint move forward and investigate
other parts of the story.
One of the barriers that can affect the communication procedure is the lack of zeal for
effective participation of Kirra and revealing of important information about herself. It becomes
important for every patient to reveal all details about the various life stressors, physical and
mental issues, challenges and others. When patients show reluctance, it might become
challenging for the counselor to carry on the communication. Another barrier that can be taken
place is socio-cultural barrier (Nelson-Jones, 2015). Kirra is seen to be highly inclined to her
father as his development of habit of drinking had affected her a lot. Such liking for her father
implies that she would be associated with the culture of indigenous people and might be
following such cultural principles. Hence, it might become important for the professional to be
well-aware of the cultural preferences of both native and non-native people. If not such
principles of culturally competent communication is followed, it might result in acting as
challenge that might impede smooth communication affecting Kirra. As stated earlier, Kirra is
found to be 20 years older who had only crossed adolescence. This age is characterized by
increased resistance, being defensive, being highly anxious, highly judgmental or shy or