Process Report on Client's Social Struggles and Emotional Distress

Running head: PROCESS REPORT
Process report
Name of the student;
Name of the university:
Author note:

1PROCESS REPORT
Rationale
I choose this part of my voice recording (from 0:11 to 10:00 and 17:32 to 19:19) as it
has some particular areas that have my client’s worries and some remarkable points that I
want to work on.
Profile of Client & First Impressions
Alejandro (name has been changed to protect confidentiality) is a 21 years old male
who have some social struggle with his new environment because of ethnical diversity. He
goes to university and have some problems with his new environment. He lives alone without
any of his family members. At the first he seems relaxed, not any anxious expressions and
make some eye contact; sometimes he shows some disappointments when he talks about his
social interaction problems. He is talkative and likes sharing his problems with me during our
conversation.He sometimes shows some depressed thoughts and rest of the conversation he
was confused even he was so talkative. His appearance was good clean clothes and combed
hair with good behaviours. The room that we were in was well lighted our chairs placed side
by side no too close, not so far where I can clearly see his hand/head gestures.
Transcript and Commentary
...
Client1:I am kind a feel sad let’s say...
Trainee1: Why?
C1: Because you know I am foreigner, I am from Mexico and I don’t really like being here to
be honest weather is really, really, really bad...

2PROCESS REPORT
T1: So please tell me what is the problem?
Comm1: I could understand that the client was feeling homesick, and wanted him to
elaborate further on his problem. An analysis of his non verbal actions showed that he was
depressed and lonely, and wanted to open up, and was clearly in search of someone who
would listen to him. The fact that he is redundant in his speech while referring to the weather
of England and the way he emphasizes on “really” must be taken into account. I can
decipher from this that weather was clearly not the problem here; as a matter of fact, he was
slightly reluctant to speak his mind, fearing that I might judge him. His reference to himself
as a foreigner is also crucial; the client is unable to fit in to his new environment in England,
and feels like a fish out of water. However, I tried to extend my warmth and empathy towards
him, and the client reacted positively to it.
C2: I am not feel comfortable in this country I miss my home and its very far and miss my
parents...
T2: So... you feel some kind of a homesick?
C2:Yeah
Comm2: I reflected on his statement and arrived at the conclusion that he had been feeling
homesick, a feeling that he had initially projected on the weather. Homesickness may be
defined as the distress that some people might feel when they are placed in an unfamiliar and
new environment (Fisher, 2016). Usually, it is characterized by an intense desire to return
home, coupled with depressive moods and some somatic complaints. For example, the client
looked like he was fatigued and exhausted, which is a common symptom of somatic disorder.
Homesickness, while common, is also one of the leading causes of clinical depression

3PROCESS REPORT
amongst people and is a common ailment plaguing first year students at university. Key
features of homesickness would include a preoccupation with home, family and friends and a
negative attitude towards the new environment (Khademi & Aghdam, 2013). As was evident,
the client did not like the ambience in England, stating that bad weather was the problem,
when in reality, he longed for home and familiar surroundings. As a matter of fact, I used a
conceptual framework to understand the client’s state of mind. As has been shown by
research, there are essentially six criteria that determine the extent of the problem. One,
homesickness may occur irrespective of age groups. Two, usually feelings of homesickness
are not paid heed to and dealt with intrapersonally. This is what the client was doing; he was
feeling homesick, but was not exactly keen on opening up (Sun & Hagedorn, 2016). Like most
people, he did not consider homesickness to be an actual psychological problem, which leads
us to the third point. Three, homesickness is often accompanied by denial and embarrassment
(Terry, Leary & Mehta, 2013). The client showed signs of homesickness, but his speech
shows that he was not only in denial about it, but also slightly embarrassed to voice his
feelings. Four, there persists a kind of persuasive feeling regarding his homeland (Macaskill,
2013). This is also termed as nostalgia in common parlance, and that can be evident from the
way he says that he missed his family and home. Five, people suffering from homesickness
are usually not encouraged to speak up (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). Perhaps I should have
pressed the matter and asked him to elaborately state what his feelings about his hometown
and his present environment were. Five, somatic symptoms are usually common. As can be
seen, the client is extremely uncomfortable and even miserable in his present situation, which
might be the initial stages of depression.
T3: Did you get any support from your close friends or your family?

4PROCESS REPORT
C3: (Umm...) Yeah... I supported by my family I talked with them on skype and they say
“You are going to be good son, don’t worry”and I am.... “Thanks!” (nervous laugh)
Comm3: In here he was kind of disappointed about his family. His head was down and I feel
that he cannot get that help that he expected. When he impersonalised them (his family), his
voice was nervous and he covered up his nervousness with a laugh. It must be remembered
that social support is instrumental in making a student feel at home (Baba & Hosoda, 2014).
During such trying times, it is important for the family members of the client to make him feel
better by trying to be optimistic and positive about the bigger picture. However, while the
parents tried to keep the client’s spirits up by telling him that he would do well, their words
did not have the intended effect. Instead of feeling optimistic and uplifted, the client felt
disappointed; this is probably because he expected words of comfort and empathy from his
parents. I deduced from his manner of speaking that he may be blaming his parents for his
miserable state, coupled with the fear of not being able to live up to their expectations of him
being a “good son.” The nervous laughter may be a defence mechanism that is a meagre
attempt to hide his anxiety behind opening up about his feelings. The anxiety could be a
result of meeting me or could be the result of cross cultural adjustment in the transition from
Mexico to England (Yakunina et al., 2013). Typically, such nervous laughter is an example of
fake laughter which one uses as a mechanism in a potentially awkward situation (Foot,
2017).
T4: You tell me that you feel sad
C4:Yeah
T4: Do you have any particular thing to feeling sad?
C4: I cried inside myself...

5PROCESS REPORT
Comm4: I reflected back on his reply, and realized that he may have been a little
embarrassed to admit that he had been crying. The fact that he had been crying all to himself
shows how lonely he had been at university; probably, he had been feeling that no one would
understand him or that no one would pay heed to his emotions, and thus felt the need to hide
them. It is important to understand the reason for his tears (Cacioppo et al., 2015). It could
be due to extreme homesickness that he has already admitted before. Or it could be due to his
disappointment in his family (Jaremka et al., 2014). I concluded that inner desolation may be
the cause of his sadness. This can be defined as an innate human experience where the
person would feel unhappy, discouraged r dispirited and might even feel despondent,
melancholic or dejected. However, while desolation is relatively common and a part and
parcel of being human, it might lead to clinical depression if treatment is not sought (Koenig
et al., 2014). However, I felt that I probably should have probed further into the way he
expressed his emotions, to pave the way for a healthier outlet.
T5: Are there any particular situation that you struggle with in here?
C5: In England...
T5:Yeah
C5: Weather, racism, (long thinking process) ... some cops think that I am criminal, drug
trafficking, also when I go to nightclub everyone gets drunk so easily and I am like seriously?
Comm5: The client paused after uttering the word “racism”, which gave me an idea about
the nature of his problem. According to him, racism and racial discrimination is rampant in
England and he has faced discrimination on grounds of his skin colour. In this confession, I
noticed some irritation and annoyance in the way he spoke. He seemed to be fed up with the