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Domestic Violence Counseling Manual - Hot Peach Pages

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4. Termination<br />

• Agree on a concrete plan of action to be completed before the next session (safety plan)<br />

• Don’t promise things you can’t deliver<br />

• Encourage the counselee to come see you again, make an appointment if possible<br />

• Let the counselee do any evaluating of the session<br />

• Always ask if there is anything else that the counselee wants to talk about, often there is<br />

another problem that may be more serious, shameful, or embarrassing than the problem you<br />

have just spent your time discussing<br />

• Let the counselee be the one to end the session if possible<br />

• Go back over the other stages and check the progress of the session, re-discuss any areas that<br />

seem vague or incompletely covered<br />

5. Post-Session<br />

Being a counselor is not necessarily an uplifting experience. <strong>Counseling</strong> can feel like a<br />

“thankless” job, and you may feel that you aren’t really making an impact. You may feel helpless<br />

in the face of an apathetic legal and judicial system and centuries full of prejudice and myth. You<br />

may also feel that you’ve failed if the woman you are counseling doesn’t succeed. As a<br />

counselor, you just have to accept that your actions may not cause immediate change, but that<br />

every little bit you do does make a difference. By standing up for the rights of victims of<br />

domestic violence you are changing the consciousness of your society, and that is a courageous,<br />

admirable, and difficult thing. However, because counseling is such a hard job, it is very<br />

important that you take care of yourself as well as the counselee. The following are some good<br />

ways to avoid feelings of futility and burnout:<br />

• Talk with another counselor about the session and how you are feeling<br />

• Reflect on how you handled the situation—both what you did well and the spots where you<br />

felt unsure<br />

• Discuss with the other counselor how such a problem might be handled differently<br />

• If there is no one else available to talk to, try writing down your thoughts instead<br />

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