Mediation, Counselling and Advocacy: a Case Study

Introduction

This essay will review the case study of Leo and distinguish between the support services Mediation, Counselling, and Advocacy. An appropriate intervention will be selected for Leo and determine how it can meet his development needs.

Mediation, Counselling, and Advocacy: A Case Study

Mediation is an intervention used to resolve a dispute. It involves more than one party and focuses on reaching an agreement or settlement. Counselling is a therapeutic talking therapy that allows a person to express and explore their feelings in a confidential environment. Counselling can help clients overcome personal or psychological problems by finding ways to deal with their emotional issues. Advocacy is about representation, ensuring the client's voice is heard. An advocate may speak on the client's behalf, defending and safeguarding their client's rights. All three services aim to help and support clients, listen and improve communication, deal in confidence, and clients can withdraw at any point. Both Advocacy and Counselling help one side of conflict whilst Mediation is an impartial service.

Case Study Analysis

Several issues surround Leo at present. The break-up of his parents indicates stability and emotional issues. Leo’s social development needs addressing; by not identifying with his peers and withdrawing from his social circle, he may be isolating himself. Lack of education, signs indicate self-harming, homelessness, neglect, and domestic abuse. The case study does not indicate any form of decision-making processes being made for Leo that may require representation, nor is Leo in dispute with another party. Therefore, advocacy and mediation are both unsuitable. Leo’s plea for help indicates his immediate emotional state needs addressing and therefore, Counselling is the most appropriate intervention at this stage.

Developmental Theories and Implications

According to Vitelli (2013), Hall (1904) suggests that storm and stress is inevitable during adolescent development, referring to decreased self-control. This is evident in Leo’s conflict with parents, mood disruptions, and risky behavior. However, Bandura (1964) disagreed, blaming the mass media for creating such a view. He suggested that the storm some young people go through may arise from issues in early childhood experience. He concluded that expecting adolescence to be stormy often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (Bandura, 1964).

Counselling Approach for Adolescents

When working with children and young people, it is important that counsellors recognize the development stages of the individual. Children and young people are more likely to be at different emotional and cognitive levels compared to their adult counterparts. Geldard, Geldard, and Yin-Foo (2016) identified five adolescent development challenges: biological, cognitive, psychological, social, and moral/spiritual.

Biological processes drive many aspects of growth and development. These changes result in profound psychological, sexual, and emotional changes, especially during the transitional period between childhood and adulthood called puberty. According to Morin (2019), most boys hit puberty by the age of 14. Teenagers are likely to experience growth spurts, voice breaking, body hair growth, and changes to sexual organs. The counsellor needs to be aware of the rise in Leo’s sexual hormones, which may influence his emotional state. Consequently, there may be issues of feeling embarrassed, self-conscious, anxious, mood changes, and fluctuations in self-esteem. The social challenges experienced by Leo include parental, family, and social expectations. Missing school can hinder Leo’s cognitive development, and the counsellor should encourage independent, critical, and creative thinking.

Proactive Counselling Strategies

Geldard, Geldard, and Yin Foo (2016) developed the proactive approach which identifies three primary functions: relationship building, assessing, and addressing the problem. They propose that to communicate effectively with children and young people, counsellors require a range of skills including active listening, believing their story, identifying themes, joining with the individual, developing a trusting relationship, building rapport, empathizing with the child’s viewpoint, and understanding non-verbal communication.

Geldard, Geldard, and Yin-Foo (2010) believed that young people are egocentric; they often believe that other people are incapable of understanding them and their feelings. This has important implications for counsellors. The authors suggest that children and adolescents may need help in presenting the issue, gaining consequential awareness, and addressing their development needs. Teenagers develop mature social relationships based on reciprocity and trust, strive to achieve emotional independence, and develop their own guiding system of values and ethics, which require acknowledgment. Teenagers are likely to experience heightened intensity of emotions and reactions but may be reluctant to share thoughts and feelings. The counsellor may need to explore different methods of communication, work collaboratively, flexibly, and in an engaging way, significantly allowing autonomy and control to young people as much as possible to enable the child to grow, promoting change and developing a good client-counsellor relationship. The counsellor may need to devise creative ways to help, support, and encourage Leo to express and process his feelings.

Creative Strategies in Counselling

Geldard, Geldard, and Yin Foo (2016) suggest creative strategies such as art, journals, and drama are appealing to children and young people as they are interesting and dynamic. When selecting creative strategies, the counsellor needs to be sensitive to the individual's personal preferences.

Artwork can be used to help Leo understand his current issues, explore his feelings, and make sense of them. Drawings and paintings may permit Leo to reflect upon his current emotional state, identify ideas, and make statements which may seem acceptable or unacceptable. The authors suggest Leo should interpret his own work to prevent misinterpretation and contamination of the counsellor’s own ideas, beliefs, and feelings. Leo may prefer to engage in a dynamic way through drama and role-play, exploring feelings, relationships, identity, making choices, and experimenting with new behaviors. Imagination can enable Leo to change self-perceptions, reconstruct negative memories, get in touch with troubled experiences, and move towards a comfortable space. Daily logs and dream logs can help identify repetitive behaviors.

Ethical Considerations in Counselling

“By nature of the profession, counsellors are to act in the best interest of their client, promoting client goals, protecting client rights, maximizing good and minimizing harm.” (Stein, 1990)

In counselling, ethical dilemmas are inevitable. The British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapy (BACP) sets out the expected ethical principles, values, and good practice standards to guide counsellors in resolving ethical challenges. The counsellor needs to be mindful of the core principles: to honor the client's trust, autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, justice, and self-respect. Geldard, Geldard, and Yin Foo (2016) inform that confidentiality is deeply embedded in the BACP’s Ethical Framework. Counsellors need to be clear on the levels of confidentiality that can be provided. Depending on the nature of disclosure, the counsellor may have an ethical or legal responsibility to disclose information, for example, when concerns are raised over safeguarding. The counsellor has an ethical duty to explain the limits of confidentiality to Leo at the earliest and ensure he understands them.

Conclusion

Mediation, counselling, and advocacy are completely different services, but many similarities can be identified. The counsellor will need to tailor intervention to Leo’s needs and adhere to the code of ethics which governs the counsellor and client’s relationship, essential to good practice.

References

• Bandura, A. (1964). Social Learning and Personality Development. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Geldard, K., Geldard, D., & Yin Foo, R. (2010). Counselling Adolescents: The Proactive Approach for Young People. SAGE Publications.
• Geldard, K., Geldard, D., & Yin Foo, R. (2016). Counselling Children: A Practical Introduction. SAGE Publications.
• Hall, G. S. (1904). Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, Religion, and Education. D. Appleton and Company.
• Morin, A. (2019). Understanding Puberty: Physical and Emotional Changes. Verywell Family.
• Stein, M. (1990). The Ethics of Counselling. HarperCollins Publishers.
• Vitelli, R. (2013). Storm and Stress in Adolescence: G. Stanley Hall’s Legacy. Psychology Today.