Wellness wheel worksheet

The wellness wheel worksheet was an activity that was applied in the classroom. The activity required us to reflect on our satisfaction with different aspects of our lives in the present, such as relationships, careers, money, health, mental health, and so on. We were required to scale our satisfaction from 0 to 10 scale and jot down the number in the worksheet like a graph. Later, we were asked to discuss the graph with one classmate. I have done this activity numerous times in my life before. I had tried my best to balance all aspects of my life; therefore, the wheel was rounder in recent times. However, the wheel was not even closer to the round shape this time. To my surprise, despite my continuous efforts to balance and take care of my mental health at this time, the wheel showed there were aspects that had only 1 and 2 ratings. Then, while I was discussing this with my classmate, I saw that he also had a similar kind of graph. Clearly, both our finances and career satisfaction were the lowest among all the other themes. While discussing, we came to the conclusion that, sometimes, with the best of our efforts, external circumstances determine the level of satisfaction in our lives. At those times, realistic expectations and radical acceptance seem to be helpful in giving ourselves grace. I learned that while working with clients as well, the numbers on the graph might be affected by external circumstances that the client has no control over. The attitude that sometimes we can’t have everything at once can be less anxiety provoking in the counseling sessions.

Listening podcasts and discussions in class

The class activity was that we were a group of 4 people discussing the podcast we each had listened to before classes. It was interesting to learn about other podcasts other group members had listened to and hear their perspectives. The podcast I listened to was For Us by Us which was about conducting mental health research in the community and multicultural competency of the researcher. Other group members had listened to neurodivergent children, learning about middle adulthood, and supporting children from marginalized communities in a school setting. This was a new kind of learning experience for me; I had never tried it before. The effectiveness of the knowledge building through this teamwork felt really impactful. With the investment of a couple of hours, everyone in the classroom was able to learn about at least 4-5 podcasts in detail.

Panel Discussion

The panel discussion was held in the hall, and four panelists were invited to participate. Dr. Jordan facilitated the discussion around the counseling profession, job requirements, experiences, job descriptions, supervision, challenges, specialty areas, and more. Out of the four panelists, two of them were doing residency in counseling, and two of them were licensed professional counselors. It was enlightening to hear their experiences while working in university clinics, community centers, and private practices. The emphasis they put on supervision and self-care was something that stuck in my mind. Moreover, the emphasis they put on the boundary of work and personal life was insightful to hear. Hearing from all of them that commute time from work to home was a needed space to create a physical and mental boundary from work was so different from what I had heard about commute time from people in other professions. The perspective of ‘me time’ a counselor can get while commuting back home was interesting to take. Furthermore, their experience was helpful for me in creating realistic images of workplaces, the nature of work, and expectations from supervisor.

Advocacy presentations

Six groups researched certain topics and created presentations on advocacy activity for the selected population. The presentation of each group consisted of an introduction of the population, explaining why the population was important to work with, facts and Datas, and the counselor’s advocacy efforts. It was a profoundly insightful class, considering how much I was able to learn from my fellow classmates. I was able to learn about school counseling, neurodivergent children, traumatic brain injury among women, foster care children, and incarcerated youth. The information in the presentation is based on research and literature reviews, which makes the presentation more interesting for me as they don’t just say things that they believe but things that are supported by the literature and research. My past educational experience and presentation experiences were slightly different from this. I am grateful for all the learning experiences from this class. At times, I have felt that I should have taken this class at first before taking other classes; that way, most of my queries regarding the profession, further procedures for license, market, challenges, and opportunities of the profession would have been addressed.