Clinical Reflection: Clinical Analysis

Clinical Reflection: Friendship

The social stigma that comes with mental illness is often more disabling than the illness itself. The labels attributed to those who are mentally ill are not only discriminating but also isolating; those perceived less than able are kept and ignored. However, there are organizations that advocates and helps to integrate these most vulnerable individuals into our society, and that is what made this clinical rotation at Friendship special. Most of the individual I observed and interacted with are diagnosed with autism, anxiety, major depression, and schizophrenia that limits their ability to think, feel, and sometimes behave clearly. Being fully aware and casting out all personal biases, I proceeded to engage individuals using therapeutic means. In spite of the obvious manifestation of their illnesses, most these individuals functions and are still capable of thought, emotion, and behavior like any other normal person. For
I was preparing myself to deal with unruly, aggressive, uncontrollable, and inconsolable group of individuals. Instead, I found out that most of those individuals are no different than I am. They are not people devoid of human emotions. Most are still able to function, notably, in the case of some of the therapist, counselors, and staff who themselves were diagnosed with mental disorders. Thus, to really therapeutically care for the clients I need to look past the mental illnesses; for there is a real person somewhere deep within. As the clients acted out the emotion written on a card in a game of charade and lyrically sung about love during the afternoon activity, based on the that clinical experience and not on theories, I had not doubt that those individuals meant every single word they