As an individual studying with the hopes of becoming a counselor/therapist, there are issues that arise that would be interesting to get the perspective of my fellow classmates. In chapter 2 of Theory & Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy (Corey, 2011), the author speaks about the issues that a beginning therapist can expect to experience. These issues include, dealing with your own anxiety as a therapist, disclosing yourself as a therapist, avoiding perfectionism, being honest about your own limitations, understanding silence, dealing with demands from clients, handling clients who lack commitment, tolerating ambiguity, avoiding losing oneself in a client, developing a sense of humour, sharing responsibilities with the client that you as a therapist are working with, the ability to decline giving advice, defining your role, learning how to properly use techniques, developing your own counselling style and finally staying alive both personally and professionally. This is a very extensive list and obviously, not everyone will have the same experiences and issues with every one of these talking points. Each student has a different life history that will lead to different perspectives and expectations going into the working field. 

If this class were to take place in a classroom setting, I would be very interested in an assignment that used the difficulties that were learned in Corey's (2011) chapter 2 and challenged each student to think about them from their own perspective. In this assignment, the student would be asked to look within their own life experience and personality traits. Try to predict with the limited experience that the student may have in the field at this time what may be the most difficult issue to overcome in their early career.

I would like to use this platform to ask that question. Using the above-stated issues that a new therapist may experience, please make a comment about which issue you believe has the possibility to cause you as a future therapist the most issue as you start your career?   

Corey, G. (2011). Theory & Practice of Counselling and Psychotherapy. 7th ed. Toronto: Nelson Education LTD, pp.28-34.