1. What were your motives for helping this person?
Thinking of a time I assisted a student with a great deal of major change anxiety, I hoped to help her gain insight into her own strengths/interests and identify very appealing career possibilities based on this. I wanted to help her solve her problem and know how to proceed, in addition to gaining more confidence and self-awareness.
2. Did you benefit from this relationship in any way? How?
Very much so. Helping someone else gain self-awareness and confidence is a very rewarding/validating experience.
3. What was your role in the helping relationship? In what way do you think you helped this person? Looking back, is there anything that you might have done differently?
My role was holistic advising and we had worked together for some time. I feel I could have more intentionally supported her in dealing with anxiety and self-doubt through facilitating/recognizing small accomplishments at an earlier point. From a cultural perspective, she was dealing with a lot of familial ambivalence and pressures that were driving her own decision-making/indecision/ambivalence (Her + her family were all recent refugees in the U.S. and she was the one pursuing college) I think I could have done more to help her process these and self-advocate in a culturally sensitive way.
4. Was there anything that this person did, said, or believed that you did not agree with? How did you react?
She would often tell me that she thought she was 'dumb'. I did not agree. I helped her recognize that she has very real strengths beyond school walls and that there is a wide chasm between being an English language learner and being dumb. I think I should have encouraged her to seek counseling to work on this more comprehensively.
5. Did you learn anything from this relationship?
I learned the importance of helping people see their own values and strengths and how these fit in the world, especially when they have very little exposure to career possibilities. I hope I learned a bit around how to help navigate this with sensitivity toward family and cultural responsibilities.