Holistic Counselling for Panic Attacks
Case Study Holistic Counselling
Overcoming stress and panic attacks
I started the session with an introduction, explaining who I was and what the session will entail, to make my client feel at ease. I sat opposite my client and made sure I had eye contact with her at all times.
I asked my client open ended questions and we completed the consultation/treatment card to assess the areas in which my client needed support on. I listened intently and repeated what she had told me to ensure that I had listened to my client.
I also used a form called ‘how do you feel’ which the client states from 0-10 how they are feeling, 0 being relaxed and 10 being very stressed. I can then determine which areas my client is struggling with.
The points on the form are:
- Relationships
Family
Social
Confidence
Health
Feelings
Friends
After completing the assessment we talked more about confidence, feelings and family, as this is where my client scored more towards the 10 mark.
Confidence
My client expressed how she doesn’t have much confidence and often has panic attacks when in social situations or if she has to complete an exam or something important. She finds it hard to breath, gets short of breath and then gets into an emotional state of mind.
We discussed abdominal breathing exercises to help with the anxiety she is experiencing, to practice daily and especially when she feels the panic attack happening.
We did the 4-7-8 breathing techniques 5 times together then my client completed a few breaths on her own. With relaxing music on in the background my client instantly felt calmer and relaxed. I also suggested my client experienced a crystal healing treatment to help calm her anxieties and stress levels.
Feelings
Whilst talking about her confidence and anxieties we also talked about feelings. My client gets very emotional and is quite negative on herself.
We talked about positive affirmations and to say these daily to fuel her mind with positive thoughts and feelings.
‘I am in charge of how I feel and today I am choosing happiness’
‘Think positive and positive things will happen’
‘When I breathe, I inhale confidence and exhale fear’
Family
My client was very open about discussing her family with me. She is currently in foster care as she doesn’t have any parents. She finds it hard to build a relationship with her foster parents as she doesn’t feel a part of the family.
She tries hard but feels very isolated and that she is always in the way. I suggested being more helpful around the house and making herself more a part of the family, rather than isolating herself from them.
We talked about the positive things that happen in her family life and what she enjoys doing.
We wrote down the activities she has previously done with the family that have made her happy.
Cycling, picnic, theme park and swimming. We then wrote down the emotions she had when doing the activities- happiness, excitement, fun and laughter.
My client enjoyed talking about the positives times she has had with her foster family. I suggested that when my client feels upset or sad about her family life to think of a positive time when she was happy.
Meditation
I think that meditation would help my client be more relaxed within herself and help to visualise herself with more confidence.
I put some relaxing music on and asked my client to take 5 deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth.
Once my client was in a relaxed frame of mind we did the law of attraction meditation. This took 10 minutes and my client expressed how relaxed she felt after. I suggested her continuing to do this at home- as often as she can with her breathing techniques.
Aromatherapy
We briefly discussed the benefits of aromatherapy and that I think on the next session we could use more techniques of aromatherapy to help with relaxation and stress relief.
We smelt a few oils and I explained the benefits of each oil and have she can use them. As my client hadn’t used aromatherapy before and didn’t know much about it, we smelt and oil and put this on the palm of our hands. We did 5 inhalations of breath, smelling the oil in the processes. My client felt really good after as I used lemon oil, which is quite uplifting. She is keen to learn more about the benefits of aromatherapy in the next session.
Once the session had come to an end we recapped on what we had discussed and what my client can continue to practice at home.
We talk about positive affirmations, breathing techniques, meditation and positive thoughts.
Review
I am positive that the first session was really successful. My client had been open about her feelings and thoughts and even though a little quiet at the beginning, the ‘how do you feel’ form really helped to get my client talking about her feelings.
She was really open to try the holistic approaches to help with her anxieties and stresses. I think she will really benefit from practicing the breathing techniques and meditation daily and also the positive affirmations.
My suggestion is to follow up on our next session, in two weeks, to see how she is getting on. We can recap on the holistic techniques we have used and then move onto aromatherapy, to see if that will benefit my client.
I also suggested trying crystal healing– she hasn’t heard of this before, so our next session I will show her the crystals and explain how the treatment works. This way my client will feel confident and understand the benefits of the treatment. I have also told her to google crystal healing, so she can understand about the treatment more.
Client Feedback
I really enjoyed my first session and found that I could talk comfortably about my feelings. I found the breathing techniques and meditation really beneficial and I will practice these daily to help me.
I am interested to see if the aromatherapy will help on my next session and to learn about crystal therapy too. My therapist was really professional and I felt that she understood how I was feeling and she wanted to help.
I will look forward to my next session- thank you.
End of Student Case study
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