Reflection : How to help clients to identify their problems during Counselling sessions with   the Mind Mapping tool . 

 1 . Challenge : 

 I am currently pursuing a counselling skills course my challenge is to document my work with   clients or subjects and apply whatever I am learning in the course in a practical way and provide   insights to my mentor . The practical assignments include listening skills , questioning skills , being   non - judgemental , helping clients in goal setting , re - phrasing the problem statements and several   other assignments . Clients in this context could be friends , peers , colleagues or complete strangers .   The Practical assignments are weekly in nature . All of us can tend to get stuck in certain thinking   patterns . Breaking thought patterns can help the mind unstuck and generate new ideas .    Trying to uncover the real problem , as well if possible identify the root cause of a client ’s issue is   always a challenge as a counselor . 

 2 . Selection 

 Since I am already facilitating several design thinking activities / tools , so I was ready to try the mind   mapping tool . Broadly speaking , the mind mapping tool is an excellent tool meant to unearth the   real cause of the problem . It also helps you learn more effectively , improves the way that you   record information , and supports and enhances problem solving creatively . It is also helpful to shift   the thinking and forces people to find a creative way forward . 

 3 . Application 

 In this case I had a background of the clients problem . From my observations she was a pessimist   and it was obvious since she used to keep saying “ This wo n’t work for me ” or “ I ca n’t do it ” or I   do n’t think It can ever happen ” .   I started the process by asking the client to identify the symptom of the main problem she was   facing . To facilitate this brain storming / mind mapping exercise I provided her a plain drawing A3   sheet and sticky notes . As this is an ongoing engagement with the client , I asked if she was okay   to brainstorm openly with me using this tool ? With a lot of reluctance she agreed to do so .    Note : If materials are not available , then I conduct questioning interview to unearth the problem .     I am also inspired to share what Nicole Wise , a marketing professor Darton had to say in the   Mind Mapping tool session , “ Mind mapping is one of the most powerful tools in the design thinker 's   toolbox . It 's used to look for patterns , it 's used to look for insights , that lead to more creative   solutions to your design challenge . Your participants have to move from a theme that has probably 

 been more like a label , for example guilt or no time , which is easy to come up with . To an insight   statement . ” 

 For the activity , I asked the client to name the problem on the circle in the center of the A3 page ,   and use sticky notes to make connections . I gave her two questions to answer , such as : 1 ) What if   this problem had gone away , how would your life look like ? 2 ) So What is the worst that could   happen if this problem persists ? 3 ) What would be your life review summary to have a different   perspective about this problem ? 

 I gave her approximately 15 minutes to discuss the questions and write the thoughts on the sticky   notes . Then I had her group her thoughts into clusters that made sense and some common   elements and keep aside the others . I asked her to draw branches stemming out of problem   statement on the sheet and expand on each one of them on the sticky note as keywords or   thoughts . As she grouped them and branched them out , I found that they were all correlating to   something very different , than her original problem and then additional insights came from a   deeper discussion on a A4 paper to jot down her thoughts and observations . 

 After the session , I asked her to review the sheet that combined the clustered thoughts ,   observation notes and any new insights from the personal discussion , and then create a revised   view that incorporated her feedback and thoughts on what she thought could work for her . 

 4 . Insights 

 What I personally learnt from conducting this exercise with this client is that while the sheet –   especially the revised review that incorporated her feedback – was important for reinforcing her   understanding of the underlying problem she is trying to resolve , the more valuable aspect of the   activity is the thoughts and insights and shared learning that occurs while they are working to   define the problem space together.as a counselor and counselee . 

 The mind mapping tool , thus , gives an opportunity for clients and serves as a focal point for   discussion that allows them to share their perspectives and develop insights into potential root   causes of their problems . They can quickly identify where they are in the mind mapping process –   or if any thoughts are missing – since it ’s an iterative process , they can more quickly add more   thoughts on sticky notes and review . 

 They can also identify variables in the problem space – that is , it helps them to identify what they   do n’t know , in what areas they need to obtain information or data to provide the values for the   variables . Since I discovered that the most valuable aspect is , next time I would use the mind   mapping tool activity as a starting point for a series of design thinking activities to discover   problems and root causes . This can further be applied into a group environment , group level   problem solving and facilitate brainstorming . The mind mapping tool also helps to challenge 

 assumptions . For every situation , you have a set of key assumptions . Challenging these   assumptions gives you a whole new spin on possibilities . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Reflection : How to help clients to identify their problems during Counselling sessions with   the Mind Mapping tool . 

 1 . Challenge : 

 I am currently pursuing a counselling skills course my challenge is to document my work with   clients or subjects and apply whatever I am learning in the course in a practical way and provide   insights to my mentor . The practical assignments include listening skills , questioning skills , being   non - judgemental , helping clients in goal setting , re - phrasing the problem statements and several   other assignments . Clients in this context could be friends , peers , colleagues or complete strangers .   The Practical assignments are weekly in nature . All of us can tend to get stuck in certain thinking   patterns . Breaking thought patterns can help the mind unstuck and generate new ideas .    Trying to uncover the real problem , as well if possible identify the root cause of a client ’s issue is   always a challenge as a counselor . 

 2 . Selection 

 Since I am already facilitating several design thinking activities / tools , so I was ready to try the mind   mapping tool . Broadly speaking , the mind mapping tool is an excellent tool meant to unearth the   real cause of the problem . It also helps you learn more effectively , improves the way that you   record information , and supports and enhances problem solving creatively . It is also helpful to shift   the thinking and forces people to find a creative way forward . 

 3 . Application 

 In this case I had a background of the clients problem . From my observations she was a pessimist   and it was obvious since she used to keep saying “ This wo n’t work for me ” or “ I ca n’t do it ” or I   do n’t think It can ever happen ” .   I started the process by asking the client to identify the symptom of the main problem she was   facing . To facilitate this brain storming / mind mapping exercise I provided her a plain drawing A3   sheet and sticky notes . As this is an ongoing engagement with the client , I asked if she was okay   to brainstorm openly with me using this tool ? With a lot of reluctance she agreed to do so .    Note : If materials are not available , then I conduct questioning interview to unearth the problem .     I am also inspired to share what Nicole Wise , a marketing professor Darton had to say in the   Mind Mapping tool session , “ Mind mapping is one of the most powerful tools in the design thinker 's   toolbox . It 's used to look for patterns , it 's used to look for insights , that lead to more creative   solutions to your design challenge . Your participants have to move from a theme that has probably 

 been more like a label , for example guilt or no time , which is easy to come up with . To an insight   statement . ” 

 For the activity , I asked the client to name the problem on the circle in the center of the A3 page ,   and use sticky notes to make connections . I gave her two questions to answer , such as : 1 ) What if   this problem had gone away , how would your life look like ? 2 ) So What is the worst that could   happen if this problem persists ? 3 ) What would be your life review summary to have a different   perspective about this problem ? 

 I gave her approximately 15 minutes to discuss the questions and write the thoughts on the sticky   notes . Then I had her group her thoughts into clusters that made sense and some common   elements and keep aside the others . I asked her to draw branches stemming out of problem   statement on the sheet and expand on each one of them on the sticky note as keywords or   thoughts . As she grouped them and branched them out , I found that they were all correlating to   something very different , than her original problem and then additional insights came from a   deeper discussion on a A4 paper to jot down her thoughts and observations . 

 After the session , I asked her to review the sheet that combined the clustered thoughts ,   observation notes and any new insights from the personal discussion , and then create a revised   view that incorporated her feedback and thoughts on what she thought could work for her . 

 4 . Insights 

 What I personally learnt from conducting this exercise with this client is that while the sheet –   especially the revised review that incorporated her feedback – was important for reinforcing her   understanding of the underlying problem she is trying to resolve , the more valuable aspect of the   activity is the thoughts and insights and shared learning that occurs while they are working to   define the problem space together.as a counselor and counselee . 

 The mind mapping tool , thus , gives an opportunity for clients and serves as a focal point for   discussion that allows them to share their perspectives and develop insights into potential root   causes of their problems . They can quickly identify where they are in the mind mapping process –   or if any thoughts are missing – since it ’s an iterative process , they can more quickly add more   thoughts on sticky notes and review . 

 They can also identify variables in the problem space – that is , it helps them to identify what they   do n’t know , in what areas they need to obtain information or data to provide the values for the   variables . Since I discovered that the most valuable aspect is , next time I would use the mind   mapping tool activity as a starting point for a series of design thinking activities to discover   problems and root causes . This can further be applied into a group environment , group level   problem solving and facilitate brainstorming . The mind mapping tool also helps to challenge 

 assumptions . For every situation , you have a set of key assumptions . Challenging these   assumptions gives you a whole new spin on possibilities .
### Output: 