PROCESSS RECORDING GUIDE

•        The process recording should be written immediately after the contact so that the accurate and complete recall of the encounter can be captured.

•        Please plan to complete the process recording at least 2 weeks before it is due to be submitted to your field liaison so that you have an opportunity to discuss it in supervision.

•        Please disguise the client’s identity or any information that would make it possible for someone to identify the client.  

Identifying Information/Client Description

Who is the client, why is the client involved in services.

Length of service, type of service, duration and frequency.

The age of the client, gender, marital status, grade in school, occupation, household composition, if siblings (how many, birth order), socioeconomics and race/ethnicity.  

Purpose/Goal of Session

The purpose of this particular session (client’s perception and yours)

Discuss if they are they same or different and the implications this has on the session. 

Initial Observations

How were you feeling going into the session.

Your initial impressions of the client

Content of Interview/Verbatim Dialogue

Describe how the session began

Record word for word what was said by the intern and client.  Do not paraphrase or change any of the wording. Please note at least 10 consecutive exchanges.

Please include the end of the interview even if you must include it because it occurs after the 10 consecutive exchanges.

Student’s emotional response, gut reactions

Record your impressions of what you thought the client might have been thinking

Record your own thoughts and feelings in response to the dialogue Note changes in the client’s demeanor during the session

Observations, Analysis, Assessment, Theory

Assessment of client in the moment and note how that is the same or different from your previous assessment Identify a theory or acquired knowledge that helps your or that you applied during this session.  For example something that you may have learned in HUBSE.

Field Instructor’s Comments

Note the feedback that you received from your field instructor about this interaction.   Feel free to submit this to your field instructor and allow them to read it and make their comments directly on the document.  Please make sure to complete the process recording at least 2 weeks prior to the date is due to be submitted to your field liaison, so that your field instructor has an opportunity to provide the required feedback.

Competency

Please identify the competency or competencies related to this exchange.

Summary

Please summarize the client’s problem and/or why they are involved in services.

Were the goals of this session achieved (the client’s, yours)

If the goals were not achieved why not and/or what might have prevented them from being achieved.

Process Recording

Student: Hajara T Atta___________________________________                                  

                                   Date of Encounter:  11/19/2025____________________________

Field Placement: crystal Williams ____________________________                                                                                                              

                              Field Instructor: Yolanda Harris ______________________________

Identifying Information/Client Description

The client M is a Hispanic girl, aged 14, currently in the 9th grade, who recently went through personal troubles and is now getting therapy for her anxiety and depression symptoms. It has been 6 weeks since she started the therapy, she goes to the weekly 45-minute session of individual therapy. The client M is living with her mother and older brother who is 17 years old in a two-bedroom apartment. The family lifestyle corresponds to middle class. The client M says that she feels that she is not accepted by school and her academic performance has been going down since the divorce. Although she appears to be quiet and reserved, she has been making slow but sure progress in her willingness to talk during the sessions.

Purpose/Goal of Session

Client's Goal: Client M revealed that she was feeling anxious about her father’s upcoming visit and wanted to discuss it. Her concern was about "what to say to him.”

My Goal: I aimed to assist Client M in the process of unearthing her concerns over the visit, pinpointing particular issues, and eventually coming up with her own strategies for communicating her needs to her father. Moreover, I wanted to use this chance to measure her present anxiety and her coping mechanism's efficiency.

Comparison: Our goals were complementary since we both placed emphasis on the visit to the father. Nevertheless, Client M was mainly concerned with the practical side (what to say), whereas my intention was to tackle her emotional processing and communication skills. This divergence necessitated me to intertwine a solid skill-building approach with emotional exploration.

Initial Observations

Going into the session, I felt a bit nervous because last week Client M had cried when talking about her father, and I didn't know if she wished to proceed with that topic. I was also conscious of the fact that I had to be extra careful not to push her too hard while still enabling her to move forward.

When Client M came into the room, she looked more exhausted than the usual. She had her shoulders down and at first tried not to look at me. She plopped down in her favorite chair and right away put her backpack on her lap, which I took as a sign of her wanting to create a barrier. On the other hand, she did give me a very slight smile when I said hello to her, which I interpreted as a good sign of our growing connection.

Summary

The client M, who is undergoing treatments for anxiety and depression caused by her parents' divorce, definitely is going to be one of my most difficult cases to handle. We both made the same steps simultaneously; the client (decided what to tell her father) and my part (giving her support to cope with feelings and come up with mixed up communication techniques) were settled. Client M was able to scold and share her conflictual emotions about meeting her father; they were fear and anger. Besides, we have been doing emotional exploration and building skills at the same time; and the latter, she went home equipped with commutation techniques and a safety plan.

I was able to give emotional support and do practical work at the same time, and this is why the session was successful. One of the difficulties was controlling how I felt about her fear of abandonment - I had to be really careful not to give misleading signals which could lead to the misunderstanding that her father would never reject her. The situation brought me back to the thought of how sometimes the best way to help is simply to sit with one’s feelings rather than trying to “fix” them.

This situation has served to highlight my knowledge of attachment theory and the way in which parental divorce can activate children’s subconscious fears. I learned that very often the best thing you can do for a client is just to validate their feelings first and only then start working on solutions. In the following meeting, I will start with the question how the visit went and then carry on with the process of strengthening her assertiveness in interpersonal relationships.