The Video Interview Part 2

Ronald conducted another video interview with his mother, Wilma for his class. The topic we were discussing for the video was her views on experiencing the loss of a loved one and how these events led to an impact in his life, as she is the client this time.

They began by introducing each other and I told her "I would like to talk about experiencing the loss of someone close." She then described how she felt about the loss of her grandparents and her father, their son. As the client, she felt at ease with talking about how their loss affected her . We worked together to build an alliance with each other to feel comfortable while having the conversation.

Wilma went on to describe how experiencing the death of her grandfather was for her as his death was the first she had experienced. Ronald listened as she discussed how close she was to him growing up. She talked about how other members of the family were still trying to grieve as she lost him at the age of fifteen. She did not fully grieve over him until her adult life. She stated that she wished that he had lived longer to see her through her life changing events. Despite this, she showed her strengths going through the process.

During the third stage of the interview, Wilma then discussed the death of her father, Ronald's grandfather and how it affected her. Ronald was almost ten when he passed and he didn't know how to feel because he didn't understand at that time. Nobody in the family knew how sick he was and the diagnosis was two weeks before. Because she was dealing with his death, she was in the denial stage and did not fully grieve until a year later and it took Ronald longer to grieve over him.

During the fourth stage of the interview, she then explained how the death of her grandmother impacted her. Everyone in the family was close to her and at the moment we were all dealing with it. She had found it hard to accept it as she was in denial. However he was upset at the most for two months, feeling depressed and angry. Ronald understood how a death in the family can be impactful, especially sharing his experience of losing two close friends and how it affected him during that time.

During the fifth and final stage of the interview, they both discussed experiencing the loss of a peer is different from a loss of a family member and no matter the circumstance they grieve in our own way as the peer would affect them more since it is someone close to our age. Upon realizing this, they plan to use skills to help us deal with the stress that comes with grieving.

The main theme was experiencing the death of loved ones and peers and how it affected our lives. In basic listening skills, Ronald started with the open statements, which was delusional counseling. In influencing skills, they used interpretation/reframe, as he shared his thoughts on grieving over the loss of his friends and how they felt about the deaths of their relatives.

Ronald was able to understand how Wilma was feeling at the moment dealing with the loss and how she felt afterwards. If he had used summarizing, he would have been able to mentalize the conversation between us and also use emotion regulation which would bring order.

Ronald is aware that Wilma can express emotions, especially when discussing how the impact of the loss has taken a toll on her during adulthood. They have both displayed active listening skills, which also used a combination of reflection of feelings and empathy.

The interview was successful as my mother and I described having similar experiences with grieving the loss of a loved one or a close friend. For our next planned interview, we will continue to discuss how we managed to deal with the loss, and how we were able to cope.