Mursion Experience

Part 1: Case Example

Overview of the Case

Amar and Davina are a couple struggling to manage their household and give a safe environment for their son, Archie. During my recent home visit, I observed several red flags: beer bottles were scattered throughout the home, the space was generally disorganized, and the overall atmosphere seemed tense and unsafe for a child. There are also reports that Amar and Davina have been driving under the influence with Archie in the car.

They have been assigned to attend Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings and to follow a structured parenting plan. Unfortunately, they have not been attending these meetings and have failed to follow the parenting plan. Due to these issues and the potential risk to Archies safety, I must inform them of the decision to temporarily remove Archie from their custody.

Transcript of the Conversation

Opening the Conversation

05:08 Speaker 3 (MyselfCase Worker):

Hello, how are you guys doing today?

05:10 Speaker 1 (Davina):

Good, thank you.

05:15 Speaker 3:

And you, sir, how are you doing today?

05:17 Speaker 1 (Amar):

Fine.

05:19 Speaker 3:

Fine.

05:22 Speaker 1 (Davina):

Well, I mean, yeah, not great, honestly, you know, this is a weird situation to be in, you know, I hope everything's okay. We just want to, you know, pull through for Archie.

05:35 Speaker 3:

I definitely understand. I understand that you want to pull through and do what's best for your son, but tell me, you said it's a difficult situation. Tell me how things have been going since the last time we spoke?

Technique 1: Learning Stance

Here, I am using the "Learning Stance" technique as described by Stone et al. (2023), which involves approaching the conversation with a genuine curiosity to understand the other person's perspective. I invite Amar and Davina to share their experiences and feelings and thus create an open dialogue and reduce defensiveness.

Addressing Specific Concerns

06:13 Speaker 3:

Can you speak to me more about the difficulties you have been encountering?

06:20 Speaker 1 (Davina):

Yeah, well, part of it is just, you know, these meetings and everything like that. They've been a little hard to get to. We got work and everything, you know, we're trying to take care of Archie in the evenings and, you know, transportation's kind of been difficult lately. Yeah, that's a newer development for us.

06:41 Speaker 3:

Okay. So has the transportation been difficult for just you, sir, or you too, ma'am?

06:51 Speaker 1 (Amar):

Yeah. Yeah, for both of us really. You know, there's just been some car issues kind of recently.

06:59 Speaker 3:

Okay, okay. I definitely understand how difficult it can be when you encounter...

You don't know how much it's going to cost to repair. You don't know if the diagnosis of your car is the right one. So that can be a lot of difficult and stressful at the same time. So I would like to ask you, what did you,...…family reunification. Thus, I looked to create a sense of partnership with Amar and Davina and create a collaborative spirit.

Part 2: Reflection

The mock interview gave a sense of realism of the scenario and an opportunity to practice difficult conversations in a safe environment, allowing me to refine my communication skills and approach. The platform's interactive nature made the experience really engaging. Reviewing the recording of the interview was helpful as it let me see my communication style and my choice of words more objectively. I could see areas for improvement and think about how my words might be perceived by others.

Throughout the conversation, I used techniques that let me assertively communicate needs while at the same time stay open to collaboration and problem-solving (Hocker & Wilmot, 2018). I focused on creating solutions by reframing obstacles to open them to goals. This strategy helped me gain their trust. If given the chance to revisit the conversation, I would focus on encouraging Amar to participate more actively. His limited engagement in the discussion could have been addressed by directing specific questions to him and getting him in brainstorming solutions.

Overall, I would say the virtual reality mock interview was a valuable learning experience because I was able to go the conversation and apply empathy and professionalism and see how it all works. It was a good reflection. I could see clearly how to use conflict resolution strategies to break bad…