Helping a client set goals

by Andrea
(Honeydew)

Hi everyone
I just want some direction for this.

I saw my first client for her 13 sessions and the areas she chose to work on are personal development, family/social and vocation.

For family/social I find it difficult to set the goals and then the milestones, as all they want is to be better mother, dedicate more time to the kids but also have time for themselves without feeling guilty.

In Personal development we set goals for time management so that she can have time for herself, and spoil herself a bit and increase her confidence which she is lacking.

For family, I set goals to spend quality time with her children like 2 hours a day, and leaving her time to enjoy by herself, while her kids are happy spending time by themselves. She did not want to improve her social life, as she says she is a loner and she is happy like that.

Now how do I set milestones for this goal? I would say both goals are related. I am not sure how to make them more specific and measurable as she was not very specific in what she wants.

For her third area, vocation, we set goals for her to get a part time job, near her house, at a certain income. But she is only wanting to do this when she finishes nursing her baby which will be in 6 to 8 months time. So I am not sure what milestones can I set up for her now. I think I should leave this goal aside and concentrate on the other two, as she wants to see an improvement in the next 3 weeks.

Also she was very emotional during the session, and I think she carries a lot from the past (which we all do), and she did mention she wanted to do the coaching sessioms as I told her we are different from therapists because we do not dwell on the past.

So my big concerns are the milestones and goals which are very subjective. I set an action step to start readng an organization book, although she said she did not have much time. But I am just thinking of session two and not sure how to go about it.
Should I revisit her goals in session 3? I set an action step for her vocation area to revisit her goal, as she was happy just to have an admin job. She is not very ambitious in this area.

Thank you for any assistance you can give me.

Andrea.