respond: shakir
Client and Theory:
Deidre and Existential Theory
Presenting Problem:
Deidre, 21 years old, college student, father passed away when she was 16 years old, emotionally disconnected from her mother as a result of mother “moody” mood swings, experienced a teenage pregnancy and abortion at the age of 18 years old, feels isolated, and struggles with optimism regarding her future.
Hypothesis:
(Existential Constructs – Death and Isolation)
The client is still struggling with the feelings of loss, through the death of her father and the abortion of an unplanned child. The way people choose to deal with death, whether accepting or ignoring it, determines their psychological well-being (Frank, 2022). The overwhelming feelings of disconnect and grief are causing isolation and depressive behaviors.
The client has been feeling isolated for many years. The isolation she is experiencing began when she was a youth as a result of her parents’ divorce. This issue was compounded when her father suddenly passed and thereafter, she began experiencing negative personality shifts from her mother. While retreating to solitude she began losing her direction in life. When one separates from others, they are also separating from themselves (Frank, 2022).
Goal:
(Overarching Constructs – Responsibility and Freedom)
The goal for the client is to assist her in assessing her current feelings and begin accepting responsibility. This will begin the process of allowing her to realize she has the ability to create change. Through existential understanding, people can learn to evoke change at many developmental stages within their lives (Frank, 2022). As the client progresses and feels a true therapeutic alliance, she will begin to take steps towards being more aware of her choices, while adopting a sense of responsibility for her present and future actions. Such choices can lead her out of a state of isolation.
After the client begins to blossom into a stage of assuming responsibility for her life’s outcomes, she will begin to find freedom. This freedom will allow her to forgive herself for past transgressions and sadness. Freedom arrives when one realizes the world is a willful construction of awareness (Frank, 2022). The concept of freedom will allow her to feel a sense of autonomy and optimism. This will be extremely helpful with overcoming the life burdens she has experienced as a result of her parents and life dilemmas.
Interventions/Techniques:
The intervention methods used in this case conceptualization will be aligned with the Existential theory.
Intervention 1: Presence
I have chosen the presence intervention strategy, because I believe the client would truly benefit from someone who would serve as a partner, as she begins to explore herself and life. “Compassion is beyond sympathy or even empathy, it literally means being with another’s suffering” (Frank, 2022). As a young adult, who doesn’t have a parent to seek guidance or share life challenges with, would greatly benefit from having a strong therapeutic connection with a counselor. The client will be able to explore and trust the process during the challenging work she will be enduring, by having a trusted and non-judgemental partner.
Intervention 2: Closure
The second intervention strategy to use with the client would be closure. I believe sessions with Deidre will reveal a tremendous amount of pain, hurt and growth, while addressing her losses. Through the steps of becoming responsible and finding the freedom to have control of one’s direction will be monumental for the client. The growth will be a new approach at life for the client, so there must be a sense of closure, to allow her the autonomy to utilize the learned strategies. In creating the end of the client and counselor therapeutic relationship, is the final and bold step that’s necessary to help the client enter reality with optimism (Frank, 2022). The closure will also serve a recognition of accomplishment for Deidre.
Expected Outcome:
After implementing the interventional steps, I believe the client will discover self-actualization and will benefit greatly. Deidre will also be equipped with a sense of personal responsibility and freedom to define her own reality. Having the ability to explore and live outside of the shadows of her challenges, will allow her to assign new meaning to her life. When individuals find meaning for their life, there is always hope for a better existence (Frank, 2022).
The client will begin to operate life by involving others, which will assist her with not feeling or subjecting herself to isolation. Individuals can tackle isolation, by focusing on relationships with others (Frank, 2022). The ability to step outside of the past childhood depression, grief and loneliness, will no longer be a factor when implementing the strategies of the existential theory.
References:
Frank, M.L.B. (2022). Existential theory. In D. Capuzzi & M. D. Stauffer (Eds.), Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions (7th ed., pp. 117-134). American Counseling Association
Respond 2:kathi
Client and Theory/Theorist:
The client’s name for week 4 case conceptualization is Mike. The Gestalt theory is being applied to the case conceptualization.
Presenting Problem:
Mike is a fourteen-year-old male that was referred for counseling by his math teacher. The client is an Asian-American and is the youngest sibling in his family. He has two older sisters that live at home and attend a local college. The client’s family moved to the United States when he was 9 years old due to his father’s job. Mike’s parents work as they maintain their home.
Mike is an introvert, soft-spoken person and has been withdrawing lately from people. He has a good relationship with his sisters and mother, yet he struggles with his father. His father demands he earns all A’s and makes him feel bad about himself when he is unable to ascertain such grades. His father resorts to calling the client a “lazy American teenager” and even becomes angry with his wife for allowing the client to earn such bad grades in his eyes. The client’s gpa is a 3.0.
The client’s classmates make fun of him and call him derogatory names when no one is around. This makes Mike feel bad about himself and at times anxious to be in school. Mike does not have real friends at school, yet he has befriended another older male student that works on cars with him. The client’s father does not approve of this friendship as the other kid dropped out of school and he thinks he is a “bad influence” over his son’s life. The client’s father thinks that this friend does not honor their family values and his son will be persuaded to go in the wrong direction in life.
The client exhibits anxiety due to his father placing such high demands on him. The client shows signs of a depressive state as he continually withdraws from others that care about him. As the client is experiencing bullying in school the client shows further withdrawal as he retreats to his bedroom on most nights and is alone.
Hypothesis:
The client suffers from anxiety due to his demands that his father places on him. The father in part has such demands as he is an Asian man that follows his own cultural educational beliefs and has high achievement goals for his son. The client should look at his situation from a holistic perspective and take into consideration his father’s ideas about their culture and his own perception of what being Asian means to him. The client needs to identify what parts of his culture are congruent with himself. (Haley et al., p. 169) Additionally, the client is feeling bullied at school and is starting to believe things about himself that are not true, and he is withdrawing from other students and even withdrawing from family members. This is an example of unhealthy confluence within the client’s life. This is causing the client to self-isolate and have heightened anxiety. (Haley et al., 2022, p. 171)
Goals:
A treatment goal that would help the client is awareness. The client must understand that in order to make changes in his life and decrease his anxiety he must be able to see his life in a bigger picture lens. Also, another treatment goal is for the client to use the conversations between himself and the therapist to create experiments to assist him in his interactions with other students in school and at home with his father. (Haley et al., 2022, p. 176)
Interventions/Techniques:
The first intervention is the empty chair technique that the client and the therapist can do during sessions. This technique gives the client an opportunity to talk about the problem between him and his father while pretending his father is in one of the empty chairs. This can also provide clarity to the client as he will be able to see his father’s side of the argument and find ways to talk to his father about his thoughts and feelings in the future. (Haley, et al., 2022, p. 179)
The second intervention is role playing that the client and the therapist can do during sessions. Roleplaying can assist the client when he is faced with students bullying him in school. The client can explore and identify other ways of handling the bullying situations at school as opposed to doing what he is currently doing, which is running away and self-isolating from everyone. (Haley, et al., p. 177)
Expected Outcome:
The goal of Gestalt therapy for this client is for Mike to be able to become self-aware and grow as a person to become who he is meant to be in life. By doing this he will be able to decrease his anxiety levels and feel part of his family and school again. (Haley, 2022)
References
Haley, M., Riley, P. G., & Greenan, G. (2022). Gestalt theory. In D. Capuzzi & M. D. Stauffer (Eds.), Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions (7th ed., pp. 165-192). American Counseling Association.
Haley, M., Riley, P.G., & Greenan, G. (2022) Chapter 8 Gestalt Theory. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://waldenu.instructure.com/courses/104052/dis…
