Technique of counseling

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Shakir:Week 2 – Case Conceptualization

Client and Theory: 

Dale and Person-Centered Theory

Presenting Problem: 

Dale, 52 years old, White male, prison guard, ex-police officer, divorced, estranged father of an adult son, currently married, exhibits racist views and actions. In mandated therapy by the employer. His beliefs and actions are causing hardships for him in both his professional and personal life.

Hypothesis: 

The client is living incongruently to his abilities and it’s creating difficulties in various aspects of his life. The client’s life has been shaped by a desire to please those around him, especially his father. This acceptance of the parents’ negative social ideology and discriminatory constructs during his formative years, are incongruent to his innate self. Congruent individuals are those who trust their view of the world and trust their basic positive nature (Hazler, 2022).

The client is demonstrating his true desire to assist others, through the examples of his employment selections, as both a police and correctional officer. Through self-actualization of the person-centered theory the client can begin to hone in on his inner resources to take fundamental steps towards a positive congruent shift. Self-actualizing has the ability to create positive development in people (Hazler,2022). The client’s life has arrived at a point, where he is now being forced to explore, reflect and create change.

Treatment Goals: 

The goals for the client will be to join and assist him as he explores the roots of his anger, prejudices and discriminating actions. Reflecting upon past decisions has the ability to allow him to immerse into a state of self-actualization. Self-actualization is the driving force in the positive development of the individual. It propels the individual away from the control of others and towards autonomy (Hazler, 2022). Through these steps, the client will begin to explore inwardly without the inherited beliefs that have caused tremendous turbulence within his life.

According to the person-centered theory, everyone has the ability to learn, adjust and grow in positive directions (Hazler, 2022). The client has the chance to course correct his past aggressions, to possibly gain trust and admiration from not only his peers, but his son.

Intervention / Techniques:

The intervention methods used in this case conceptualization will be aligned with the Person-Centered theory. 

Intervention 1: Active Listening

Active listening in a counseling session delivers empathy for the client by being attentive and compassionately listening (Hazler, 2022). This approach would deliver a positive therapeutic alliance, which would assist the client with relaxing, trusting and begin the process of revealing his inner self, thoughts and ideas. Dale would greatly benefit from having an active listener, due to the immense pressure is receiving from his external world. His professional career is in jeopardy as a result of his actions.

Intervention 2: Reflection of Content and Feelings

The primary steps in extending empathy within a session are recognition and reflection of the actual words and feelings being shown by the client (Hazler, 2022). These steps will allow for recognizing the body language and feelings that Dale has compartmentalized or has made an attempt to express in possibly negative actions. 

I would like to guide the client to reflect upon his innermost feelings about being a parent, and of his current estranged relationship with his son. The possible reflection of a loved one has the ability to allow the client to reach his sincerest essence as a person. While allowing the client to be open and vulnerable, can allow the work to go beyond his overall persona. As stated, “At its most powerful, reflection can also bring together complex elements of the client’s world that draw a much more accurate picture of the client as a whole than the individual elements provide separately” (Hazler, 2022).

Expected Outcome:

The goal in utilizing the person-centered theory with the client, is to provide empathy as the client sets out to explore his inner self. Since this work can be challenging for this client, it’s important to express encouragement through active listening and being aware of the physical movements that may occur. “Counselors who accurately reflect content and feelings act like a mirror by helping clients see what they are expressing so that clients can revise and expand perceptions of themselves based on counselor reflections” (Hazler, 2022). 

The expected outcome after aligning with the person-centered theory, the client will begin to shift towards self-actualization. This would prove to provide significant breakthroughs within the client’s life. These changes will allow Dale the opportunity to define his own reality and become more aware of his former self. The participation in self-actualization can move individuals away from the constructed thoughts, beliefs and control of others, and move them towards self-determination (Hazler, 2022). The outcome should demonstrate unique momentum towards being a more balanced, caring and loving individual.

References:

Hazler, R.  (2022).  Adlerian theory. In D. Capuzzi & M. D. Stauffer (Eds.), Counseling and          psychotherapy: Theories and interventions (7th ed., pp. 139-160). American Counseling Association

response 2 Lindsay:

Case of Anna Johnson: Person-Centered Theory

Presenting Problem: “The client’s mom Ms. Johnson contacted [Behavioral Health Services of Virginia] seeking mental health assistance and intervention for their child Anna Johnson. The client is a single 12-year-old Latino female living in a nuclear family with 1 brother and 1 sister. The client is attending experiencing Tuckahoe Middle School in the 6th grade. The client currently does not have an Individual Education Plan but has a school counselor. The client has not had services before the conceptualization. The client is showing signs of Anxiety, depression, and ADHD but has potential signs of Autism as well. The signs for both disorders closely co-exist interchangeably and the speculation from the mother includes that the client is having anger outbursts, shuts down, and is having a delay in social skills. The mother also states that Anna is on Adderall XR 10mg and she needs new medication since the new Adderall medication isn’t working and she believes that the medication is not helping manage the symptoms. The mother also reports that Anna is pacing, needs constant prompting socially, and needs to be watched” (Chambers, 2024).

Hypothesis: 

“The client has also shown symptoms of anxiety and depression according to her mom as well as lack of eye contact, negative thoughts, lack of engagement with the siblings and other family members, lack of speaking, and body language that indicates discomfort such as arms crossed, zoning out, and having to be prompted 2-3x daily every month by teachers as well as friends according to the mother”(Chambers, 2024). Anna’s mom explains that Anna is constantly doubting herself as she handles challenges in her life. Anna’s mom believes she may be suffering from self-esteem problems from social media as well as social comparison. Ms. Johnson explained how she believes that Anna has body dysmorphia and is always being critical to herself. Anna believes she has low self-esteem and self-image due to bullying as well as not doing well in school, so she said that it makes her lack confidence in herself. Ms. Johnson suggests that the issue is that “school makes her feel like she isn’t smart when in reality she is and she isn’t aware of this. However, I believe Anna is not only good at school, but is a very intelligent person although she just isn’t very self-aware as well as she has trouble expressing herself and seeing that potential and growth within her. Ms. Johnson believes that Anna doesn’t recognize herself as a motivated person. Anna believes that she lacks the ability to improve, to trust herself, and the capability to change how she views herself to benefit her well-being. According to Hazler (2022), The first principle [of a person-centered perception] is “to treat clients as trustworthy, or there will be no reason to allow them to take a leadership role in the helping relationship”. Ms. Johnson claims that Anna needs some self-direction and needs to be deeply heard by the counselor to improve the quest of her quality of life and to help Anna trust in herself. The second principle emphasizes that self-actualization is the “driving force in the positive development of the individual. It clearly moves the individual away from control by others based on conditions of worth and toward autonomy and self-control.” (Hazler, 2022). Anna can improve her life with confidence most importantly within herself but also through the eyes of a counselor and support from her family and friends. However, Anna believes that she has to constantly meet her mother’s expectations as they are very high for her especially when it comes to her making friends and doing well in school which makes it hard for her to accept all aspects of herself, especially success. Anna fears that she will never be able to come to terms with herself in a positive light and that she will continue to be depressed about school and not connecting with herself and others.

Goals:

The main goal for Anna is to achieve congruence. What this goal means is that “Individuals can and must rely on themselves for direction and strength” (Hazler, 2022). Anna has ideas about herself that are very negative which impacts the way she views the world as well as her traits. Anna and her family are working on trying to better herself and showing Anna that she can handle life obstacles on her own and that she is going to need to make decisions even though she might not like it because that is what comes with growth. Anna has to learn to use these skills to manage and maintain her well-being, so she does not fall into depression repeatedly. Anna’s goal is that she wants to get help and obtain a better self-image instead of being insecure and nervous. Anna’s mother wants Anna to least appear to others that she is secure within herself and eventually work towards loving herself. However, Anna is embarrassed that her mom is forcing her to pretend that she is okay with others and would desire to work with a therapist on not judging herself, meeting her goals, and improving her own personality traits without the opinions of others to pave the way for her (specifically her mother) but to talk to someone about the issues and have them trust that she can find her own way. “[Congruence] begins with the counselor demonstrating trust in [Anna’s words], values, and ability to make productive decisions. Rather than trying to “show her the way,” the counselor will trust in her ability to find the better way and will be her professional companion along the way even as she makes missteps and then works to adjust them. Through active listening, demonstrating empathy, showing understanding, and recognizing the difficulties” (Hazler, 2022).

Intervention/Techniques: 

Intervention 1: The intervention method that would be beneficial would be Genuineness and Self-Disclosure. Using this intervention can be helpful because the counselor “will work with her situation, see her inner strength, trust in her willingness and ability to move in positive directions”, “The result is an environment that is supportive of the potential for progress and striving for more self-actualization” (Hazler, 2022). I believe this might be a useful approach because it focuses on how to encourage the client even when situations can be frustrating, which is helpful to Anna when she shuts down. Anna needs to be comfortable discussing her internal conflicts as well as having someone help her stay positive during a hard time. It would be beneficial for Anna’s growth because she would have to face the reality that with her disorders, she would have to work extra hard on how to be more in tune with her thought processes. Anna’s family has provided Anna with constructive criticism and is continuing to do so that way Anna can know that she is struggling and needs extra guidance because sometimes she is not as self-aware as she and others would like her to be (Chambers, 2024).

Intervention 2: Another intervention that would be beneficial for Anna would be Active Listening. “After putting themselves in the best possible position to listen, counselors must then hear and see what is communicated by words and action to turn the bits and pieces into a holistic picture” (Hazler, 2022). The idea is to always have a good listening ear to be able to gather as much information as possible to see how one can approach the situation at hand. I believe this might be a useful approach because Anna doesn’t feel heard by her mother and so this technique could encourage her to be more open with her problems (because her mother problem-solves and makes decisions for her and doesn’t allow her to just vent). The counselor can then reflect on what was said, give thought-provoking follow-up questions to Anna, and then point out to Anna some patterns within her behavior so that Anna can then make a decision based off the feedback and hopefully become more capable of self-improvement.

Expected Outcome:

The goal of person-centered therapyis so that the “individual is working together for the purpose of self-actualization growth rather than towards overcoming the illness” (Hazler, 2022). Anna hopefully will take away from the session that she is able to see her own strengths and trust in herself as well as also be able to engage in more social behaviors that help with her ADHD, anxiety, depression, and potential Autism. The main goal is for Anna to reach a point where she feels as if she can understand her problem areas as well as learn a solution-focused way to help herself in a positive light. The person-centered approach emphasizes a belief that this ability to grow in positive directions is available to everyone” (Hazler, 2022).