Reapond to Natashia

Week 9 Case Conceptualization:

Client and Theory/Theorist:

Deidre/Constructivist Theory (Solution-Focused)

Presenting Problem:

Deidre is a 21-year-old bi-racial female and the only child of her parents. She is in her sophomore year of college and lives three hours away from her only living parent. Diedre’s parents divorced when she was 11 years old and shortly after at the age of 15, her father passed away from a heart attack. Once her parents were divorced Diedre lived primarily with her mother, with whom she has a strained relationship. Diedre describes her mother as moody, emotionally unpredictable, and a complainer who suffers from Diabetes. Diedre feels that her mother’s outlook on life and negativity is what drove her father away. Diedre had a different relationship with her father, as she expressed feeling closer to her father even in silence. Diedre spent her teenage years in her room, having no friends and no social interactions with peers her age. Diedre is experiencing some anxiety and tension exhibited by her medically unexplainable headaches.

Hypothesis:

Solution Focused Therapy:

Solution-focused counseling concentrates on solutions rather than problems, using solution talk rather than problem talk. Solution-focused therapy allows clients to look beyond the difficulties in their present to focus on how their reality will look in the future with the presenting problem resolved. Deidre has been so focused on the problems that she has experienced or the challenges of life that she has not stopped long enough to focus on a solution. The solution-focused approach will allow Deidre to take a moment to imagine and figure out what her current life would be like if she can solve for get solutions to her problem. It will force her to realize that what she sees as a problem currently may not be much of a problem with this approach. (West-Olatunji, & Butler, 2022).

Goals:

Solution Focused:

Solution-focused therapy also incorporates specific concepts of change within the client; either the client or the environment must change, otherwise, the counseling experience has little or no purpose. The treatment goal would be to help Deidre effectively manage her Anxiety and Depression to have a better relationship with her mother and increase her level of self-confidence. One way to interrupt her maladaptive patterns would be to remind Deidre of three concepts that are part of the solution-focused therapy: 1. If it isn’t broken don’t fix it, 2. once you know what works, do more of it; and 3. if something does not work, avoid doing it again—try something different. Deidre needs to have opportunities that will push her beyond the norm and help her to focus on change. Helping Deidre to focus on change and creating a different perspective and the way that she looks at things will assist Deidre in reaching her goals. Getting Deidre to see the maladaptive patterns and facilitating problem-solving by being encouraged to take an innovative approach can also help her. (West-Olatunji, & Butler, 2022).

Interventions/Techniques:

Solution Focused:

Intervention 1: Reminiscence and Life Review (storytelling)

This approach puts the client in a position to reflect on past events that have led to the current moment. Engaging a client in this intervention will prepare the client to be able to problem-solve, connect with others, and transmit experiences and coping to others as a form of education. (West-Olatunji, & Butler, 2022). Having the client recall the event that has taken place prepares the client to organize the series of things that may be swarming around with no real concern. I help them to compartmentalize what is important and what just seems to be void. Although this can evoke some unwarranted emotions and feelings, it can also help the client see and focus on some areas where they have been more accomplished and more settled than they thought. If by chance it evokes a negative feeling, then it is a safe space for the counselor to help the client navigate those emotions and still use the solution-focused approach.

Intervention 2: Journaling

Journaling emphasizes the need for clients to develop an emotionally coherent understanding of their identities over time. (West-Olatunji, & Butler, 2022). According to West & butler (2022), journaling can aid in creating a healthier individual that requires fewer doctor visits and less anxiety. Having journaling as an intervention is great for Deidre. There will be times when she cannot make or keep an appointment with her counselor and she will need a way to channel what she is experiencing at the moment, Journaling allows the client to be free to express who they are with no inhibition. I sense that Deidre has concerns about being judged for her choices and how she has handled things and allowing her to be free in the way she expresses herself.

Expected Outcome:

The goal of Solution-focused Therapy is to get the client to understand that to every problem she may encounter, there is a solution. In the video, Dr. Murphy had a conversation with the boys and allowed them to create their solutions. He invited them to look at this differently and offered them the chance to see things differently which allowed them to feel that there are solutions. Both interventions chosen and married together will help the client yield results. If we can lower Deidre’s anxiety and get her to create a safe space for herself through journaling, then we can slowly begin to lower the walls of defense and get the client on the path of healing. Choosing the intervention of Reminiscence and Life Review (storytelling) helps to take the power from the story and the act, and gives the power to Deidre to help her control the narrative.

References:

West-Olatunji, C. A., & Butler, T. (2022). Constructivist theories: Solution-focused and narrative therapies. In D. Capuzzi & M. D. Stauffer (Eds.), Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions (7th ed., pp. 335-358). American Counseling Association.

respond to Lindsay

Client and Theory/Theorist: Case of Deidre Constructivist Counseling Solution-Focused Theory

Presenting Problem: The client Deidre is a single 16-year-old Latino female living in a nuclear family with 1 brother and 1 sister. The client is attending Tuckahoe High School. The client is showing signs of Anxiety, depression, and ADHD but has potential signs of Autism as well. Based on the client’s behavior, the mom referred the child to counseling services. The client is having anger outbursts, shuts downs, and is having a delay in social skills. The mother also states that Deirdre is sad due to the loss of her friend and tends to dwell on the past as well as gets anxious about the future.

Hypothesis: Solution Focused Therapy Lens

I believe that Deirdre can benefit from Solution-focused therapy because it “strives for client empowerment within the therapeutic relationship and emphasizes the idea that focusing unnecessarily on the problem” (West-Olatunji & Butler, 2022). An example of this is when the client and the family are trying to reach a common goal and assume that the child and family are competent and aware of what the problem is in there and know how to fix it is the assumption from the counselor. I believe Deirdre can benefit because she is growing to be more self-aware although she needs a little push from her friends and her family. Another concept is their “sense of time” (West-Olatunji & Butler, 2022). The idea is that we cannot change time and we have now to fix the behavior and we cannot dwell on the past or even the future, is. important for Dierdre. Rooted in this kind of therapy is the fact that we must encourage the client.

Goals:

Solution Focused:

The goals for the presenting problem is to help encourage and guide Deirdre because she needs to be supported in her mental health. She needs to be able to take “small steps towards realizing their hopes (goals)” (West-Olatunji & Butler, 2022). An example of this is having Deirdre and her mom sit down and have a mutual agreement on what they want to accomplish out of the family theory. The next goal is to be able to have them “imagine if they were able to achieve the goal” (West-Olatunji & Butler, 2022), and how they would feel to suppress the anxiety.

Interventions/Techniques:

Solution Focused:

Intervention 1: The first intervention for my client is change “This sense of agency enables clients to view themselves as capable of shifting their identities to adapt to their ever-present environmental challenges” (West-Olatunji & Butler, 2022. I believe that with solution-focused counseling, the clients can change with positive energy to push Deirdre towards confidence in trying to manage obstacles. I believe that helping the client and their family could push them to accomplish goals together.

Intervention 2: With the meaning-making process, (West-Olatunji & Butler, 2022) the goal is to “view everyone as equal”. What this looks like is when a client wants to use self-expression and also feel as if they can leave the feeling of guilt before the session so one can talk freely without judgment. The goal of Constructivist Therapy is helping the family combat the problem is through establishing the openness of the environment to make mistakes.

Expected Outcome: 2 cite from book/video

The goal of Constructivist Therapy with the solution-focused theory is to help people imagine their successes and acknowledge that no one is control of their life, but instead, we can create a story for Deirdre to think of a happy way of life to cope. The outcome that I hope to achieve for my client is to be able to see how they could change their problems and also to be able to see their life playing out the way the want it to without potential road-blocks that is such as life. The outcome from this theory is to help Deirdre and her family to communicate and realize that supporting each other in the journey of healing can benefit the resolution. “It is important to recognize the role that family dynamics may play in clients’ difficulty or inability in restoring themselves (West-Olatunji & Butler, 2022).

References:

West-Olatunji, C. A., & Butler, T. (2022). Constructivist theories: Solution focused and narrative therapies. In D. Capuzzi & M. D. Stauffer (Eds.), Counseling and psychotherapy: Theories and interventions (7th ed., pp. 335-358). American Counseling Association.