How two therapists conceptualize and approach treating a case.
This is a paper that focuses on the how two therapists conceptualize and approach treating a case. The paper also provides a brief description of the assignment case study.
How two therapists conceptualize and approach treating a case
There are two main purposes for this paper:
1. To see how well you understand different approaches to psychotherapy and
2. To see how well you can apply the specific techniques to a case. The case description is rather brief. You can therefore use your imagination and artistic license to write about how you anticipate therapy would play out with this case.
Format of the paper:
1 inch margins on all sides
double-spaced
use Times New Roman font, 12 point
written in APA-style
Content of the paper:
First read the case description. Next think about how two therapists of different orientations would conceptualize and approach treating the case. Choose from among the orientations to treatment discussed in class: cognitive, behavioral, humanistic/existential, psychodynamic, acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavioral therapy (note, any combination is acceptable.
Clearly describe to the reader how each approach would
1) conceptualize the patient’s problems,
2) which specific therapeutic techniques would be in therapy (including specific examples of these techniques in action) and
3) comment on how effective this treatment would likely be based on the research literature and what you have learned in lecture and the textbook.
NOTE: You do not need to address all elements of the case vignette, as different schools of psychotherapy will differ in terms of what they focus on.
Include a reference list, using APA-style (e.g. textbook, DSM, lecture)
see Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for citation questions
Case description
James is a 27-year-old single Caucasian male who presents to your clinic for treatment. James reports to you that he has been feeling depressed for the last year. He says that his mood issues began after he went through a breakup with girlfriend, whom he had been seeing for three years. He reports that she had hoped to get engaged soon but he felt unsure about making such a large decision and not sure what direction he wanted his life to take.
Shortly thereafter she broke up with him, causing him emotional pain which he began coping with by abusing alcohol. He found that he had less ruminative thoughts about the relationship after drinking, and the pattern soon escalated to the point that he was drinking a six pack of beer alone every night. Causing him to be consistently late for work, culminating in him being fire from his job one month ago. Since he lost the job he has felt much more depressed.
He reports that he rarely sees his friends and things have gotten so bad that he barely leaves his house, sometimes sleeping for up to 16 hours a day. Also, he says he doesn’t feel motivated to do much of anything and nothing currently makes him feel happy (anhedonia). He also feels hopeless about the future and has many negative thoughts pop into his head, including thoughts calling himself a “loser”, a “failure” and predicting that he will never be able to get another job or have another romantic relationship.
In his background, James grew up witnessing his parents go through a hostile divorce when he was 6 years old. This left him with insecure attachments to other people, manifesting as difficulty making commitments in romantic relationships owing to the fear that the relationship will ultimately breakdown.
How two therapists conceptualize and approach treating a case
