Objectives
The goals of this project are for students to learn to evaluate a provided case from the perspective of two different theories of family/couples therapy, applying each to conceptualization and treatment planning.
Materials Required
Your analysis will focus on the following case:
Lisa, a 39-year-old white heterosexual married woman, who works as a nurse, calls you for an initial appointment at your family counselling centre (which has a limit of 8 sessions per family). She states that she has been feeling depressed and overwhelmed because Jimmy, her 14-year-old son, has been having trouble in school.
He has been missing homework assignments, he is failing two of his classes as a result, he has occasionally been skipping classes, and last week he was suspended for punching another student. There is another child in the family, an 8-year-old girl named Emma.
She is quiet, and does not seem to have any obvious behavioural difficulties at the moment; however, she does not seem very happy when you meet her during the initial interview of the family. She does not speak up spontaneously and only responds to questions with one-word answers. In the initial interview, it also becomes apparent that there are marital tensions between the wife and her husband, Li, a 42-year-old Chinese-Canadian heterosexual man, who works as a software programmer.
In the conjoint intake session, the couple does not elaborate upon these difficulties; however, in the second session – an individual session with each family member – you discover that the husband has been spending 2-4 hours per day playing online poker games. He feels that he has a right to do what he wishes in his free time. His wife feels that it is an addiction, that it is an emotional betrayal of her, and that it is occasionally a financial drain on the family.
They never argue in front of the children, but they are both finding their son’s troubles very stressful. The wife feels that their son’s acting-out is related to the husband spending less time with the family (“he is always in his study, on the computer, mindlessly playing that stupid poker game”). However, the husband feels that it is his wife’s high stress level, and her short temper, that are causing stress in the rest of the family members.
Instructions
Write a formal paper, in three sections, in which you compare and contrast the viewpoints of two theories of couple/family therapy covered in this course, applying each to conceptualization and treatment planning for the case provided.
The paper, not including a title page, references, etc., should be 15-18 typed, double-spaced pages.
In the first section of your paper, describe the couple or family in question, and the presenting problem.
What do you think brought this family/couple in for therapy?
As you assess the family during the intake session that you imagine, what further information emerges?
In the second section, discuss two different theories of couple/family therapy from this course, and how you would apply each to the case. What is your conceptualization and treatment plan?
Conceptualization refers to how a therapist working within that theory would define the problem in the family – using that theory’s concepts, what would the therapist say is “the problem,” or the reason things aren’t working well currently?
Treatment planning refers to what a therapist working within that theory would therefore believe should be done.
Thus, conceptualization and treatment planning are logically related. Within each theory, also discuss how you will manage the limited number of sessions available to this family.
In the third section, address the following questions:
How are the two theories similar and how do they differ, in principle and/or in practice?
Do the two theories differ in terms of their approach to any gender or cultural factors that may be affecting this couple/family?
Which of the two theories resonated the most with your own way of conceptualizing this case, and why?
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