Question Process

Assignment Overview

These last seven weeks have flown by and here you are working on one of your last assignments. This assignment allows you the opportunity to clearly demonstrate your understand of the therapeutic process. You will start by reading an intriguing vignette. This is the same vignette you worked on last week to develop specific interventions (with a bit more information). Now, you will use the same information to articulate how you would work with Catherine in therapy making sure to employ systems language. You will have the opportunity to formulate questions that would help you better understand the presenting challenge. After sharing the questions you have created and the rationale for each question, you will offer a clinical conceptualization that explains the challenges and the needs of the client unit. You will then create a general treatment plan that directly correlates with the stages of treatment (beginning, middle, and end). You will address any potential situations that would make you feel stuck while working with Catherine. To end this wonderful experience, you will offer a summary/conclusion addressing your client(s) presenting problem(s), and how you have selected to join with your client(s) to address the shared challenge(s).

Please do not copy and paste the vignette as part of your paper. Failure to comply will result in a deduction of 10 points.

Vignette

“It has been many months since I thought of him,” said Catherine. “I have cried less over the last few days and have noticed a genuine desire to be around others again.” Catherine is your client. She is 36 years old and works for the local university as a librarian. She has two children (ages 10 and 7), and a loving husband to whom she has been married for 14 years. One year ago, Catherine was attacked walking to her car from work. The assailant (who has not been caught) was male and physically attacked her the moment she reached her car. At that moment, Catherine shared that she screamed and fought back, but given that it was close to 11 pm, no one heard her call for help. Catherine shared that thankfully, she was not sexually assaulted, but was beaten severely. While she was being hit, the assailant kept saying to her that she was worthless and deserved to be beaten and much more. The abuser told her that if she told anyone who he was, he would be back to finish the job and will make sure to attack her children. Her purse, cell phone, and car were stolen, and she was left in the parking lot bleeding. She shared how scared she was before and after a security officer found her and called an ambulance and the police. The security officer was male, and she wanted nothing to do with him. As she elaborated on the events of that evening, she remembered lashing out and attacking the Emergency Response Team member (who was also male), and the initial police officer (also male). She shared the thoughts and fears of never seeing her family again and how the voice and words of the violator repeat in her mind all the time. She shared about the pain she exhibits whenever she walks past the parking lot on her way to work (a year later). She expresses how helpless she felt, and how determined she is to find the person that attacked her regardless of the consequences. While in your most recent session, she says to you, “I know I survived and that makes me a survivor but is it wrong to hate men? And is it wrong to hate myself for letting the attack happen?”

As you write your paper, be sure to address all of the following questions. Do not cut and paste the questions into the text of your paper and do not use bullet points for any section of the paper. Failure to comply will result in a deduction of 10 points.

Paper format

***Review the Therapeutic Process Paper rubric in the Rubrics folder under Course Information before completing your assignment.

Section 1: Introduction

Before delving into the main subject matter of your paper, please introduce your work and clearly explain what you plan to discuss in your paper.

Section 2: Assessment

After reading the vignette multiple times ask yourself what it is about this case that you do not know and would like to know? Ask yourself, what is missing from the information shared? Then ask yourself how you can formulate what you would like to know into multiple questions that would reflect a respective interest in the client’s therapeutic journey. In this section, eloquently express your hunches and offer examples of the questions you would ask the client(s). You will also want to address any applicable ethical issues. There should be a minimum of five questions shared in this section. These questions should be processed-based and reflect your view of the case through a systemic lens.

Section 3: Clinical (Case) Conceptualization

In this section, you will write out a detailed clinical conceptualization absent specific theoretical language. You should focus on the key factors shared by your client(s) and infer certain unspoken or unshared circumstances. Clearly support your hunches by referring back to the information found in the vignette and stay away from simply summarizing the vignette. In addition, be sure to clearly outline structural nuances that help maintain the presenting problem in place.

Section 4: Treatment Plan

In this section, you will address the beginning, middle, and end stages of treatment. In each stage, you will identify two or more goals directly related to the client(s) presenting problem, and two objectives on how you will help the client unit reach the identified goal. Share your rationale for selecting each goal, and how reaching the established goal would benefit your client(s).

Section 5: Therapist Influence

As a therapist, it is inevitable that you will find yourself in a session asking yourself why you feel the way you do towards a particular client unit. You may feel anxious, stuck, agitated, afraid, overly involved with or towards a client unit. Why would this be the case? A great question to ask, and in this section, you will have the opportunity to offer a response. Based on the information shared by Catherine, tell the reader what parts of her experience may allow you to turn inwards. In your response, please offer three possible ways that you may hinder the client’s progress by focusing on your challenges. In addition, please share ways in which you as the therapist can navigate the patterns that allowed for the therapeutic process to remain stagnant.

Section 6: The Summary / Conclusion

This is where you get to share the highlights of your paper. Focus on the central theme of the paper and express your discoveries along the way.

Guidelines

1. Please submit your completed paper under the assignment link found in the week 7 tab. The assignment is due by Sunday at 11:59 pm of the same week (7).
2. The paper should be between 7 – 8 pages in length not including the title and reference page.
3. As outlined in the rubric, this paper should have a clear introduction and conclusion.
4. This paper should contain at least three peer-reviewed references (Wikipedia is not a peer-reviewed reference but it is a good starting point).
5. This paper should adhere to strict APA guidelines (7th edition).
   • Punctuation and grammar count.
   • Font Style should be Times New Roman and font size should be the standard 12.
   • Page Margin should be the standard 1 inch.
   • Do not double space between paragraphs.
6. As a reminder, when you cite or quote any source please be sure to cite that source and give credit in the body of the paper and on the reference page. If you paraphrase, you should still cite the source of the idea you are describing.
7. Save your paper as a doc or rtf with your name and the assignment name in the file, using Last Name_Assignment. So, if your name was Alicia Jackson, and this is Essay 1, you would title it Overton_Essay 1.

For help with writing, review APA formatting and writing resources in the Writing Supports folder under Cours