A psychodynamic theorist meeting with Precious would begin by assessing the strengths and challenges that she experiences through a series of interviews and discussions. Generally, this would include the client 's family, but in this case that would be inappropriate. The clinician would be sure to create a positive bond with the client, in a manner similar to that of person centered therapy. In fact, much of the intervention will be similar to, but more directive than, person centered theory. One method to assist Precious could be using Exploration/Description/Ventilation. The therapist will direct the client to an area of concern, and then help the client explore their thoughts and feelings around this area. This can help Precious to develop …show more content…
This would be unwise in the case of Precious until some firm ground rules were set, and probably not even then. A family systems practitioner would do well to look at the multigenerational genogram with Precious, in order to see the patterns of abuses throughout previous generations. This could help highlight to Precious the importance of the abuse stopping with her and her children. An eco-map would also be helpful, so that Precious could make a map of the people who are the most important to her, those who support her, and have them available as supports. It would be beneficial to support Precious in achieving some emotional distance, possibly differentiation, or feeling family ties without being constrained by them. However, I wonder if that would be sufficient. I feel as though her mother would never be a positive influence in her life, and I certainly don 't think her father would. In this case, though it is pathologized for family systems theory, it may be the most beneficial to the client to promote emotional …show more content…
Many children are praised when they do things like walk, talk, or read. While we primarily see Precious as a sixteen year old, we can deduce that this kind of positive reinforcement has been lacking for a long time. Precious was trained to behave in certain ways by the negative responses of her mother and father, and by the professionals in her life not stepping in. Her being meek in class was reinforced by teachers promoting her silence, and moving her grade levels despite her lack of basic school skills. Her meek behavior with her mother was negatively reinforced with her mother when her mother stopped using physical abuse when Precious was compliant. Her weight is also a great example of behavior theory. Both she and her mother are obese, and you can see that, when they eat together, they manage to maintain a sort of calm. Occasionally, Precious ' mother threatens physical violence unless Precious eats what she is given quickly. The elimination of the various abuses during that time of eating may negatively reinforce eating as a way of escaping pain, and Precious uses it outside of her home to manage her discomfort as
The job of a child welfare worker appears to be a demanding profession that promotes the child’s safety, but also strengthens the family organization around them in order to successfully raise the children. This child welfare workers work in the system known as the Child Protective Services whose initiative is to protect the overall welfare of the child. The short novel From the Eye of the Storm: the Experiences of a Child Welfare Worker by Cynthia Crosson-Tower demonstrates the skills necessary to deal with the practice of social work along with both its challenges and its happy moments. The novel consists of some of the cases involving Tower’s actual career in social work. In reading the book, I was able to experience some of the actual cases in which children dealt with physical and mental abuse from their families that caused them to end up within the system. Also, some of these children had issues in adapting to foster and adoptive families based on the issues they faced earlier in life. As we have learned earlier in the course, the violence that a child experiences early in life has an overall affect on the person they become as they grow into adulthood. When children deal with adverse childhood experiences, they are at a higher risk for abusing drugs and/or alcohol, increased likelihood of abusing their own child or spouse, higher rates of violent and nonviolent criminal behavior, along with several other issues throughout their lifespan.
The challenges that the social worker identified and the impact the abuse could have on Brandon include the trauma and abuse, illness and struggle may be injurious, but they may also be sources of challenge and opportunity. Every environment is full of resources. Resources can provide great strengths. One of social workers’ major roles is to link clients with the resources they need to empower them to improve their lives (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman,
The story of “Precious” provides an excellent example of how a person can become lost in the system, and also how one can begin to turn things around by utilizing available resources. Precious’s mother, Mary, has been taking advantage of Precious to help her manipulate the system so Mary can continue to receive welfare benefits. Precious ultimately meets with the social worker, Mrs. Weiss, who begins to help her move forward in life. It is my understanding that Precious initially met with Mrs. Weiss for welfare benefits, but this relationship seemed to change as the movie progressed. I was admittedly taken aback by the conditions of the office in which Mrs. Weiss worked, how she interacted with Precious initially,
Precious needs long-term individual counseling and psychotherapy with the main goal of helping her develop true self and whole self. Precious’ mother did not provide a healthy relationship, therefore she relied on her father to provide her sense of self. As a result, she is searching for her sense of self in her relationships with men. In addition, she idealizes men because her father was more consistent than her mother, and it was him who, paradoxically, gave her the best thing in her life – her son Abdul.
In order for unification to go well the Mi Sun’s family has to be open minded to providing compassion, love, and safety due to abuse being traumatic. From there, advocacy work should be done on behalf on Mi Sun so the father receives domestic violence classes to ensure Mi Sun’s safety should she be unified and be returned back home. Frequent check-ins should be required to ensure the family has not suppressed Mi Sun’s voice to expression any abuse or wrong doing. Should Mi Sun be placed at a foster family the foster family should be aware of how Mi Sun’s cultural aspects may have prolonged her reporting of the abuse and how their family structure does not allow Mi Sun to be an
The movie Precious is a movie about a sixteen year old girl nicknamed Precious. The movie shows her difficult life as she lives with her mother. Precious is a teen mother expecting her second child, who is also her father’s child due to him raping her. She is verbally and physically abused constantly by her mother and lives in a very unhealthy environment overall. She takes care of herself and her mother and is told what to do everyday. In the movie she begins to turn her life around when a teacher has faith in her and she begins to get an education, and learns she is not what her mother thinks she is.
I personally think she was one of the contributors to the dysfunction, though it never showed her hurt or abuse precious the fact that she pretends everything was okay and would help the mother lie to the social worker, so she could continue to receive benefits from the state for her daughter and granddaughter shows how entropic the situation was.... ... middle of paper ... ... Precious is a film that looks behind this lovely idea to examine the economic forces and psychological detriments that make it an easier said than done experience, for individuals like Precious and people who are attached to her.
Linda Bass, D. H.-M. (2006). Making Sense of Abuse: Case studies in sibling incest. Contemporary Family Therapy, 87-108.
For Precious, I have used a Systems theory/ Family Systems approach to evaluate and summarize her needs and interventions. One of the crucial aspects that I have addressed is that being removed from the abusive environment is crucial for her and her two children. At the moment she is able to stay at a half-way house that can accommodate her and her children. She is able to also utilize childcare while she attends her alternative school. I have spoken with Precious, and she states that she wants to get her own place and raise her children. Being that she is 17, she is still considered a minor so we spoke about how certain obstacles may bar her from leasing an apartment right away. I have made a referral for her
As previously stated, her father, Carl, sexually assaulted and raped her a copious amount of times and impregnated her not only once, but twice. The abuse began when she was only three years old and continued until she was fifteen; Precious was pregnant at twelve years old. Child rape occurs every two minutes in the United States and sadly one in three girls will be sexually molested before the age seventeen. Sexual abuse is an atrocious, disgusting and horrendous issue that happens every single day to an immense number of children. “Precious” acknowledges this topic and again, shows the negative effects it has on an individual. Although Precious was a victim of sexual abuse and incest; she wanted more for her and her children’s lives. A child who is the victim of prolonged sexual abuse usually develops low self-esteem, a feeling of worthlessness, an abnormal or distorted view of sex and has a higher risk of committing suicide. On the other hand, Precious did not let her destructive sexual abuse define who she is. “I cried the other day and I felt stupid, but f*ck that day. That’s why god made new days,” she says. Despite her rough past, she is strong enough to continue her life. The director and writer incorporated this issue to increase resilience in children subject to dysfunctional families and to sexual and physical abuse. In children who do not have to contend with those problems, the movie
In society, both past and present, there has been a history of domestic violence within marriages or relationships. Nowadays, in most cases if someone is abused by either a spouse or a partner, there are people that you would be able to reach out to for help, such as: family, law enforcement, and even support groups. Just imagine how it was for someone being physically, mentally, or even verbally abused back in the late 1800s or early 1900s and being totally defenseless; not having anyone to turn to in your time of need. In those days, it was rare for a woman to seek out for help or even leave her spouse after several occasions of being abused. Most people did not intervene in a family's personal life or some people just did not care. Young girls would be married off once they hit a certain age and sometimes never returned to their families. Celie is abused numerous of times and the only people who come to her
There are several domains that must be considered when treating a survivor of child abuse: the need for safety and trust, sense of belonging, protection from perceived or actual threats, facing the defendant in court, prevention of revictimization, and empowerment (Sawyer & Judd, 2012). Davis, 2005, states that “children terrorized through sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse, or wartime atrocities may suffer from lasting wounds, nightmares, depression, and troubled adolescence involving substance abuse, binge eating, or aggression.” Victims of child abuse need to regain their sense of control over their lives. Experiencing healthy relationships, being nurtured by adults and helping them to learn resilience are all interventions that have been well-documented (Sawyer & Judd, 2...
We can see from the film how their father’s death affected their daily life and how they viewed relationships with others. Throughout history, it has been noted how violence against children has been overlooked. Therefore, after the public interest in children had weaned in the 1950’s it seems as though it had been revived in 1974 with the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (Module 4: Domestic Violence Toward Women n.d). Laurie and Joan would have benefitted from receiving remediation and treatment in their younger years to try and cope with the after effects. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study demonstrated a link between childhood abuse, and exposure to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and the risky behaviors and health problems later on in adult life (Middlebrooks JS, Audage NC. n.d). The ACE Study found witnessing IPV as a child was “two to six times more likely to experience another ACE” (Middlebrooks JS, Audage NC. n.d). There are many resources the family could use if there was an intervention for the family when the girls were children. At an individual level, parent education programs, which include training on learning new skills in a safe environment (Middlebrooks JS, Audage NC. n.d). Many schools across the United States provide programs with teaching instructions for children to learn how to avoid or report domestic abuse. A relationship level
This paper has provided a complete overview of the barriers that counselors could find when working with abuse children. The paper had the purpose to identify different approaches to prevent child abuse from happening.
According to Lisa Ware, "One promising treatment for families who have a history of child maltreatment is parent-child interaction therapy". This type of therapy focuses on the interactions that the child and the parent have. It coaches the parents in how to interact with their child the proper way. Along with interaction therapy, the child and parents are also given separate therapy. The child’s therapy is centered on the abuse they received, their social and academic skills, and teaching ways of relaxation and anger management. While the therapy for the parents are more concerned with finding ways so that the parents can interact with their children in the right way. The therapy gives the parents proper techniques for controlling their anger and allows them to identify how they view abuse. These examples of techniques practiced in therapy have shown promising results, but there are many different forms of therapy that also work. When dealing with individuals and families who suffered from abuse or were the one's abusing, the therapy needs to be fitted to the specific needs of the individuals as well as the whole family. If a child suffers from a certain problem, it is the job of the therapist to focus on ways to help the child with that specific problem. A generalized therapy plan to help everyone with their problems will not work because each individual experiences different things when faced with abuse, which is why the therapy needs to be specific to the needs of the