The Case of Jessica
Jessica is a married, mother of one son. Throughout her adult life, she has suffered from mood swings, physiological issues, such as depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Currently, she is struggling in her marriage, describing her relationship as “business-like” and facing conflict related to a potential decision to return to work after staying at home with her son for the past five years. Living on the opposite coast from her parents and younger sister, she also feels a disconnect in her relationship with her sister, though they do talk regularly. Jessica has experienced several significant traumas in her life, including surviving a near-fatal car accident as a senior in high school and losing her younger brother in a car accident just a couple of years later. She has attempted therapy in the past and is currently on anti-anxiety medication. The following presents possible theoretical orientations through which Jessica’s case and intervention strategies can be explored, specially Adlerian and Existential therapies.
Adlerian Theory: An Individual Psychology Approach
With a nod to a psychodynamic approach that recognizes the influence of past events—and more importantly, how those events are interpreted—Adlerian theory postulates that most problems are social in nature, with the dynamic among the family being one of the
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For example, Jessica reports feeling as though her parents favored and love her sister more, though she is unable to provide support or specific proof of that claim. Another example is the guilt she feels from the loss of her brother, personalizing the tragedy as her responsibility by “allowing” him to leave. This trauma is extremely significant in Jessica’s life, especially considering that she herself survived a near-fatal car accident just two years
Here the therapist would help X review her emotions, thoughts, early life experiences, and beliefs to acquire the necessary insight into their emotional life about their current emotional situation. The therapist can then draw an emotional pattern of X over time. Taking, for instance, her reaction to her failed marriage, her parents' deaths and lastly, her relationship breakdown with her half-siblings. Pin-pointing recurrent behavioral patterns establish a persons' way of responding to situations, these can be ways of avoiding distress or development of defense mechanisms. Strategies are then drawn to cope with these
The characters in Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones are faced with the difficult task of overcoming the loss of Susie, their daughter and sister. Jack, Abigail, Buckley, and Lindsey each deal with the loss differently. However, it is Susie who has the most difficulty accepting the loss of her own life. Several psychologists separate the grieving process into two main categories: intuitive and instrumental grievers. Intuitive grievers communicate their emotional distress and “experience, express, and adapt to grief on a very affective level” (Doka, par. 27). Instrumental grievers focus their attention towards an activity, whether it is into work or into a hobby, usually relating to the loss (Doka par. 28). Although each character deals with their grief differently, there is one common denominator: the reaction of one affects all.
Psychoanalysis is a unique form of psychological treatment founded by Sigmund Freud and later modified by his followers including Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and Harry Stack-Sullivan (Wedding & Corsini, 2013). Although there is no one psychoanalytic theory Wedding and Corsini (2013) tell us that there are basic principles that tend to be found throughout different psychoanalytic perspectives. They note that psychodynamic perspectives emphasize ideas of the unconscious and the ability to increase choice by facilitating an awareness of unconscious motivations. Psychodynamic perspectives tend to focus on the client’s use of defense mechanisms like projection, reaction formation, splitting, intellectualization, repression, transference, and resistance as a way of avoiding painful fantasies, feelings, and thoughts (Wedding & Corsini, 2013). Such perspectives embrace the assumption that people are ambivalent about change and emphasize the importance of exploring that ambivalence (Wedding & Corsini, 2013). In addition, the therapeutic relationship is viewed as a vehicle of change; one that can be used for exploring both unconscious (primary) and conscious (secondary) self-defeating processes and actions (Wedding & Corsini, 2013). Transference and countertransference are viewed as essential therapeutic tools (Wedding & Corsini, 2013). Psyc...
She needs to be strong for the whole family while dealing with this tough situation, and most importantly, she has to be encouraging for her daughter. Jessica’s mom murmurs to her, “Things will get better. I promise you, they will” (Van Draanen 58). Her mom knows that her life is grim and it feels like the end of the world to her daughter. She can only make her feel better by continuing to encourage her and give her love and support. Jessica thinks to herself, “She waves back, but even from the curb I can feel her worry, and I suddenly realize that it has nothing to do with the wheelchair or with me falling. The last time Fiona drove me away in her Subaru, it took me more than a week to come home” (Van Draanen 77). Her mom has to decide whether she is going to live in fear of her daughter getting hurt every time she leaves home. This accident was a trying time for everybody in their family and it affected all of
Based on the extent of Maggie’s mental health condition, it would be necessary to implement the Psychodynamic Frame of Reference. This Frame of Reference is appropriate due to Maggie’s diagnosis of major depressive disorder, and her previous history with generalized anxiety disorder. According to Cole and Tufano (2008), the Psychodynamic Frame of Reference is beneficial to clients who are wanting to improve in their social participation and relationships, emotional expression, and motivation for engagement, self-awareness, defense mechanisms, and projective mechanisms (p. 255-256). These are all factors which will assist Maggie in improving her mental health status. Having Maggie advance these factors in her life will enable her to participate in more activities, which may in turn improve her depressive symptoms. It is important for Maggie to continue participation in the activities she enjoys in order for her mental health to improve. While the Psychodynamic Frame of Reference is beneficial to Maggie, it is important for a therapist to follow a model as well to lead Maggie to gaining the largest
An Adlerian is any person who applies the ideals and principles of Alfred Adler into their work; this does not restrict to just psychologists or counsellors, but instead applies to several occupations such as teachers or doctors. I’m an Adlerian because studying at Adler School of Professional Psychology I can rest assured knowing that once my degree is complete I will have a deep understanding of bringing together Adlerian principles into my counselling profession. Adlerian principles according to NASAP's (2004) newsletter “Adlerian Psychology-Theory of Human Behavior” can divide into different components: lifestyle, social embeddedness, phenomenology, teleology, creativity uniqueness, inferiority feelings, striving for superiority, vertical and level striving, and holism entrenched within all these components. As one notices, Adler had various principles and ideals, therefore if I was to pick just one that I hold dearly, it would be difficult to choose. Yet, in this paper, I will narrow my focus on addressing a few special components that are dear to me and finally select one that is most meaningful. I hope to use this as a base representation of the ideals I will apply in my work as an Adlerian practitioner.
The Adlerian approach in therapy differs from all other approaches in its perception of human emotions and strivings. As the other theories solely focused on the past of humans and their unconscious minds, Adler and his followers stressed more on social interest and community feeling, even though they don’t ignore other factors such as one’s childhood events. The latter believed than people have an innate sense of inferiority that will make them pursue happiness, success as well as fulfill their ambitions. In other words, Adlerians tend to help clients in therapy sessions to become more aware of these free privileges that they can have access to. Hence, the therapy journey is characterized by four main phases through which the therapist hope to achieve his goals in accordance with the client’s case. First of all, the therapist will begin by establishing a healthy relationship with the client. Therefore he creates a secure environment for the client to let him feel that he can open up and describe his experiences without having to worry about being judged. The therapist will also set his goals clear, share them with the client, and provide him with important information about his rights (Corey, 2009). The second phase will focus then on exploring the client’s psychological dynamics and general information about the person’s lifestyle. The exploration takes place in two parts: the objective interview and the subjective interview. In the subjective interview, the therapist will assist the client in exploring persistent habits and patterns in his daily life. Whereas the objective interview will tackle more general ideas about the client’s medical and social history that may help identi...
The client stated that she came to therapy because she has been feeling really lonely and feeling as though that she is not enough since the death of her father. After the death of her father, her mother did not pay her any attention; she understood that her mother was grieving, especially when her grandfather passed a year later. I stated that the frequent death that surrounded her mother, seem to have caused her mother to distance herself from her. She responded “yes, and it even gotten worse when my mom started to date and eventually marry my stepfather”. She mentioned that once her little sister was born, she became jealous and envious. I emphasized with her by stating that she must have felt as though her little sister was going to take the attention that she sought from her mother. After confirming that her mother paid more attention to her sister and stepfather, she mentioned that during this time she began to cut herself in places that no one would notice. The pain did not take the feeling away, but she wanted to know that if she could still feel pain after the thought of losing everything. However, the only person who paid her any attention during this time, was her grandmother. Her grandmother showed her the love that her mother nor “father figure” never showed her. I stated, “the love that your grandmother showed was not the love you were
To begin, Adlerian theory is a therapeutic approach that is focused on the individual’s background. The founder of Adlerian Theory is Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Freud and a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. After years of working with Freud, Adler split from Freud due to his theory of individual psychology; his theory was that a holistic approach must be used to treat individuals. He believed in the psychosocial rather than the psychosexual, which means a focus on the whole human and their connection to the world rather than pleasure-seeking energies (sexual impulses) of the individual.
...ression and guilt self-blaming, suicidal attempt, including the effects of his mother’s emotional unavailability, his resentment that his mother loved his father and brother more.
Families experience many shifts in their lives. Some shifts are positive, but others are negative. When the shifts are negative many families cannot find a clear solution for their problems and they seek someone to blame. We will discuss the Olson’s family situation from the Family Systems Theory point of view.
The concept of Adlerian family therapy was theorized by Alfred Adler and is one of the first psychiatrists to embark on family therapy. The principle of Adlerian family therapy is an individual and social system is holistic and inseparable in nature, behavior is interactive and with a purpose and the individual seeks meaning by acceptance in a social system. A family is generally the social system which an individual seeks acceptance. A principle of Adlerian family therapy is subjective, each person generates their own meaning from their experiences. The life roles and life meaning is greatly influenced by family environment, which individuals form their own private logic or their view of the world. The family problems can be related to faulty private logic and discouragement within the family. Adlerian family therapy incorporates the additional concept, parents and children tend to get locked into negative interactions which are repetitive and grounded on mistaken goals, resulting in motivation for family members. The key theories of Adlerian family therapy is family atmosphere, family constellation, and mistaken goals.
Adler’s theory holds that conscious aspects of behavior are central to the development of personality. A major tenet of the theory is that individuals strive to become successful, the best that they can be. This theory places a lot of emphasis on the birth order. It is believed that birth order is not just the simple biological ordinal position; born first, second, third. To the contrary it is a second system of birth order of youngest child, oldest child, middle child, determining an individual’s psychological position. He believed
Fritz and Laura Perls are responsible for the founding of gestalt therapy in the 1940’s. From there on, Gestalt has contributed significantly to the field of psychotherapy, counseling, and personal development. When therapist uses this method, his or her ultimate aim is to ensure the client achieves personal growth and development. To achieve this outcome, gestalt utilizes existential philosophy and phenomenology. In summary, this form of therapy aims to empower the patient to use his internal and external senses for the purposes of developing personal responsibility and a self-supportive system (Franzke 1999; Corcoran & Daly 2008).
Existential therapy is a technique that brings awareness to the power of our choices. “This existential approach has opened the way for a more agentic view of human nature and has taken into consideration some of the most fundamental concerns of humanity, which were previously underappreciated in the field of psychology” (Bartz, 2009, p.70). It has been shown to be successful in a variety of groups. Some of these groups are; children, people who have been adopted, incarcerated youth, and victims or culprits of abuse. One doesn’t have to only use one theory or approach during their practice. When it comes to existential therapy, the person using the approach can adapt their interventions to fit their style and personality. At the end of the day, it’s about what will work for the