case review

Mr. B is a 22 year-old, single male. An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counselor referred him for psychotherapy at his workplace. The client lives in his hometown, sharing an apartment with one of his best friends from high school. Three weeks ago, Mr. B received formal disciplinary action at work following an emotional outburst toward his supervisor and a co-worker. He had been reprimanded on two prior occasions for “losing his temper” on the job. After three sessions with the EAP counselor, who noted the client became increasingly depressed, irritable, and despondent over the course of this brief intervention. The EAP counselor felt that Mr. B needed more extended outpatient therapy and made the referral to our agency.

Counseling Theory

For this case conceptualization, the use of cognitive behavior theory (CBT) is implement for the duration of Mr. B is counseling sessions. The Cognitive Behavior Theorist correlates to the clients need to establish functional behavior strategies that are long-term in managing anger. CBT is best in targeting social cognition as well as individual constructions of reality. It may combine a variety of techniques such as relaxation‚ cognitive restructuring‚ problem-solving‚ and stress inoculation‚ it is theoretically unified by principles of learning theory and information processing. This approach has elicited much inter- est in the treatment of affective disorders such as anxiety and depression. This theory operates on the premise that to control or manage the thinking process then the behavior or desired change will follow. Mr. B’s anger, by his own admission is progressively deteriorating to the point where his currently job is on the line. The basic principles of CBT involve...

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...periments" are employed. In order to further consolidate the skills individuals may even be asked to help others with similar problems SIT also recognizes that the stress an individual experiences is often endemic, institutional and unavoidable. As a result, SIT has often helped clients to alter environmental settings and or worked with significant others in altering environmental stressors

Role of the Therapist

This theory operates on the premise that to control or manage the thinking process then the behavior or desired change will follow. The therapist serves as a coach building a therapeutic relationship with the client while teaching the client how to become his/her own therapist.

The therapy sessions will make use of homework assignments, modeling desired behaviors, relaxation techniques for example. Therefor the relationship is one of collaboration.