case study

The Case Study provides the opportunity to apply the theories and interventions learned throughout the semester to an individual from your CURRENT field placement or to one of the cases provided for you. If you have never utilized interpersonal, psychodynamic, and/or cognitive behavioral approaches in your work, then act as if you did. By this I mean, analyze the client through the lenses of interpersonal, psychodynamic, and cognitive theories, and then apply the interventions stemming from these theories.

Part I: Case Formulation (no more than 5 pages)

Briefly describe your professional setting (no more than two or three sentences).
Identify the clients presenting problem. Include client information (age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and/or gender identity, family composition, etc.).
Also, discuss whether the client used social or mental health services in the past. This is a good place to cite literature that is not on the syllabus.
Discuss how membership in an oppressed group might contribute to or exacerbate the problem. For example, if your client is Latina, discuss some of the psychosocial issues encountered by Latina populations and whether or not these issues relate to your client. This is a good place to cite literature that is not on the syllabus.
What family issues and/or stressful/traumatic/developmental experiences have contributed to the clients current problem? Describing these experiences is not enough. Advanced clinical practice requires you to carefully analyze these experiences and explain how they affect your clients psychosocial functioning. This is a good place to cite literature that is not on the syllabus.
Include a psychiatric diagnosis according to DSM-5. See example below. Please phrase in the following way:
According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2013) Ms. Smith meets criteria for:

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Major Depression

Briefly describe the clients strengths. Or briefly explain the way in which the client has manifested resilience throughout their life. Discuss the importance of clients religion or spirituality, if applicable.
Describe two of the clients treatment goals. The clients treatment goals should stem from the problems under discussion. Please see the chapter on goals in the course tools section. Goals should be one sentence each and should be measurable. Only describe two treatment goals.

Part II: Interpersonal Interaction (no more than three-quarters of a page)

How does the client interact with you during sessions or during your contacts with them?
How does this help you to understand how they interact with others, or the way in which others react to them?

Part III: Engagement (no more than 1 page)

Describe the role of the holding environment in the engagement process:

First, define the holding environment and briefly discuss the clinical/developmental theories underlying this intervention.
Second, discuss why the holding environment is necessary for engaging and establishing a therapeutic alliance with your client.
The discussion should be specific to your clientDO NOT discuss the material in a general way. This is a good place to cite literature that is not on the syllabus.

Part IV: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) OR CBT-Related Interventions OR Interpersonal Intervention (no more than 4 pages)

PROVIDE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES. Do NOT discuss the interventions in a general way. Relate the interventions to the clients problem.

This section should include a brief description of the intervention approach (with appropriate references).
This section should also include descriptions of the types of intervention components or strategies used (with references) with specific links to the client. How did you or would you apply this approach to address the clients goals?

Part V: Professional Use of Self (no more than 1 page)

Describe how countertransference (biases and judgments) influencedor could have influencedthe development and maintenance of the therapeutic relationship.
Did you need to modify your practice in any way?

It is essential that you protect the confidentiality of your client (i.e., use pseudonyms in place of actual names of persons and in place of highly sensitive information that could link individuals and agencies). DO NOT INCLUDE AN ABSTRACT. NO DIRECT QUOTES ALLOWED. PARAPHRASE ONLY.

(NEED A REFERANCE FROM THESE)at a minimum 2 course references (Teyber, E., & McClure, F. H. (2017). Interpersonal process in therapy: An integrative model (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage. )
Using psychodynamic interventions to engage in trauma-informed practice Alessi, Edward J ; Kahn, Sarilee 2019 pg27-39

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