Assignment 2: RA 1: Treatment Plan Paper

Page 1 of 1 Counseling Theory

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Jane: A 50-Year-Old Woman Whose Husband Has Cancer

The following case study is adapted from Pearson’s MyCounselingLab for Counseling Theories (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2014).

You are working in a mental health center and seeing a new client, Jane. This client has mental health benefits through her insurance. You are a provider for that insurance company.

Early on in the first session, Jane expresses symptoms of interrupted sleep and a lack of appetite. She states that the reason she has come to the mental health center is that her husband has cancer, he is physically incapacitated, and he is scheduled to have a third surgery in about two weeks. She does not seem to know much about her husband’s kind of cancer. She reports her level of distress is a 6 on a scale of 1 (low distress) to 7 (high distress). She tells you that her goal in meeting with you is to be able to cope with what’s in store for herself and her family. She describes her mood as low. She is also having some difficulty concentrating at work. She does state, though, that she wants to be seen alone at first. Jane seems to be an individual who has the resources, psychologically and materially, to help her get through difficult situations. She also knows when to ask for help.

Jane is 50, has completed high school, and has been working in the same job for the past 30 years. She states she is in good health, though overweight. She is complaining of lower back pain. She takes medication for her high blood pressure and takes a sleeping pill at bedtime. She does not use illegal drugs or alcohol. She is not suicidal or homicidal.

Jane had been in therapy many years ago because of another life crisis and says she found it helpful because “I was able to express my emotions.”

She was the only child of her parent’s marriage. Her mother married several times and had only one other child, many years Jane’s senior. Her father had been married twice before and had two children by one of those marriages. Jane reports that she was a “battered child.” Jane describes her mother as “very emotional, displacing her anger on me when I was about 6.” Jane states she knows of no other mental health problems in her family. Jane married her present “husband” about 20 years ago, stayed married to him for about five years, divorced him, and then went back to living with him. Since then, Jane has remained with him without marrying him. Jane and her once-husband are planning to get married again in one week. They have one child, now 19. Jane relies on her daughter and often shares her distress with her.

Jane speaks of herself as a “survivor.” She feels that therapy was helpful to her once before and has come to you today because she wants “an outlet to say what I need to say and share my pain.”

Reference:

Seligman, L., & Reichenberg, L. W. (2014). MyCounselingLab for Counseling Theories. (eText ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-3390803.