wk 5,7.8 Prac

WEEK-5-PRAC-JOURNAL 3

Week-5-Prac-Journal

Week-5-Prac-Journal

The modern family is highly dynamic, unpredictable, and intricate. The current family therapeutic approaches ought to be aligned with the nature of contemporary families. Family therapy is a subset of group therapy; the only difference is that family therapy involves subjects who know each other. This paper will discuss two clients, i.e., Jane and James, but not real names, are siblings from one family. Jane is depressed while James has an anxiety disorder.

Jane and James' parents are divorced. However, Jane is staying with her mother while her 16-year old brother, James, lives with his mother. Jane is a 22 years old lady who reported symptoms of mood swings, hopelessness, and loss of interest in many activities. She reports having suicidal thoughts, easy irritability, complaints of draining her bank accounts after spending, and engagement in random sex even with strangers. She is on lamotrigine prescription. According to DSM-5, Jane can be diagnosed with Bipolar 1 Disorder based on the existing symptoms (American Psychiatric Association., 2013). These symptoms encompass the alternating patterns of manic and hypomanic states. We can see that the symptoms have overwhelmed her, leading to uncontrolled spending and mood disturbances.

James, who is 16 years old, has been long term fearful and always feels uncomfortable participating in activities of daily living. He is worrying about mundane things like the idea of playing a football match with his colleagues. James does like meeting new people and shy away from activities which involve spectators. He complains of profuse sweating and his mind running blank whenever he is told to speak to talk in front of the rest of students in school. The symptoms existed for more than a year. He is currently on no medication. The possible diagnosis of James is an anxiety disorder. DSM-5 classifies anxiety to include agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorders, amongst many others (American Psychiatric Association, 2013).  Since the symptoms revolve around the fear of people, it could mean that the definitive diagnosis is social anxiety

It is a tricky affair to determine which one between cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). Many believed that the two are same, but in a real sense, the two approaches have some differences; SFBT is more client-focused, client-directed and client-owned than CBT (Jordan, Froerer & Bavelas, 2013). CBT entails an elaborate exposition of the client's weakness and fragilities, which underpins the existing disorder; this implies that the client would require a sense of palpable motivation to overcome such shortcomings. SFBT concentrates on client's strength by stimulating his or her curiosity. CBT involves the breakdown of each problem into units that aid the therapist in the identification of thoughts, body feelings and emotions. In light of the two cases, i.e. of James and Jane, I would use CBT because it is more comprehensive and is most applicable to most mental cases. SFBT cannot be exclusively applied in extreme mental cases like schizophrenia and severe depression (Jordan, Froerer & Bavelas, 2013). I expect CBT would be more effective than SFBT. The legal issues surrounding the divorce of the clients’ parents and consenting concerns, especially on James’ age, may complicate the therapeutic approach.

Reference

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Pub.

Jordan, S. S., Froerer, A. S., & Bavelas, J. B. (2013). Microanalysis of positive and negative content in solution-focused brief therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy expert sessions. Journal of systemic Therapies, 32(3), 46-59.