psychotherapy with individual

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Psychotherapy Analysis

Walden University ; NRN-PRAC; 6640

Psychotherapy Analysis

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has always been diagnosed as a mental health issue associated with a terrifying event. In this case, the patient is a Mexican woman who comes to the United States to look for greener pastures. She has PTSD because of the neighborhood she has to escape from to acquire good self-care in her new environment. The name of the Woman is Catalina. The paper will look at her psychological implications associated with her traumatic event in Mexico and how to cope with the issue at hand.

Description of Catalina and relationship to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Catalina is a 34-year older woman from Mexico City and has worked as a gardener for the last seventeen years. However, she chooses to come to the United States because of her neighborhood's political and social issues. Catalina was once a victim of a situation that left her almost dead. She was once involved in an altercation with a gang because of her husband. Her husband was a drug dealer for a local cartel on the radar of law enforcement due to the activities organized and implemented in her area and other parts of Mexico City. The situation somehow affected her family, including her two children. One night as the family was asleep, some shooting occurred outside her house, whereby her husband was murdered.

The main reason was that the husband had dishonest activities with the gang, which meant that he stole from them. The gang tried to get back at the husband by targeting him and the entire family, leading to the shooting. The situation forced her to take the mantle of protecting her family from any dangers associated with the situation. She had to take her children to her parents, who were more than 500 kilometers from the city. Another resort included having to run from the city to ensure that she remained alive to protect her children. However, she is currently in shock concerning the whole ordeal of the shooting. Despite her coming to the United States to find a better life, she is depressed that her family is still in danger. She continues to have

nightmares of the night where she lost her husband. The situation also influences her to suffer from the fear that her children are still in danger. She remains unsettled concerning the issues that her family faces about their safety.

Medical Information and Prescribed Medications

Catalina has a medical history of acid reflux which she takes 40mg of pantoprazole every morning and psychiatry history of PTSD, and depression. Catalina reported taken 50mg of sertraline for depression daily, prazosin 1mg at bedtime for nightmares and 1 mg of Ativan for anxiety when necessary. However, according to Mithoefer et al. (2019), sertraline (Zoloft) and paroxetine (Paxil) are the only approved medications by the FDA for PTSD. The two selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are antidepressants that also treat anxiety, which also co-occurs with PTSD.

DSM-5 in Justifying the Diagnosis for the Client

The criteria for diagnosing PTSD in DSM-5 revolve around, focusing on the symptoms (Wang, et al. (2015). When it comes to evaluating Catalina, it is important to focus on the formal diagnostic criteria. In her case, the diagnosis will look into three main categories. The first one is criterion A. Criterion A looks into an aspect of her having to be exposed to more events that involve death and the threatening of her life and that of her life. It evaluates the existing injuries and sexual violations, which somehow relate to the activity of a gang. Catalina experienced the event, which somehow shows the criterion is important in influencing a decision that categorizes her as a PTSD patient. Even in the United States, criterion B would apply in her case due to the nature of intrusive symptoms she experiences. She fears that she will continue experiencing and expecting reoccurring and involuntary intrusive upsetting memories, which continue to be the case. She also has repeated dreams regarding her children's possible murder, which is a problem for her mental health. Criterion C focuses on the continuous avoidance of reminders regarding the shooting and murder of her husband. She tries to avoid thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that lead to memories associated with the traumatic event.

Effectiveness of Therapeutic Approaches

Catalina attends individual and group psychotherapy at this facility. One of the most important psychotherapy for people that has been traumatized is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). According to Ethical and Legal Consideration

When it comes to ethical and legal implications associated with the counseling, it will be important to focus on the client and the counselor's relationship. It is important to ensure that the information is kept privacy (Elhai, J. et al. (2015). The information that she provides should be as per her decision. She is the one that she will choose the type of information that she will be providing to the counseling process. It is important to focus on an aspect of her being comfortable in her communication with the counselor.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the paper has shown that dealing with PTSD focuses on the symptoms and associated implications. In this case, a patient finds him/herself in a position whereby one can either experience or witness a traumatizing event. There are significant symptoms associated with the disorder. Some of the common disorders include severe anxiety, nightmares, and flashbacks. Sometimes, it may comprise of uncontrollable thoughts regarding the event. Individuals who have and continue to experience PTSD experience significant therapeutic mechanisms that deal with the disorder's adverse nature. For this, PTSD comes with the patients' need to either adjust or cope with the issue. The three categories of DSM-5 diagnosis have focused on reducing the symptoms for mental stability.

References

American Nurses Association. (2014). Psychiatric-mental health nursing: Scope and standards of practice (2nd Ed.). Washington, DC: Author.  American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).Washington, DC: Author.

Elhai, J. D., et al. (2015). Structural relations between DSM-5 PTSD and major depression symptoms in military soldiers. Journal of Affective Disorders, 175, 373-378.

Mithoefer, M. C., Feduccia, A. A., Jerome, L., Mithoefer, A., Wagner, M., Walsh, Z., & Hamilton (2019). MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for the treatment of PTSD: Study design and rationale for phase 3 trial based on pooled analysis of six phase 2 randomized controlled trials. Psychopharmacology, 236, 2735-2745. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-019-05249-5

Wheeler, K. (Ed.). (2014). Psychotherapy for the advanced practice psychiatric nurse: A how-to guide for evidence-based practice (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.

Wang, L., et al. (2015). Assessing the underlying dimensionality of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms in Chinese adolescents surviving the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 31, 90-97.

 Wright, L. A. (2019). Pharmacological prevention and early treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Translational psychiatry, 9(1), 1-10.

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