Running head: CASE TREATMENT STRATEGY 1
Case Treatment Strategy: The Williams’ Family Case Study
Doris Roden
Liberty University
EDCO 705
Dr. Carol Carpenter
September 22, 2019
CASE TREATMENT STRATEGY
Abstract
The fundamental objective of this case study is designed to provide a treatment strategy based on
the case study of Williams' family. It begins with the client's history, with the therapist
attempting to understand the dynamics of the clients' concerns. This knowledge will allow the
therapist to understand what the client is currently undergoing and will enable the therapist an
opportunity to address the issues using a community counseling approach (Ahluwalia, Anand &
Suman, 2018). Details of the client's concerns will be addressed, along with treatment strategies
and spiritual guidance during this process. Next, the paper will review critical common
challenges that will be addressed to advance the implementation of adaptive intervention
strategies (Ahluwalia Anand & Suman, 2018). The analysis concludes with a discussion of
potential strategies and current initiatives that might ultimately help facilitate intervention on a
more targeted, prescriptive approach for treatment (LeCroy & Anthony, 2015; Ahluwalia Anand
& Suman, 2018).
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Case Treatment Strategy: The Williams’ Family Case Study
This paper represents a treatment strategy for the Williams family. This writing describes
a cohesive treatment strategy for the entire family based on the community counseling approach.
The clients coped with their feeling through methods directed towards the external world such as
aggressive behavior, alcohol abuse or depression. The community counseling approach assists
the counselor to support the family with the various concerns the family is presenting (Scott &
Wolfe, 2015; Ahluwalia Anand & Suman, 2018).
Case Conceptualization
The Williams family consists of Jeff and Sandy, a mid-life couple, wedded for 21 years.
Jeff and Sandy have two boys, Jacob (18-years-old) diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome. The
youngest son Leo (15-years-old) is having difficulty at school and is increasingly frustrated with
the direction of his life. Jeff owns a used automobile dealership, and Sandy has been serving as a
teacher's paraprofessional at a neighborhood elementary academy for the prior ten years.
However, due to sluggish sales and a downturn in the economy at the car lot, financial pressure
has added to family anxieties. The couples’ spending habits and absence of financial control
procedures is factors adding to their stressful situation along with Jeff's drinking problems. Their
financial management is areas that require skills improvement.
In developing this intervention plan, the data collected and inferred from the family
throughout the intake sessions will direct where the community mental health counselor will start
(Ahluwalia Anand & Suman, 2018). The many, apparent, or hidden issues the family is believed
to be experiencing will be identified. Based on this family presenting problems, the counselor
will determine what services may be required to accommodate the family, and what assistance
the family may require collaboration from other agencies (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015; Ahluwalia
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Anand & Suman, 2018). The central hypothesis based on clinical practice, is that clients who
enter therapy have lost their sense of relational agency in one or more essential life domains
(Ahluwalia Anand & Suman, 2018; Ingram, 2012). The different dimensions of sense of
relational agency can be conceptual and therapeutic tools that help to understand our clients and
to explore with them the complexity of social life (LeCroy & Anthony, 2015; Ahluwalia Anand
& Suman, 2018; Wallace, 1996).
Services Provided
The Community Mental Health Center will provide an extensive array of mental health
assistance, offering outpatient community-based programs to individuals and families (Scott, &
Wolfe, 2015). Community-based counseling assistance will involve combining skill sets with
those of other professions and working toward an individual, familial, and community
enrichment (Vega & Murphy, 1990; Scott & Wolfe, 2015). Promote, implement, and maintain
evidence-based most suitable practices intervention programs to people in the community.
Services provided (Vega & Murphy, 1990; Scott & Wolfe, 2015):
Counseling
Prevention Services
Mentoring
Case Management Service to Adolescents
Facilitate Parent and Adolescent support groups
Link youth and families to appropriate community resources
Community mental health services support and treat people with mental dysfunctions challenges
in a domiciliary environment (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015). It applies to a practice of care in which the
client's community is the principal provider of responsibility for people with a mental illness
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(Vega & Murphy, 1990; Scott & Wolfe, 2015). According to Scott & Wolfe, “The goal of
community mental health services frequently involves considerably more than merely
implementing outpatient psychiatric treatment. Community assistance covers subsidized housing
with complete or partial supervision, local primary care, therapeutic assistance, community
mental health centers, and self-help groups for mental health (Scott & Wolfe, 2015). The
community mental health services are more available and efficient, to manage and guarantee
compliance with the treatment of people residing in the community, known as an outpatient
commitment, supported outpatient treatment or community treatment orders (pp. 221-235)”.
The Community Mental Health Centers Act financed three main actions (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015
pp.11-29):
1. “Professional training for those working in community mental health centers”
2. “Development of research in the method used by community mental health centers”
3. “Enhancing the status of care of existing programs until more current community mental
health centers could be developed”
Treatment Plan-Intervention
In acknowledgment to the requirements, guidelines, and funding restrictions of
community care, brief therapy has appeared as a plan to provide the guidance that is restricted in
time and scope (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015; Wallace, 1996). This brief counseling intervention focuses
on attaining specific results by creating an essential difference in the clients' life, targeting
behaviors that necessitate being changed, and facilitating the transformation (Ahluwalia Anand
& Suman, 2018; LeCroy & Anthony, 2015). Action is primary to resolution focused advocating
for alcohol abuse and in mental health cases for the family. The resolution focused brief therapy
is based upon client strength with a focus on the present and the future (LeCroy & Anthony,
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2015; Wallace, 1996). This session also advocates that tiny differences make a distinction in the
lives of the clients (Ahluwalia Anand & Suman, 2018).
To build the essential counselor-client relationship, the counselor listened actively to the
clients' description of the difficulties and emotions. The counselor also applied methods such as
repeating, paraphrasing, and rephrasing the clients' understandings to confirm the agreement of
the issues (Ahluwalia Anand & Suman, 2018).
These steps are implemented in the two resolution focused therapy sessions the Williams’
family attends.
Relationship building is at the core of the counseling process. The counselor builds
rapport and practices listening skills to concentrate on a specific description of the
dilemma. The counselor also evaluates client strengths and patterns of past successful
problem solving (LeCroy & Anthony, 2015).
The professional continues to identify client strengths by inviting the clients to talk about
the time the family experience positive results. During this period, the focus is on what
success the clients have had so far in dealing with problems. During this time, the
counselor, and the clients continue to look for resources such as client characteristics and
skills, support of family and friends, and support of community organizations and
institutions (LeCroy & Anthony, 2015; Scott, & Wolfe, 2015).
The counselor and clients establish specific goals that the client wants to achieve and that
the helper can help the client succeed. The professional wants to know what the clients
expect and then writes down the goals in concrete and measurable terms (LeCroy &
Anthony, 2015).
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The counselor and the clients begin to talk about how to reach the goals and about the
clients' successes. The counselor also provides the clients with a specific intervention that
the clients can work on after the session. Role-playing and other strategies help the
clients to seek improvement by practicing new behaviors and try to link these behaviors
to past successes that have already been discussed (LeCroy & Anthony, 2015; Ahluwalia
Anand & Suman, 2018).
The counseling session process is crucial to the obligation of serving clients and
understanding the nature of the process. The resolution focused therapy guides the work as
counselors manage the problematic client and how to help clients in a crisis (LeCroy & Anthony,
2015; Ahluwalia Anand & Suman, 2018).
Family Therapy
At the start of the psychotherapeutic process, the clients shared stories about being hurt,
misunderstood, and rejected by family members. By doing this, the therapist is not only building
a relationship by acts of recognition and empathy but is also reconnecting the client to social life
by addressing the reality of their feelings (LeCroy & Anthony, 2015). These interventions
promote processes of perceived partner responsiveness in family relationships and other
interpersonal contexts (LeCroy & Anthony, 2015; Ingram, 2012). The family is approached as a
resource and not as the problem, which facilitates processes of recognition and responsiveness
(Ahluwalia, Anand, & Suman, 2018; Wallace, 1996).
In this case study, the counselor discussed ideas about how to reconstruct family
members' relationship in therapeutic practice (see F:1 Staudt, 2007). Marital and family therapy
is effective in reducing the severity of substance use, lowering marital and family conflicts,
improving family communication and cohesion as well as parenting practices (LeCroy &
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Anthony, 2015). During family therapy, each family member discussed the differences between
exploring the complexities of communication and what it means for each family member (see
F:1 Staudt, 2007). The family problems illustrate the impact of the family unit, which directly
intensely impacts the children in the household (Wallace, 1996). It also explains the many areas
of an adolescent life that can be affected: relationships, home life, academics, and behavior
(Ahluwalia, Anand, & Suman, 2018; LeCroy & Anthony, 2015).
Referral Services using Available Services
The therapist has organized several professionals, functioning as a group, working
together to provide creative, and coordinated services to the Williams' family (Scott, & Wolfe,
2015). An essential part of the therapy session is to work within the broader context of the
treatment intervention and the client's environment. A referral is appropriate because the
counselor is unable to provide the assistance necessary to solve the client's problems. The
counselor knows both agency and community resources to fulfill this responsibility (Scott, &
Wolfe, 2015). In seeking an additional service for the clients, the counselor has located several
outside agencies with the needed services for the clients (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015). The counselor
has located and negotiated introductions, meeting times, and established the groundwork for the
clients to visit the agencies listed below:
A.A. Central Office
12 Steps
270 Peachtree Street NW, Suite 1060
Atlanta, GA 30303
Alcoholics Anonymous is a “brotherhood of men and women who share their trust that
they may resolve their shared difficulty and support others to recover from alcoholism”.
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The only qualification for membership is a will to quit drinking. “There are no fees for
A.A. membership; the organization is self-supporting through contributions”.
Asperger’s Syndrome Overview from the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Behavior Health Clinic
1190 Peachtree Street Suite 501
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Fees are on a sliding scale depending on the caregiver's annual salary
Newport Academy Non-Profit Organization
5555 North Highland Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30321
Treatment - Teen Anxiety Disorder
1. Performance dip in school, poor report cards, poor testing results
2. Loss of interest in activities, a noticeable drop in social interactions
3. Avoiding people, places, and things that trigger anxious feelings
Non-Profit community-based organization - no fees if reside within the community
The counselor explained to the family the purpose of the referral, described the services,
talked with the agencies to identify a contact person, and emailed the appropriate client
information to the agencies receiving the referrals (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015). Agencies and
organizations, professionals, clients, and the community all benefit when coalitions exist.
Collaboration among agencies helps clients and the community (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015). The
counselor will conduct a follow-up to evaluate the success of the referral and the referral process.
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Jeff: Referral Treatment for Alcohol Abuse
Because of Jeff's financial problems and stress-related issues with his wife, he has an
alcohol abuse problem. He drinks alcohol daily, and the liquor affects his behavior and memory.
The core of the current study was to identify Jeff's mental health, relationship factors, substance
use-related problems, and individual factors as predictors of alcohol abuse treatment initiation
(Speerforck, Schomerus, Matschinger, & Angermeyer, 2017). The counselor has referred Jeff to
an outside source for his alcohol abuse (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015).
AA is a, “Self-help programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) provide and teach
strategies for coping with craving, and encourage activities to replace drinking habits, but
do so in a group environment. These group self-help strategies may be supplemented with
programs such as 12-step facilitation that promote participation, leading to better
outcomes”. Jeff and AA will work on “developing and teaching strategies to overcome
the desire to seek out and consume alcohol and to deal with situations, which might
trigger these desires”.
Jacob: Referral Treatment for Asperger Syndrome
Jacob is the Williams' oldest son who has Asperger Syndrome. He understands and
responds to the world in a very different way from people without this condition. He lacks social
modulation of behavior, weak social skills, social integration, the inability to understand what or
why something is happening, and the lack of common usage of languages (Landy & Bradley,
2013). Jacob is found to be impaired in nonspecific problem like phobias, temper tantrums,
impairment in communication, verbal as well as nonverbal (Landy & Bradley, 2013). His
problems affect social interaction, creative thinking, and decision making dramatically.
Acceptance in changes and coping in everyday life is found to be threatening and disturbing.
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According to Hull (2011), Asperger Syndrome children display a behavioral characteristic
termed as egocentrism; this makes them disconnected from their caregivers, lacking sentimental
affection, and eluding eye contact (Hull, 2011).
Jacob will be recommended for innovative assessment and treatment strategies that take
into account the boy's developmental needs, family, health, environmental challenges, and
relationships (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015; Haine-Schlagel, & Walsh, 2015). The importance of the
therapeutic relationship, case management, the need for collaboration between professionals, and
educational needs to be illustrated with case studies will be useful in the intervention (Haine-
Schlagel, & Walsh, 2015). Jacob will work through the Art of Play with mental health
professionals who use play therapy and who works with teenagers and adolescents diagnosed
with Asperger's syndrome (Hull, 2016).
Leo: Referral Treatment of Anxiety Disorders
Leo came into the office with his mother, father, and brother with a generalized anxiety
disorder (Poole, 2018). Leo grades have been slipping, and he has very few friends. He seldom
interacts with his family and has been increasingly frustrated. During counseling sessions, Leo is
withdrawn and disengaged from the family ( . Leo is a reluctant Halilović. 2019; Poole, 2018)
client who may be embarrassed or angry that he is there for help because of his parents. The
unfamiliarity compounds these feelings with the agency and the process. Anxiety disorders are
considered the most common mental-health challenge for kids and teenagers . (Sherrill, 2016)
However, when anxiety gets out of control, it can rob the kids of their educations, friends,
and happiness ( . This section outlines a referral plan and course Halilović, 2019; Sherrill, 2016))
of treatment for Leo with appropriate cognitive-behavioral techniques to alleviate, accept, and
bear anxiety symptoms of a 15-year-old client ( . Two measurement Combrinck-Graham, 2006)
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devices were applied to examine Leo's mental state: Beck anxiety inventory, and Panic Inventory
(Sherrill, 2016). This treatment aims to show a cognitive-behavioral therapeutic approach in the
treatment with an intermittent panic attack . Clinical (Sherrill, 2016; Combrinck-Graham, 2006)
evaluation of the effectiveness of therapy has shown a significantly decreased intensity and
frequency of anxiety symptoms, which is substantiated in both the change of dysfunctional
cognitive patterns and efficient daily functioning ( . Halilović. 2019; Combrinck-Graham, 2006)
The counselor approach is to be in a consistent, caring presence in his life for an extended period
(Halilović. 2019).
Referral to Community Financial Counseling - Budget and Planning Tools
Jeff and Sandy Williams used car business has created financial difficulties, which have
caused high anxiety. Due to activity at the car lot, economic pressure has added to family
stresses. Their spending behaviors and lack of financial management have impacted the family
budget and personal finances. The therapist has referred the couple to the local Consumer Credit
Counseling Service Agency. “This agency is a 501(c) 93 nonprofit organization that assists
families to find a workable solution to financial difficulties. The agency offers a standard set of
services, including financial education, budgeting assistance, and debt management”. Specialized
coaches will help the clients answer credit questions and solve credit problems. The clients will
benefit from a private setting that gives them a practicable budget and expert guidance on
managing personal finances and reducing debt over time. This process will help the Williams
achieve financial stability and reclaim their financial future. This community initiative allows the
clients to take the first step toward achieving financial business goals (Scott & Wolfe, 2015).
Consumer Credit Counseling Services is provided at no cost.
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Conclusion
The Williams family has continued to improve their problems because of the structures
that have been put in place to help them. This case study shows the importance of working across
systems, including the individual child, the family, the school, and various community
organizations (Scott, & Wolfe, 2015). The more comprehensive the approach, the better the
family will be validating the family story. Their cultural context and the realization that a family
needs an entire community to support their mental health efforts are reflected in this report
(Ahluwalia, Anand, & Suman, 2018; Scott, & Wolfe, 2015).
Life frequently takes us into the weary place and the withered wilderness on this walk
through life, where only God can give the encouragement and subsistence we desperately require
(Greggo, 2014). He solely is our present guidance in a time of crisis, and his kindness and
compassion towards us are unlike any other. How cherished that as his children, we can
legitimately cry out: "O God, You are my God (Psalm 63:1)". Let us seek Him first and pursue
him sincerely because his loving-kindness is more real than life itself. Let us long for Him
ardently and desire Him regularly and let us cry out to Him day by day: "O Lord, "You are MY
God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty
land" - where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).
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