As I announced yesterday, I am posting work from my grad school studies. These THEORIES essays were written last year.
This work may not be of interest to everyone, but that is true of all of my posts. I have done a lot of writing in the last year in grad school, so I figure posting that work is appropriate.
Thanks for tuning in.
Case
Conceptualization
Theory:
Adlerian
Theory-Case of Jason
Presenting
Problem: Jason is a 38-year-old Jewish Caucasian male from the
east coast, where his entire family still lives. He owns a successful law
practice, specializing in commercial real estate property law and works 60-80
hours a week; he considers these long hours as his main coping mechanism. Jason
finds social support in the Jewish community, attending weekly services. Jason has
sought counseling for severe depression and feels like he has lost meaning and
purpose in his life. Shortly after starting counseling sessions, he began a
romantic relationship with Kevin, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints and kept their relationship secret from his family and his
extended personal, professional, and religious community. The secret is causing
Jason a great deal of anxiety as evidenced by his behaviors, such as agitated
muscle movement and sweatiness. Jason fears the "devastating effect"
the truth of his relationship with Kevin would have on his support system and
even his profession. In a later session, Jason described what he sees as a
betrayal from Kevin's "online affairs," involving pornography
consumption and explicit sex chats. Jason views his relationship with Kevin as
giving his life meaning, and he asked his counselor to "take the pain away."
He has nightmares of Kevin being unfaithful and of the anti-gay persecution that
he fears he will experience if his relationship with Kevin becomes public
knowledge.
Hypothesis:
Jason’s anxiety derives from his secret relationship
with Kevin, which manifests as two betrayals of his Jewish identity: a
relationship with a man and not a woman and a relationship with someone outside
his own religious faith, especially Kevin’s faith that is so opposed to
same-sex relationships. Though they were both aligned in needing to keep their
relationship a secret from their faith communities and families, Jason views
Kevin’s online sexual activity as a betrayal of fidelity, a reflection of his
own betrayal of the ideals of his Jewish faith. It appears that Jason has
always felt as if his same-sex relationships betrayed his religion and family,
and so he avoided confronting this reality by throwing himself into his work ‘to
stay sane.” Jason can be categorized as the avoidant social interest type (Dufrene
and Clark, 2022). Though Jason was very socially connected through his
profession and religion, his social activity is a passive means of protecting
himself from feeling inferior about his same-sex relationship. According to
Gibbons and Maybell (2020, as cited in Dufrene and Clark, 2022) Adler’s idea of
organ inferiority describes how “a person responds to organic inferiorities by
reaching for success, making up for deficiency in some way with another
physical attribute” (p.101). Clearly, Jason’s sexuality is his weak part, much
like an “organ,” the inferiority, and his long work hours and religious support
system make up for this perceived deficiency.
Goal: The primary goal for Jason is to alleviate his
anxiety and depression and renew his feeling of meaning and purpose in life. Focusing
on Jason’s belief for why he must keep his relationship with Kevin a secret and
even his expectations for the behavior of a romantic partner will allow for growth
from avoidance and inferiority to usefulness and a single lifestyle that fully
meets Jason’s social needs (Dufrene and Clark, 2022,).
Interventions:
Challenge Faulty Beliefs: Perceptions
of Social and Cultural World: An Adlerian counselor would encourage the client to
challenge what might be faulty beliefs that are often more prevalent in
difficult times. Jon Carlson Psy.D, Ed.d spoke of how “Adlerians don't believe
that you're determined. Adlerians really believe that you have choices. If it
appears as though you're headed in a … certain direction, it's because you
learned some beliefs, and you had some beliefs about life. When people have
difficulties in life, they have some faulty beliefs... so what we would need to
do is help…to challenge those beliefs and to rewrite…[the] future"
(Adlerian Therapy, 2009, 1:26:40 - 1:28:13). Faulty beliefs about religion,
professional community, and sexual activity/interests in relationships may be
the root cause of Jason’s avoidance and inferiority. By encouraging him to move
from the avoidant personality type to what Adler described as the useful type:
“an individual who cooperates, contributes, and is useful and active in
society” (Dufrene and Clark, 2022, p. 101), he can grow and heal. In so doing,
the counselor will meet an Adlerian goal of encouraging the client to engage in
a lifestyle that meets their social needs as Jason’s current lifestyle choices appear
to be in conflict. The challenge of what Jason will define as his faulty
beliefs will occur within the arena of social exclusion in which he is
operating, as he feels it necessary to hide his relationship with Kevin (Dufrene
and Clark, 2022, p. 109).
Confrontation
and Reorientation: Challenge of
possibly faulty beliefs may also involve confrontation, an important part of
encouragement according to Adler. The counselor can hold “mistaken beliefs” up
to a client “as with a mirror,” which presents an opportunity… to make
immediate change in beliefs, behaviors, or mood (p.145)” (Milliren et al.,
2007, as cited in Dufrene and Clark, 2022, p. 106). To reorient the client, the
Adlerian counselor would focus on a client’s strengths, which in Jason’s case
are his work ethic, his success, and his religious faith and community. Adler
believed the main goal in counseling is to “develop the client’s sense of
belonging and empower the client to change behaviors and beliefs by increasing
the client’s self- awareness and modifying goals to accomplish the change” (Dufrene
and Clark, 2022, p. 106). Jason will benefit from designing and implementing
his own change to achieve the lifestyle that will alleviate all or in some
increment his anxiety and depression.
Socratic
Questioning: Challenging
beliefs through encouragement, confrontation, and reorientation will all be
facilitated best via the Adlerian strategy of Socratic questioning “to lead
clients into insight and cognitive change through a series of questions” (Stein, 2013, as cited in Dufrene and Clark, 2022,
p. 108). The counselor will use leading questions to uncover the client’s
“private logic.” The counselor and client will review the results of this
questioning process as the client, Jason, takes responsibility for his own change
and new direction (p.108).
Expected Outcome: By designing his own change through challenge,
encouragement, confrontation, and reorientation, Jason’s anxiety and depression
should decrease or be alleviated entirely. Helping Jason to identify and rely
on his strengths “will contribute to developing courage to act toward change” (Dufrene
and Clark, 2022, p. 113).
References
(2009). Adlerian
Therapy [Video file]. Psychotherapy.net. Retrieved September 5, 2024, from
Kanopy.
Dufrene, R. L. & Clark, L. B. (2022). Adlerian theory. In
D. Capuzzi & M. D. Stauffer (Eds.), Counseling and psychotherapy:
Theories and interventions (7th ed., pp. 95-116). American Counseling
Association.
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- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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