Therapy: A Short Story

This paper will look at the logic of narrative therapy by focusing on 5 major points. This paper will begin by discussing how the narrative approach defines and perceives problems. It will address how narrative therapy views the nature of the relationship between the client and the professional. This paper will look at how problems are solved using the narrative approach. It will also focus on three main techniques used in narrative therapy, which will include externalization, deconstruction and re-authoring. This paper will also include a short narrative critique of the medical model.

“The last thing I heard where the sirens. And the last thing I saw where a kaleidoscope of blue and red. And then everything went black, every ounce of air had escaped my lungs and had reached the surface of the lake in the form of little bubbles.” I told Louis Green, possibly the most boring person on earth. I don’t think he wanted to be my therapist anymore then I wanted to be in therapy.

Kate bursts into tears. She tells Flannery that she was going to give her mother her Christmas present on the guitar as she wipes the tear away from her eyes. Flannery just stands, dumbfounded. Finally she shrugs, telling Kate that Ellis can just use the guitar she will be getting from her father. Kate thanks Flannery and asks her to join her while she strings popcorn. To her surprise Flannery accepts and the two walk to the kitchen to where the popcorn and strip was set up. Just as Kate sits down she hears the doorbell. It's the UPS man. Kate opens the door to see a uniformed man with two big boxes. One from Uncle Simon and Aunt Kim and another from the Guitar Center. Quikly the guitar box is snatched from Kates and hands by her mother and taken away. Kate gives an excited thank you to the UPS man, just waiting for him to stop in front of Flannery’s house. The truck never stops. Kate walks back to the kitchen but decides not to mention anything about the UPS truck. She is surprised when she sees that Flannery has already strung to feet of popcorn.

I felt that Larry was having a lot of emotions today due to our termination getting closer. He spent the first half of the session describing his depressive symptoms and it felt like a regression in progress. He made provocative comments that required me to assess him for suicidal ideation. He clearly contracted for safety, listed protective factors, and it was not my impression that he was in need of a higher level of care or hospitalization. Something in our interaction had a personality disorder flavor. I thought traits from someone who has borderline personality disorder emerged but maybe it could be explained as a strong reaction to abandonment. He twisted a conversation that took place in our last session about facial implants and made me the villain. I think he did subconsciously as a way to facilitate the termination process.

The sound of the clock was all I could hear, breathing as it ticks. I lie still as if I were dead. I wished to be dead, but three unsuccessful attempts had proven to me that I couldn't do it. So I had to suffer and hate life and the body that I am imprisoned in. That's how I looked at life, as a prison, as a stale, dead carcass that I'm forced to smell. I looked at suicide as a jailbreak, from this life. I was never going to go through with it.

I would not conduct the child custody evaluation for him because this would be a dual role or multiple relationship. Since I have already been counseling this client, and already have a relationship and opinion (that he is a good person who loves his kids) with him, this may make it hard to remain objective if I were to conduct the child custody evaluation. Also, there are two sides to every story, thus even though the client seems nice and loving while in therapy, that may not be the case outside of therapy. Also, entering into a multiple relationship is against the American Psychological Association (APA) (2010) Ethical Principles. Ethical code 3.05 states that therapists should avoid multiple relationships because being in one can impair their competence, effectiveness, objectivity and can put the client at risk for harm or exploitation. The APA ethical principle of avoiding harm also applies to this scenario (APA, 2010). If I was to do the custody evaluation for my client, and find that he should not have custody, this would ruin our therapeutic alliance and greatly harm the client. Although some therapists may belief that they would be competent and objective enough to conduct the child custody evaluation for their current client, they should stay on the side of caution, not take the risk and refer the client to a different professional who is competent in these evaluations.

Ray rushed downstairs with Casey following. He gave her a peck on the forehead and picked up his wallet on the way out. She stood on the veranda waving goodbye with an inkling of guilt for not telling him about her appointment that morning. With his natural skepticism, he would have tried to discourage her from going.

Countertransference, which occurs when a therapist transfers emotions to a person in therapy, is often a reaction to transference, a phenomenon in which the person in treatment redirects feelings for others onto the therapist.

An important feature of behavioural therapy is its focus on current problems and behaviour, and on attempts to remove behaviour the patient finds troublesome. This contrasts greatly with psychodynamic therapy, where the focus is much more on trying to uncover unresolved conflicts from childhood (i.e. the cause of abnormal behaviour). Examples of behaviour therapy are aversion therapy and flooding. Aversion therapy is used when there are stimulus situations and associated behaviour patterns that are attractive to the client, but which the therapist and the client both regard as undesirable. This therapy involves associating such stimuli and behaviour with a very unpleasant unconditioned stimulus, such as an electric shock.

In this Fascinating book Love’s Executioner and other Tales of Psychotherapy by Irvin D. Yalom, we can appreciated different techniques used in a session of Psychotherapy, this book was easy to read and understand and especially it was very addictive, making it the perfect tool and inspiration for psychology students who are starting to appreciate this career more deeply. There are ten different cases offered in this book, some patients share similar symptoms but still have different mental dysfunctions. Out of the ten cases I picked three:

The symptom is merely a front for the family’s larger stress. And we do not determine who the family consists of – the family does.

What applied clinical problem would you most like to focus on in your PsyD studies and in the PsyD Clinical Psychology dissertation/doctoral project? Tell us something about your knowledge of the relevant theory and concepts, research, and the application of that scholarship to clinical practice.

I am responding to the article found in the Career Development Quarterly, “Using Narrative Career Counseling with the Underprepared College Student”. It was authored by Amber N. Hughes, Melinda M. Gibbons, and Blair Mynatt and published in 2013.

I believe that the art of psychotherapy is more important than empirically validated treatments (EVT). I feel that the art of psychotherapy lies in the common factors, which include the therapeutic relationship, client and therapist factors (e.g., personality), helping clients deal with problems, and hope or expectancy factors (Reisner, 2005). Although I do believe that empirically validated treatments may enhance the therapeutic process, the treatments themselves are by no means the most important or fundamental aspects of therapy. There appears, at least to me, to be much more of an art involved in developing the relationship with the client and understanding the client’s perspective. It takes art and skill of a therapist to examine,

Dr. D, Irvin Yolam the author of 'The Gift of Therapy and over ten (10) other books, is a million copy best selling author who is a world known and recognizable therapist who has gain recognition for his contribution to the field of therapy. Having done a magnitude of work in the field of therapy, the scholar who was once a professor at the Stanford University has written and dedicated the book "The gift of Therapy to his wife Marilyn for over fifty years and fellow therapist and clients, whom he tries to encourage and educate about the possible dos and don'ts of the profession. The book The Gift of therapy was first published in 2002 by HarperCollins publishers.