• This paper should be submitted in APA format. Each paper must be double spaced with size 12 Times New Roman font and 1 inch margins on all sides. You will need a title page, body, and reference section all in APA style. Please use complete sentences, appropriate grammar, spelling, and references. You will also be required to use in-text references in your work in accordance with APA style to avoid plagiarism. you must use at least 3 additional scholarly journal sources. the will be 5 pages in length not including appendices, using APA format (including APA style Section Headers).
The points below will help you begin to organize and prepare for Case Study #1:
• Use the Case Study Report Template to write up your “Assessment Report and Initial Treatment Plan / Recommendations”. You will use this same template for all three case studies.
• The Marble Family: Case Study #1 Notes serves as the source of information needed to complete Case Study 1.
• Use the Case Study Family Timeline Template to develop a timeline of relevant events in the family’s history. Include only those events that are relevant to understanding the family’s clinical issues.
Use this template to write-up your report. Your report should be no more than five pages in length. In professional life, brevity is a virtue. Your goal should be to say a lot using as few words as possible. Be comprehensive in scope but efficient in wording. If you find yourself going over the six page limit, don’t worry. Continue with your thoughts. However, once finished, go back and edit your report. Remove any parts of your report that are not essential to understanding the family, its issues, your interpretation of their case and your plans for treating them. Communicate only the essential. You must use a minimum of three scholarly journal sources to support your work Please be sure to avoid using Internet sources such as Wikipedia or other web-based resources that do not have strong academic backing. Please review the Case Study Report Template at this time. “Assignment Information” is for your instructor’s benefit, letting him or her know who has written the report and so forth. The last item in this grouping is important. It will tell your instructor the model or models you have selected to integrate in this case. The models will drive your assessment of the family and the treatment plan you develop. If you select, let’s say, a Transgenerational model to apply, your instructor will expect to see an assessment and treatment plan that is rich in the vocabulary, principles, approaches and techniques put forward by that model. Your report must reflect a good grasp of the models you are applying. The assessment should tell me what is really going on for the family through the lens and language of your models. It should be rich in the assessment language of the model, thereby showing me your mastery of the model. Once you have assessed the family through the lens and language of you models, you will then treat the family using the treatment interventions/techniques of the models. Be sure to treat what you assess. o The “Initial Information” section is pretty self-explanatory. For the last two items, briefly describe the reason the family has sought help as stated by the family. What are they saying is the problem? No need for you to state whether you agree with them or not at this point. Your opinions and hypotheses about what is really going on within the family system is presented later on in the assessment (case conceptualization) part of your report. Also, if the family has sought help to address the problems, behaviors or issues of a specific member of the family, state this up front by identifying this person in the “Identified Patient” box. o Use the “Summary of information provided” section to summarize the facts of the case (the facts, just the facts). Tell your reader what you KNOW about the case (not what you THINK about it) as reported by the family and captured in the session notes that are provided. The key word here is “Summary”. Summarize the session notes, don’t just restate them. Organize the information in a format that will be meaningful to your reader. Consider using sub-headings such as “Family History”, “Description of Individual Family Members”, “Current Level of Family Functioning” and so forth. How you summarize the factual information of the case and how you present it in this section will be an important part of your grade. Also, remember you have only 3-5 pages available so be comprehensive but brief. Only the essential stuff. o Use the “Ethical or Cultural Factors of Concern” section to identify any issues that you as the primary care provider should be mindful of. This section can be brief, but feel encouraged to form multiple hypotheses, even if they might eventually prove to be 4 incorrect. In addition, be sure to tie these concerns into the remaining two sections of the Case Study. o The following section, “Assessment of information provided”, will be the heart of your report. It is central to this assignment and should receive the greatest attention (and length). Now that we, your readers, know the facts about the case, as summarized in the previous section, how are we to make sense of it? What is really going on with this family? What are the real issues at play above and beyond the family’s presenting problem? What are the dynamics underlying their problems and the interpersonal relationships between them? This is where you, the expert, interpret the family data, offer your insights regarding family systems and dynamics, and state your hypotheses about the true nature of their problems. It is essential that you explain your insights through the lens and language of your model(s). The goal of this section and paper is for you to show mastery of theory in a clinical family case. Therefore, your assessment should be rich in theoretical language, explaining what is really going on for this family according to your selected model(s). Here is where you offer your expert, professional opinion or, in other words, your case conceptualization from the perspective of your model(s). You can discuss individual family member functioning, family functioning as a whole, family history as you see it relating to the problem, the quality of interpersonal interactions, interactional sequences and relationships. It is also important to identify and describe individual and family strengths and resources that can be accessed and utilized during treatment (e.g., good insight and self-awareness, a genuine caring for one another). Be sure to base you opinions on the model(s) you are applying. This is a crucial point. Be sure to tie your discussion back to the model you are using. You should be using the language and theory of your model(s). As new counselors it is important to understand the theoretical basis and to understand what you theory you are applying. In a clinical summary written for a client (at work) you would not be citing resources, however for the purposes of demonstrating research, understanding and application of knowledge you should be citing your work with outside resources in this paper. o You will use the final section of this report, “Initial Treatment Plan” to propose an initial treatment plan. This plan is based on the information gathered (your summary), your case conceptualization (assessment) and the models you are applying. Given what you know and think about the family, what are you going to do (at least initially)? Remember, your treatment intervention must reflect four strategies from the models you are applying. Also, keep in mind that this is an initial plan subject to change over time. It should be relatively modest in scope since you’re only now getting to know the family and understand its issues. Your treatment plan should be firmly grounded in your case conceptualization. In other words, don’t prescribe a treatment intervention that has nothing to do with the issues you discussed in your assessment section. The assessment should flow into the treatment plan. You treat what you have assessed. Recommendations can reflect referrals to outside services if (and only if) appropriate. They can also reflect the need for further assessment and exploration if you feel additional information is needed to effectively treat the family. If you do make a recommendation for additional assessment and information gathering, be specific. What specific areas or issues will you be exploring and why? Your initial treatment plan should include
? the goals to be pursued,
? the approaches to be taken,
? the techniques to be applied,
? Recommendations for “expanding the family system” if indicated (e.g., does anyone else need to be invited to the therapy sessions? Grandma, a favorite aunt, a trusted neighbor?).
? Recommendations for referrals if indicated (e.g., psychiatric consult, psychological testing, individual counseling).
In addition to your 5-6 page report, you are required to submit the following document:
Family Timeline Template: Instructions: At the top of this template, fill in your name (i.e., “Student Name”) and information relevant to the
case you are working on (i.e., “Case Study #” and “Family Name”). Below this information,
create a timeline of important family events (e.g., divorce, birth of a child, death of a family
member, geographical relocation) based on information presented in the case study. A good
timeline will not include every event in the family’s history, only those events that are relevant to
understanding the dynamics of the family and its problems. Some events that seem important in
the family’s history (the marriage of the parents) may actually be less relevant to understanding
family dynamics than smaller, seemingly unimportant events (e.g., the targeted patient gets cut
from the varsity baseball team.) Therefore, think carefully before including an event on the
family timeline (e.g., “Does my reader really need to know this information about the father
getting laid off when the son was only two years old? Will this information give the reader a
better understanding of what the family has been struggling with in the past year?). Although
dates or time periods that events occurred is nice to know when available (e.g., December,
2001 or the spring of 2003), getting the sequence of events correctly is much more important to
understanding family history (e.g., knowing that family’s move to a new state preceded a decline
in the oldest child’s performance in school). Also, when available, include the age of family
members at the time of the event.
List family events in sequence on the Family Timeline Template beginning with ‘A’. The first
relevant event in the family’s history is identified and briefly explained on the line labeled A.
Continue identifying and describing events in sequence on lines B, C, D and so on. Use only
those lines needed to adequately cover relevant family history (no need to fill in all the lines,
only if necessary).
Use the language of the model that you are applying to the case. If your case conceptualization and treatment plan contain only a few vocabulary words from the model, something is seriously wrong. The goal of this paper is to show your mastery of theory in a clinical case. Being able to integrate theory into practice is essential in this field. Go back and rewrite these sections keeping the model in mind. Integrate theory with the case study. If you are applying Behavior Therapy to the case, we are not interested in your opinions. We are interested in your opinions as a behavior family therapist. Talk like a behaviorist would talk when discussing the case. • Do not simply discuss the model (“I would use role playing in treatment”). Be specific to this particular family. Apply it to the family you are treating (“I would use role playing with John, the oldest child, when working on his need to be more assertive with his dad.”). • When introducing the vocabulary and concepts of the model you are using, briefly define them for your reader (e.g. “I would use role playing with John, the oldest child, when working on his need to be more assertive with his dad. Role modeling is a technique where the family member practices certain behaviors in the session and…….”). Assume your audience knows less about what you are writing about than you do. Write to your audience, not to yourself. 7 • Do not use slang expressions in your report (e.g., She often gets wasted on the weekend when she drinks) unless you are quoting someone (e.g., When asked about her weekend drinking, she replied that she often gets “wasted”). Remember this is a formal, professional report. The use of slang is not acceptable. • Avoid first-person statements and the use of personal words such as “I” (e.g., I believe that the family may be suffering from…..”). Instead, take a less personal approach even when stating your own opinion (e.g., “Evidence indicates that the family likely suffers from…..”). If you have to refer to yourself, it is good practice to refer to yourself as “this examiner” in clinical writing. • State your hypotheses about the case, the family and its problems in tentative terms (e.g., “It is likely….”, “She may be harboring guilt associated with…..”, “He tends to shut down when confronted….”). Remember, your hypotheses reflect what you THINK, not what you KNOW. They are not the facts. They represent your interpretation of the facts. The more confident you are about your hypothesis, the more definitive your statement can sound (e.g., “He is likely” vs. “He may”). The less confident you are with your hypothesis, the more tentative your statements about the family should be (e.g., “There is a chance that she may respond with hostility when confronted with…..”). • Do not state your opinions in the “Summary of information provided”, the factual part of your paper. Instead, state your opinions or hypotheses in the “Assessment of information provided” section. Always back up your opinion with fact. Support your hypotheses with facts or data from the case study (e.g., “He is likely to depend too heavily on his children’s approval as evidenced by…….”). • Do not discuss treatment issues or recommendations in your Assessment Report. Save these recommendations for your Initial Treatment Plan. • When in doubt, keep your treatment plan simple. Do not let your treatment recommendations make things more complicated for the family than they already are
