Assignment on Major Case Study

Assignment on Major Case Study

The Major Case Study Paper is an in-depth presentation of an individual who warrants a DSM-5 or DSM-5-TR diagnosis. Your task will be to clearly and comprehensively demonstrate an understanding of the process of arriving at a diagnosis or, in some cases, diagnoses. The subject of the case study must be a real or fictional individual from history, books, movies, or TV; they can be living or deceased. Using a real person that is or was a part of your personal life is not acceptable (e.g., friend, family member, co-worker, professor, and so on). Your case study should not exceed 8 pages of text, excluding the cover and reference page. There is no page minimum, but please ensure that you are discussing all required areas of the assignment in-depth. Please note when submitting your paper as a word document to save it as the following title, “Last Name. First Name. Major Case Study. Semester, Year.”

Assignment on Major Case Study

Introduction to the Client: Using your sources, provide us with a robust history of your client utilizing a variety of information, including:

◦           General Demographic Information: General demographic information includes the client’s name, age, gender, ethnicity, location of residence, marital status, employment status, socioeconomic status, and level of education. This can also include a brief medical history, including if the client is currently taking any medications, has any allergies, or if the client has had any recent illnesses, surgeries, or hospitalizations. This is our brief introduction to the client, before we get into a more detailed history about their presenting symptomatology and developmental history.

Assignment on Major Case Study

◦           Presenting Symptoms: Presenting symptoms should be the client is reporting that brought them to seek therapy. This also includes symptoms that you as the “clinician” are able to observe from their history (i.e., your sources).

◦           Biopsychosocial Information: Biopsychosocial information involves several categories of historical information, which is divided into three categories:

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▪           Biological factors involve genetics, physiology, chemistry, and neurology. Biological factors can include diet, sleep habits, genetics/predispositions, family medical history, medical history, pregnancy/birth complications, and drug and alcohol use.

▪           Psychological factors involve a person’s personality, thoughts, and ensuing emotions and behavior. Psychological factors can include cognitive functioning, coping skills, mood, history of mental health symptoms/episodes/attacks/ hospitalizations, and developmental history, especially emphasizing traumatic experiences.

Assignment on Major Case Study

▪           Social factors involve any interpersonal or environmental aspect that affects a person’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. Social factors can include the quality of relationships (familial, friendships, romantic relationships), financial stability, educational background, racism.

Diagnostic Impression(s) & Supporting Information: Diagnostic impressions are diagnoses that you believe to be the best fit for the client based on their presentation and development of symptoms, duration and timeline of illness, and other clinical factors given the information included in the case. There does not have to be more than one diagnostic impression, but there can be if you feel as though the client meets criteria for more than 1 diagnosis. Diagnoses should only be listed in this section if the client meets almost, if not all, criteria. For each diagnostic impression, please list all diagnostic criteria required from the DSM-5 or DSM-5-TR to make the diagnosis and include examples from the case to support your diagnosis.

Assignment on Major Case Study

Differential Diagnoses (2): Differential diagnoses are diagnoses that you believe could potentially be a good fit for the case, but don’t have enough information to finalize. Please include the full criteria that the client meets along with the additional information that is needed in order to justify the diagnosis. This section is not for “rule out” diagnoses, meaning we have already “ruled out” the diagnoses listed in this section. These are diagnoses that we considered as potential options for the Diagnostic Impression given the various clinical factors but ultimately needed additional information in order to move forward and therefore couldn’t list as our primary diagnosis. Please include 2 differential diagnoses.

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Theory Application: You will select a theory from the provided options and conceptualize the development of your client’s diagnosis through the lens of your chosen theory. You will provide a general overview of the theory, discuss key concepts of the theory using theory specific language, conceptualize your client through the lens of your theory in terms of the development of your client’s diagnosis, and understand, from a theoretical perspective, what treatment would need to focus on in order for your client to become “healthy”. Theory Options: Psychoanalysis, Object Relations, Individual Psychology (IP), Person Centered Therapy (PCT), Existential Therapy (ET), Gestalt Therapy, Behavioral Therapy (BT), Cognitive Therapy (CT), Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), Reality Therapy (RT), or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).

Assignment on Major Case Study

Overview of Theory: Discuss the underlying philosophies and central assumptions of the theories, the key terms and constructs of the theory, the “technical terms” of the theory and how you can explain them in plain English, how the theory would define psychopathology and health. How does this theory describe a person’s distress? How does it describe health? How does a person move from psychopathology to health? What is the goal of the theory?

◦           Theory’s Conceptualization of Client:

▪           Given the theory you just described, how does the therapist practicing this theory understand the patient’s distress? This is where you bring in the central assumptions, key terms/constructs, definitions of psychopathology and health that you explained previously and apply them directly to your client’s case. How does the theory explain the client’s presentation of symptoms? Be sure to use theory specific language and apply all applicable central constructs of the theory to the client.

▪           How would the theory address the client’s presenting problems/diagnosis? Discuss what needs to change from the perspective of a clinician working from your theory. Discuss how the clinician views the client’s problem. Determine what is contributing to the client’s presenting concern and provide examples from the case study.

Assignment on Major Case Study

Consideration of Cultural factors:

  • What aspects of the ADDRESSING/RESPECTFUL model are present within this case? How do these aspects explain or impact the client’s presenting issues? How might these aspects impact treatment in the short or long-term?
  • Given the present aspects of the ADDRESSING/RESPECTFUL model, are there any aspects of this case that you personally may find challenging or think your client could find potentially challenging given the information provided? Consider any biases/blind spots you may have and are actively working on both in your personal and professional life.

Goals (3) and Interventions (2): Based on how the theory conceptualizes the client and the client’s diagnosis, what goals and interventions would be appropriate to include as part of your treatment plan to achieve its specified goals? Discuss what the theory’s goals (3) would be for this client’s treatment, interventions (2), and what the anticipated outcome would beof the interventions. Goals and interventions should be specific to the client’s symptoms, diagnoses, and/or personal goals for therapy. There is no intervention without a goal. You can reference the appropriate Jongsma Treatment Planner for ideas with selecting goals and interventions for your client based on your theory and the client’s diagnosis/presenting symptoms.

Assignment on Major Case Study

  1. Empirical Treatment Article: Research and discuss a peer-reviewed journal article written within the last 5 years that explores an intervention that you believe would be beneficial to this client based on their presenting symptomatology, diagnosis, and other pertinent factors (i.e., age, gender, openness to treatment). Discuss relevant key points, benefits, and limitations of the study.

Format of Assignment:

Your case study will be written in APA 7th edition and include both a cover and reference page. Your case study, at a minimum, should be 1 page per section (8, excluding cover and reference page) and ideally no more than 8 pages maximum. However, please ensure that you are discussing all required areas of the assignment in-depth, as the purpose of this assignment is to display advanced understanding of case conceptualization. Please submit your paper to Canvas as a word document and save it as the following title, “Last Name. First Name. Major Case Study. Semester Year.”

To ensure that all required areas of the paper are met, please use the following headings to format your paper:

  • Introduction to the Client
  • Presenting Symptoms
  • Biopsychosocial History

◦           Biological Factors

◦           Psychological Factors

◦           Social Factors

  • Diagnostic Impression and Rationale
  • Differential Diagnoses
  • Theory Application

◦           Overview of Theory

◦           Theory’s Conceptualization of Client/Diagnosis

  • Consideration of Cultural Factors
  • Goals and Interventions
  • Empirical Treatment Article
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