Reference no: EM133299480

Case Study: Gail is seeking counseling because she feels a strong need to tell her parents about her true identity as a person and her sexual orientation. Her parents are devoutly religious people who are highly intolerant of homosexuality. For most of her life Gail struggled with hiding the feelings she had for other women. She tells you that she has been living a lie so as not to be disowned by her mother and father. She says, however, that from her adolescence she has known deep down that she is a lesbian but was not able to actually admit it to herself until her junior year in college. She then went on to graduate school and got a master's degree in clinical social work. She is involved in a long-term relationship, and the two women have considered taking steps to adopt a child. If this happens, there will be no way that she can continue hiding her sexual orientation. Although she counsels others, she is coming to you for counseling because she wants to clarify her priorities and make some key decisions about taking the risk of confronting her parents. She wants their acceptance of the person she is, yet she finds herself resenting them when she thinks of how they are likely to react to her decisions.

Question 1: What ethical and clinical issues does the case represent? What is your assessment of each of the key issues? What value do issues arise in the case? How might your values affect the way in which you intervene?
Question 2: Which theoretical approaches would be most helpful to you in counseling the clients involved in the case? What specific concepts would be useful? What techniques and procedures are you likely to employ?
Question 3: What is your assessment of the core problem involved in the case? Show how you would proceed and give your rationale for the interventions you would expect to make.
Question 4: For the case, what are some special considerations relative to factors such as differences in ethnicity, cultural values, socioeconomic status, religious values, sexual orientation, lifestyle characteristics, and gender-role expectations?