Reference no: EM133719512

Assignment: Existential Therapy with Al Glenda Jim & Lucy

Part 1

Assume that you are an existential counselor. Read and think about Al, Glenda, Jim, and Lucy in their struggles with freedom. Imagine each of them coming to you for counseling. You only know as much about them as is written below. How would you proceed in your work with each person? Give me enough information that I can tell you have some insight into each client and a "game plan" for helping them -

A. What themes do you see?
B. How can their anxiety be used as a motivation to change?
C. What freedom and responsibility do each one of them need to accept?
D. What factors do each one need to accept as blocking their freedom currently?
E. Why/how would existential therapy be beneficial for this client?
F. How would you work with Al?

Al decided to become a neuter. His mother was overprotective, overpossessive, and controlled him with guilt. She gave and sacrificed for him. Al became effeminate and did whatever he felt his mother wanted of him. He is overweight, unsexy, passive, nice, and unassertive. As he realizes how his mother lives in him now, he finds that he can decide certain things as indicated by such questions as: "Do I want to continue to be my mother's boy? Am I willing to leave her psychologically, even if it means displeasing her? Do I want self-approval more than her approval? Is it really worth it to try to change? Am I miserable enough? Why should I change, when I am so comfortable in being taken care of by her? If I remain the way I am now, what might I say about myself ten years hence?"

How would you work with Glenda?

Glenda becomes painfully aware that she has perfected the art of manipulating men with her physical appearance. She says the appropriate things, she has an abundance of men in her life, all of her contacts with people are superficial, and she accepts in herself that she has not pursued any depth because she has apparently gotten what she wanted with such little effort. But now she suffers as she comes to grips with her own vacancy and superficiality. The issues of freedom with which she might well wrestle as a result of her dawning awareness could be reflected in questions such as: "Am I tired enough of being plastic that I will risk finding out whether I'm real or not? What if I pursue depth in a relationship only to find emptiness? What if I am really empty inside? What if all I am is a pretty exterior? Will I be better off deluding myself that a fine exterior is really better than the experience of nothingness? How do I begin to change? Can I allow myself to hurt, or will I retreat into old ways to repress my pain?"

How would you work with Jim?

Jim is a unique blend of a computer, a robot, and a rock. He is impenetrable. He refuses to make himself vulnerable to any feelings. In the workshop he learned that his father was a model of what he did not want to be. His father was unmovable, indifferent, uncaring, rough, and generally had to exaggerate a sense of pseudo-strength to prove his manliness. Jim accepts the fact that his sample has been limited, and now he wrestles with questions such as: "Will I continue to address myself to being the opposite of my father? Will I invest that much power in him? Will I let myself feel? Can I be a man and decide for myself to be touched and reached by others, or will I build a wall as thick as my father's wall?"

How would you work with Lucy?

Lucy increasingly comes to realize how barren her marriage is. She feels trapped in her assigned roles. She feels unloved by her husband, who she feels takes her for granted. Lucy does very little for herself and gets her total identity from her functions as housewife and mother. Throughout her group-therapy sessions she allows herself to feel fully the pain of her self-denial, of being little more than her sterile roles. With her awareness might come the struggle of her freedom to decide what she might do as she asks herself such questions as: "Should I simply settle for what I have now? Do I dare rock the boat? If I challenge him, will he leave? Maybe things could be worse. Suppose I leave and find that nobody else is out there for me? Will I be threatened if I challenge the deadness of our relationship? How might my life be different if I do challenge it? Do I dare give up being weak and helpless, and, if I do, then whom can I blame?"

Part 2

Now switching to Person-Centered Therapy, read the information given in each case and then answer the questions which follow.

The Cases of Helga and Doris

Helga has spent time in mental institutions because of deep depression, marked feelings of worthlessness, and several attempts to kill herself. She was born and reared in Germany and came to live in New Jersey in her late teens. She relates that she has never felt at home since she left Germany but that there is now nothing there for her to return to. She frequently mentions how lonely and isolated she feels. There are no friends in her life, no intimate relationships, and she feels a deep sense of rejection. Although she has been out of the last institution for over a year, she is an outpatient and has come to the day-treatment center on a regular basis. Assume that you are a new counselor and are seeing her for the first time. Think about how you might deal with her in the first five minutes of your initial session. At this first session Helga relates:

"I just dread getting up every morning. Everything seems like such a chore. I'm afraid that anything I do will turn to failure. I see no real sense in going on. I have constant thoughts of ending my life. I'm surely no use to anyone around me. I couldn't hold a husband or any job, and then I lost my kids. I just feel so worthless and rotten and full of guilt and hate for myself. No matter what I do or try, I just can't see any light at the end of that long, dark, cold, scary tunnel. I look forward to death, because then I won't have to suffer anymore."

A. What are your personal reactions to what Helga is saying? How does it affect you? What are you feeling as you listen to her?

B. What do you mainly hear Helga saying?

C. Given the way Helga presents herself, do you see much hope? Do you believe that there is a positive, trustworthy, and actualizing tendency within her?

D. In what ways might you use yourself as a person to create a relationship with Helga so that she might work through her depression? Do you think that your relationship with her by itself is sufficient, or would you see a need for interpretation, direction, and active techniques?

E. Would you be able to accept any direction or decision that Helga chose for herself, including suicide? What are the ethical and legal ramifications of accepting her choice to end her life? How would you deal with her suicidal ideation and threats?

F. To what extent would you want to explore her German background with her, especially since she does not feel at home in either culture?

G. Have you had enough life experiences similar to Helga's to enable you to empathize with her and enter her experiential world? How would you respond to her if she said: "You can't understand how uprooted I feel. I don't belong anywhere. But I just don't think you can know what this is like for me."

DORIS: Leaving her husband and child

Doris comes to a community counseling center at the recommendation of a friend, who expresses concern that Doris intends to leave her child. The friend thinks she is confused and needs professional help.

Some Background Data:

Doris was born and reared in Arkansas. Her father is a reformed alcoholic who drank heavily when the client was a child. Both parents are religious, and the father is described as a strict fundamentalist. Doris has a younger brother who is now an enlisted man in the army and is described as the family favorite. She says her parents were stricter with her than with their son and emphasized the importance of marriage as well as the woman's dependent and inferior role in that relationship.

Doris dropped out of high school in the tenth grade. She worked as a manicurist in Arkansas until marrying and moving to Kentucky three years ago. She then worked as a waitress. Her husband says that they have had no fights or arguments during their three-year marriage, and the client agrees. Six months ago Doris gave birth to a baby boy. There were no medical complications, and she maintains that she adjusted well to the baby, but she reports just not being able to feel much of anything except tired. Two months ago she and her husband moved to Houston so that he could join an amateur band. She began working as a cashier at a drugstore. In the course of her work she began to have a series of brief sexual affairs with fellow workers as well as customers. At the same time, although her husband is happy with the band, he has not been able to find a steady job. He has asked her to try to find a second job or to take overtime hours at the drug store.

Doris is considering leaving her husband and her child, although she is uncertain how she would continue to support herself financially. She is also concerned with what would happen to her son, because her husband has no means of support. She insists that she does not want to take the child with her.

Task

A. What is your attitude about Doris wanting to leave her husband and her child? What are your values on this matter, and how would they influence the way you would work with her?

B. Assume that Doris asked you for your advice regarding her plan to leave her husband and child. What would you say? To what degree do you think Doris can function without advice?

C. If you accepted Doris as a client, in what ways do you think you could be of most help to her?

D. Are there feelings about herself and her husband that Doris is currently unwilling to accept? How would a person-centered approach help with acceptance of feelings and with denied parts of the self?

E. What are some of the advantages of working with Doris within a person-centered framework?