Analysis: Intervention Therapeutic Game

The term “Psychological trauma” refers to damage wrought from a traumatic event, which that damages one’s ability to cope with stressors. “Trauma” is commonly defined as an exposure to a situation in which a person is confronted with an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to self or others’ physical well-being (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Specific types of client trauma frequently encountered by which therapists and other mental health workers frequently encounter in a clinical setting include sexual abuse, physical , or sexual assault, natural disasters such as earthquakes or tsunamis, domestic violence, and school or/and work related violence (James & Gilliland, 2001). Traumatic

mechanisms that had previously enabled the client to function in their daily life, leads as they

Goodman, R. D. (2015). Trauma counseling and interventions: Introduction to the special issue. Journal Of Mental Health Counseling, 37(4), 283-294.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders describes posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as an acute stress disorder (2013). Individuals that experience this disorder are exposed to or have had an experience of near death or bodily harm (American Psychiatric Association. 2013). Evidence based therapy that has shown positive outcomes in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) which is based on changing behavior. The use of client-centered therapy can also be beneficial with this type of client if applied in addition to CBT. Joseph stated that a client-centered approach to PTSD could result in Post-traumatic growth (2004). Post-traumatic growth does not try to bring the client back to the original state before the trauma but bring the client beyond their previous level of functioning (Joseph, 2004). When a person experiences a trauma, they can have a myriad of emotions, it is the therapist responsibility to help the client make better sense of the issue and continue functioning in a normal manner. Not all traumas are alike and not all clients can be treated equally. The most significant aspect of treatment in helping this type of client is the approach the therapist takes which should include the temperament of the client and the goals the client seeks. Included here is an examination of a fictitious client that has experienced a trauma and the therapist care plan. The therapist

These negative effects are often called vicarious or secondary traumas. For instance, a clinician might hear the individual’s traumatic story and feel shocked, which can lead to changes in behavior, mood, and relationships. The clinician may also have intrusive thoughts concerning the individual’s traumatic story. Thus, it is important to have a plan to counteract these changes. It is vital for counselors to increase their education on trauma, such as attending workshops and conferences, reading books and articles, and attending webinars specifically for trauma. Clinician’s can also speak with other helping professionals who work with trauma victims to normalize their feelings and behaviors. As always, counselors can go speak with their supervisor when they are in this

The therapist would want to relate to the clients in a meaningful, positive way (Gehart, 2014). The therapist would move away from advice giving, diagnosis and labeling, and away from the therapist being in the expert of their life. The clients are the only people that know what they are experiencing, and the therapist would take a stance in understanding and asking questions about their experience.

The intervention strategy used comes from the Cognitive Behavior Intervention for Trauma in school’s program also known as CBITS. The experiences the client has expressed as turning points in his life have been identified as points of trauma. Being removed from his mother and siblings at a sudden moment and being placed with strangers has to lead him to have problems with behavior. His feelings of anger and frustration stem from his fear of possibly being removed again. The CBITS program helps the client understand types of trauma, coping techniques and allows them to practice these techniques through roleplay. The CBITS program is often used to facilitate trauma groups however the client requested to be serviced individually

Traumatic events can potentially turn into a threat to one’s life and make detrimentally impact in a number of ways if they are ignored or untreated. Traumatic-related symptoms are mostly affected by physical and sexual abuse, rape, childhood neglect. A research in 2012, (Black, Woodworth, Tremblay) studied if implementing therapies to youth exposed to trauma will facilitate a reduction of negative trauma-related symptoms.

This model provides flexibility to a semi-structured concept to encourage creativity among counseling professionals. As a future Marriage and Family Therapist, I have a strong connection with using theories encompassing the family dynamics and culture. As a proponent of Play Therapy interventions, I enjoy teaching clients emotion regulation and relaxation techniques through creative activities in the best interest of the client. Furthermore, conjoining parent-child sessions not only provides growth of the child but unites the family and increases skill building for all individuals attending sessions. Conversely, unlike other trauma models, TF-CBT provides clients with multiple phases of cognitive coping and processing to explore and correct negative distortions through building confidence and skills. Teaching the child and parent’s relaxation breathing, effective emotion expression, and cognitive coping skills prepare the family for modules deemed difficult because sharing the traumatic experience involves painful emotions. Consequently, processing the child’s trauma nearing the end of treatment allows the counselor and family to build a strong therapeutic relationship in multiple sessions prior to the trauma narrative and processing the traumatic experience. This trauma model provides hope for traumatized individuals to take back the

“Traumatic losses, manmade and natural, test the resilience of those who experience them. How individuals react to national crises and traumatic events, and the factors that promote resilience or increase the risk for problems following trauma” (National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). It is very important to know how to work with traumatized patients and what their needs are. Traumatized can affect many people in many different ways. A traumatized patient may experience a situation that was very troubled for them but may not be for others. Here we will talk about the specific needs and methods used to communicate effectively with a patient who is experiencing trauma in their life.

I found that I need to make improvements in many respects. First, I need to improve my opening statement to make it more clearly and smoothly and give my client an open question to encourage her to talk about her issue. Moreover, I need to make an improvement on identifying specific emotions that clients are feeling. In this session, I failed to use “feeling” vocabulary to reflect her feelings and create an empathic environment. In addition, I need to learn not to let my own experience and judgement influence the helping process. For example, when my client was talking about how smoking habit took away her studying time, I was thinking, “exactly, bad habits always influence many students’ academic performance in a negative way.” Although I did not say it, I wanted to say this to help her feel accepted and understood. This may not what she was thinking, but I was thinking it because I have experienced it before. To effectively help people explore themselves, I should make an improvement in these

It is estimated that 24 million Americans (roughly 8%) will experience trauma at some point in their lives, for mental health workers it is almost six times higher (up to 50%) according to Sansbury, Graves, & Scott (2014); they further report that trauma can have a profound and deep effect, citing recent studies that documented DNA level aging in children exposed to trauma. The practitioner that works in trauma adheres to trauma-informed care core principles: safety, trust, empowerment, collaboration, and choice. To be effectively vigilant of meeting these principles, the clinician needs to be cognizant of his or her own traumatic stress responses. An overidentification with the client, due to repeated exposure to the client’s trauma through processing or story content can result in vicarious trauma. When a mental health professional is experiencing vicarious trauma, this can manifest as being overly cautious, outward or inward expressions of anger or sadness, changes in their own belief systems, suffering, feeling unsafe, a reduction in sense of self, being suspicious or paranoid, distancing from interpersonal relationships, and overall negative affect. The same authors suggest that countertransference and poor coping skills are the first red flags of traumatization susceptibility (Sansbury, Graves, & Scott,

The interventions are developed by the therapist and are based on the therapist’s interpretation of the child’s understanding of the current environment as well as historical traumatic events (Foa, 2009). One of the main goals of psychodynamic therapy is to strengthen and support the parent-child relationship. The caregiver is helped to gain insight into his/her own illogical self-thoughts and behaviours, which creates a healthier environment for the child (Foa, 2009). Parker and Turner (2013) describe the therapeutic process as an exploration of early experiences and their effect on current thoughts, feelings, behaviours and relationships. They reiterate the importance of play, talking and the therapeutic relationship when treating children. As traumatized children express their internal conflicts through play and art, they begin to develop a new understanding of self which becomes internalized resulting in modifications to neural networks (Parker & Turner,

Delivery of health services to people with complex needs, such as Helen, should demonstrate that they have the right to receive services that are designed to meet their needs and wants in the least restrictive way (ACT Disability Services Act, 1991). It is suggested by Butz, Bowling & Bliss (2000, p46) that a person-centred approach is the best way to deliver a health service to those with complex communication needs, like Helen. Hurley, Pfadt, Tomasulo, and Gardner (1996) extends this idea by recommending that the delivery of services to this population requires adjustment to traditional methods, including simplifying the language used by the practitioner as well as how a therapy session is structured.

By creating a therapeutic environment in which the client feel safe to be entirely honest and open about their thoughts and feelings we can enable the client to be