This discussion is based on a case study of an adolescent client named Marissa. You will read through her history of treatment and formulate continuing care with a CBT approach.
- What cognitive behavioral techniques might be appropriate to use with Marissa as she explores her frustration and anger related to stressors?
- How would you use cognitive behavioral therapy techniques in a culturally/gender sensitive manner to address Marissa’s feelings about being a woman as a minority in the finance industry? How might the principles from CBT be applied to the case study?
POST # 1 CARLA
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is an approach often used by physicians to help alleviate certain mental disorders (“What is…,” 2020). As the name suggests, CBT can help those struggling with mental disorders to change their ways of thinking and acting to help reduce the symptoms of their mental concerns. In the most recent case study, Marissa is struggling with stress and is having difficulty managing her rage and irritation. Using cognitive behavior therapy techniques is beneficial to a variety of patients and can be used in the case study at hand. This discussion will analyze the ways in which CBT can help Marissa and how her physician should approach her techniques while remaining sensitive to her gender and ethnicity.
The patient Marissa is having difficulty managing her stress levels, which is causing a surge in negative emotions. Knowing these concerns allows her physician to decide upon the CBT approaches they believe will best benefit her. Given that Marissa seems extremely overwhelmed, it makes sense for her physician to want to target her main trigger, which is stress. It should be noted that CBT often has many different steps that a patient must follow before experiencing the desired amount of relief. When it comes to treating stress with CBT, Marissa’s physician could suggest a simple technique like different breathing methods (Tull, 2019). While breathing is an innate action, there are certain ways that one can breathe to help reduce the symptoms of high stress (Tull, 2019). This is a good starting point but may not be the only technique Marissa needs. Some find it necessary to physically feel the tension leave their bodies to receive any relief (Tull, 2019). Therefore, there is a method which involves a person tightening and then loosening their muscles (Tull, 2019). The idea behind this method is to train one’s mind to notice when their muscles are too stiff from being overwhelmed and to learn to loosen them accordingly (Tull, 2019). Other methods focus on helping a person to use their energy performing hobbies, rather than using that time worrying or to help the individual suffering to list out characteristics they enjoy about themselves (Tull, 2019). These techniques are all dedicating to teaching a person that their mind does not have power over them. Each CBT technique helps one’s mind to focus on the positives and to let go of the negative (Tull, 2019). Since Marissa is also having issues controlling her stress-related anger, there are some techniques that her physician should incorporate into her CBT to help with her rage. One such method is for Marissa to focus on her personal code of ethics (Cotterell, 2017). Anger often leads to someone behaving in a manner which they normally would not (Cotterell, 2017). If Marissa can focus on her ethical code, she is more likely to calm her anger prior to acting (Cotterell, 2017).
Marissa’s physician should be sure to be culturally sensitive when treating her with CBT. Marissa is a minority and a female whose career is in finance. Each person has their own views and practices, and it is important that these be upheld when engaging in CBT (IvyPanda, 2019). Furthermore, CBT is only successful if the patient is willing to participate and give it a chance to help their mental disorders (IvyPanda, 2019). CBT has been proven in many studies to drastically reduce the symptoms of mental illness, especially in non-white patients; however, greater results are yielded when the mental care provider adapts their approach to be culturally inclusive (McNair, 1996) Given this information, it is imperative that Marissa’s provider include techniques in their therapy sessions which would be comfortable for a non-white woman to perform. If Marissa and her provider follow a set regimen of CBT techniques, it is likely that she will being to make progress.
References
Cotterell, N. (2017). CBT for anger. Beck Institute, https://beckinstitute.org/seven-steps-anger/
IvyPanda. (2019). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for ethnic minorities. IvyPanda, https: //ivypanda.com/essays/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-for-ethnic-minorities/
McNair, L.D. (1996). African American women and behavior therapy: Integrating theory, culture, and clinical practice. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 3(2): 337-349
Tull, M. (2019). Cognitive-behavioral coping strategies. Very Well Mind, https://www.very wellmind.com/cognitive-behavioral-coping-strategies-2797612
What is cognitive behavioral therapy? (2020). American Psychological Association, https:// www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/cognitive-behavioral
