This assignment will allow you to evaluate your competency in conducting, assessing, and applying a counseling theory and specific communication techniques in a simulated therapy environment

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This assignment will allow you to evaluate your competency in conducting, assessing, and applying a counseling theory and specific communication techniques in a simulated therapy environment. Understanding the applications of client-centered therapy in the therapeutic environment helps you narrow the gap between concept and practice, and it also provides a foundation upon which you will build when completing the assignments found in Units 6 and 10.

INSTRUCTIONS

For this assignment, find a friend, relative, or fellow learner who is willing to help you practice four basic counseling skills:

• Paraphrasing (restating and exploring thoughts).
• Reflecting (restating and exploring feelings).
• Empathic statements that show your understanding of their situation and/or their emotions.
• Summarizing the conversation to review what has been discussed.

You will only reflect, paraphrase, summarize, and make empathic statements to move the client toward a greater understanding of their presenting concern.

• DO NOT ask any open or closed-ended questions.
• DO NOT give any advice or tell the mock client how to solve their problems.
• DO be curious to learn more about your client, to understand your client more deeply, and to see how well they can move towards solving their own problems when you provide a warm, caring, understanding environment.

Have your helper make up a problem they want to talk with you about in the context of receiving psychotherapy. Explicitly clarify with your mock client that this activity is not an actual therapy session. Conduct the mock session with them for about 30 to 40 minutes, playing the role of a client-centered therapist. Consider how you will convey the therapist's three core conditions Rogers believed were critical for client success: empathy, congruence, and unconditional positive regard.

Submit a 4–6-page paper to your instructor in which you:

• State in the introduction of the paper that you played the role of a therapist and that your helper played the role of a client.
• Next, explain in your paper the problem that the person playing the role of the client made up to discuss in the role play. This disclosure statement must be included to demonstrate your understanding and ability to apply some elements of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct and to earn any credit for this assignment.
• Describe in general the mock therapy session you conducted and evaluate how well you employed the four basic micro-counseling skills required in the assignment. Discuss what seemed to work well in this session. Share any difficulties or challenges you noticed while conducting the session.
• Finally, summarize in one paragraph the key point(s) that you will remember about this exercise.

To successfully complete this assignment, your paper must meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication that is grammatically correct and is free of errors that detract from the overall message. Writing should be consistent with graduate level scholarship.
• APA formatting: Title page, main body, references should be formatted according to APA (6th Edition) style and formatting.
• Number of resources: Minimum of 2–4 resources.
• Length of paper: 4–6 typed double-spaced pages to include title page and references. No abstract or table of contents is required.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt.

SECOND ASSIGNMENT

Disorders and Treatments Paper

This assignment will require you to select a psychological disorder and pair it with a form of psychotherapy that has demonstrable success. You will also create a therapy session transcript that shows successful application of therapeutic communication skills. In your work as a mental health provider, you will be called upon to identify, interpret, and successfully apply evidence-based therapies. The transcript exercise provides you the opportunity to demonstrate competence in applying basic therapeutic communication skills you learned and practiced in Units 3 and 4, and at least one technique of the approach you selected to assist your fictional client. This assignment also provides practice in matching therapies to client concerns—which will you will do again in Unit 10—while at the same time incorporating theories of multicultural therapies.

INSTRUCTIONS

For this 9–12 page assignment, you will choose a psychological disorder from the following DSM-5 categories:

• Depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, trauma and stress related disorders, OR
• Substance-related and addictive disorders.

You will then choose an approach to psychotherapy that has a proven track record. You will also create a therapy session transcript. In that imaginary session, you will explain to the client the type of therapy you would like to use (See 10.1 Informed Consent to Therapy, and 4.02, Discussing the Limits of Confidentiality in the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Link in the Resources) as well as demonstrating the therapeutic communication skills of reflection (thoughts and affect), empathic statements, and open-ended questions.

The first 5–6 pages of the paper should describe the client's demography and presenting concern; it should then provide an academically-based reason for your choice of therapeutic approach to use with the client. The final 3–4 pages will be the transcript of a fictional client.

EXAMPLE OF IDENTIFICATION OF SKILL SET WITHIN TRANSCRIPT [EXCERPT OF MIDDLE OF A SESSION]

Therapist: Hi, how are things going today? [open-ended question]

Client: Everyone hates me.

Therapist: Can you tell me more....who is "everyone"? [open-ended question]

Client: My dad is always on my butt to mow the yard, my mom yells at me about my bedroom. She wants it to look like no one sleeps there, and none of my friends are talking to me at school.

Therapist: I want to make sure I understand correctly, right now your friends are not being so friendly, and your mom and dad are mostly interested in their house and yard. [paraphrase]

Client: EXACTLY! Did they have me just so I could provide free labor?

Therapist: Feeling used can weaken the best of relationships. [empathic statement] Can you tell me when you noticed that your friends stopped talking to you? [open ended question, clarifying question]

To successfully complete this assignment, you must meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication is grammatically correct and free of errors that detract from the overall message. Writing should be consistent with graduate level scholarship.
• APA formatting: Title page, main body, references should be formatted according to APA (6th Edition) style and formatting.
• Number of resources: Minimum of 6–7 resources.
• Length of paper: 9–12 typed double-spaced pages to include 3–4 page session transcript, title page, and references. No abstract or table of contents is required. Do not exceed 12 pages for the entire project, title page through reference page.
• Font: Times New Roman, 12 pt

THRID ASSIGNMENT

For your final project, you will evaluate and choose 1–2 therapies from those covered in this course (you may apply a maximum of two, and your selection(s) must be from therapies covered in this course) that will successfully address a concern (chosen from the categories indicated in the first bullet point below) brought by a mock client who identifies with a non-majority population.

The first part of this project should be 10–12 pages long and should describe the client's demography and concern; it should then provide an evidence-based reason for your choice of therapeutic approach with the client.

You will create a 3–4 page transcript of a fictional session with the client. The transcript provides you the opportunity to demonstrate competence and build on the application of both therapy-specific and basic therapeutic communication skills you learned and practiced in Units 3, 4, and 6. The transcript must include a demonstration of the basic communication skills and at least one technique/strategy that clearly reflects the therapeutic approach(es) you identified earlier in the paper. For example, if you wanted to assist a client suffering from generalized anxiety, you might choose REBT and demonstrate refuting the client's irrational beliefs.

INSTRUCTIONS

To successfully complete this project, you will be expected to:

• Choose a single disorder that can be ameliorated with psychotherapy (choose from these DSM-5 categories: depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, trauma and stress related disorders, OR substance-related and addictive disorders).
• Identify a therapy or therapies (no more than two) that may be efficacious for treating that disorder, based on current research.
• Discuss what the research says about the use of this therapy or therapies with multicultural populations (choose ONE facet to discuss: race, religion, ethnicity, culture, OR sexual orientation) you will address. One example might be arguing the usefulness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy to assist a male suffering from an anxiety disorder and who identifies as a member of the Hispanic population.

After the reference section of the paper, add a second section in which you create a transcript of a hypothetical therapy session with this client. Allow the fictional session to develop with appropriate therapist responses labeled on the transcript. Identify the therapist response in brackets next to the therapist responses in the transcript as an open-ended question, empathic statement, paraphrase, or summarization, as well as other therapeutic responses which align with the approach you will use to assist your client.

EXAMPLE OF THERAPIST RESPONSE LABELING WITHIN TRANSCRIPT

Therapist: What are some of the options you have considered to this point? [open-ended question]

Client: Dropping out of school, moving my children in with my mother who lives in another state, and during my darkest hours (voice breaking) taking a bottle of sleeping pills with a quart of vodka.

Therapist: (Softly) It's difficult when we feel as if there is no way out of a complicated problem. [empathic statement]

Client: That's right. I want to finish school so that I can provide for my family and be a good role model, but how do I do that when I worked 45 hours a week just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table? My mom did a terrible job when she raised me but I try to convince myself that kids are tough and it would only be for a little while....but if something were to happen while they were with her I would never forgive myself. She tells me she has changed and would do a much better job the second time around, but how can I be sure?

Therapist: On one hand, you want to trust your mom to care for your children, but on the other, your memories of growing up were not all that positive. [paraphrase]