i. I would take a CBT approach with Ralph. Assuming that I had begun to build rapport and developed a trusting relationship with the client, I would first ask Ralph, “what do you mean, free yourself from being trapped?” Then I would explore what he meant by meaningless work by asking, “what makes the work you do meaningless?”. Next I would attempt to understand what made him believe that he is wasting his life by asking, “you said that you feel a lot of anxiety because you are wasting your life. Talk to me about why you believe you are wasting your life.” I would address those areas first because, given the information I have about Ralph, it appears that they are causing the most distress in his life. Therefore, I would address his fears
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First and foremost, if I agreed to see Eddie and found out he was being physically and verbally abused I would file a report and do what I could to get him out of the situation. However, approaching this from a behavioral perspective, I would primarily focus on eliminating the Eddie’s disruptive behavior. In addition, I would focus on teaching Eddie behavioral and self management skills that may help him gain more control over his behaviors, which may be difficult for several reasons. First, for behavioral therapy to work best, the client needs to be motivated to change. Since Eddie is still very young he may not be highly motivated to change. Second, with the given information, it does not sound like he has many friends or a stable support system at home. Since it is important for the client to engage in self monitoring almost constantly, the behavioral modification may be much slower or more difficult with Eddie. Lastly, teaching Eddie those skills may be difficult because it appears that he learned his maladaptive behaviors from his father. Specifically, Eddie appears to be modeling his father’s behavior onto his classmates. Since Eddie is being raised by his father and really values his father, the behavioral modifications may be more difficult to obtain, as he is constantly exposed to his father and his father’s behavior. To begin the process of changing Eddie’s behavior, I would utilize several behavioral strategies. First I would utilize the operant conditioning technique of punishment. When Eddie engages in a maladaptive behavior I would make sure to always punish him immediately after the behavior and be extremely consistent with the punishments. However, I may only see Eddie for an hour or two per week, so I would have to contact individuals who are around him on a daily basis. For example, I would contact his teacher and explain how punishment and operant conditioning are most effective, which she would hopefully agree to assist with. I
First and foremost, if I agreed to see Eddie and found out he was being physically and verbally abused I would file a report and do what I could to get him out of the situation. However, approaching this from a behavioral perspective, I would primarily focus on eliminating the Eddie’s disruptive behavior. In addition, I would focus on teaching Eddie behavioral and self management skills that may help him gain more control over his behaviors, which may be difficult for several reasons. First, for behavioral therapy to work best, the client needs to be motivated to change. Since Eddie is still very young he may not be highly motivated to change. Second, with the given information, it does not sound like he has many friends or a stable support system at home. Since it is important for the client to engage in self monitoring almost constantly, the behavioral modification may be much slower or more difficult with Eddie. Lastly, teaching Eddie those skills may be difficult because it appears that he learned his maladaptive behaviors from his father. Specifically, Eddie appears to be modeling his father’s behavior onto his classmates. Since Eddie is being raised by his father and really values his father, the behavioral modifications may be more difficult to obtain, as he is constantly exposed to his father and his father’s behavior. To begin the process of changing Eddie’s behavior, I would utilize several behavioral strategies. First I would utilize the operant conditioning technique of punishment. When Eddie engages in a maladaptive behavior I would make sure to always punish him immediately after the behavior and be extremely consistent with the punishments. However, I may only see Eddie for an hour or two per week, so I would have to contact individuals who are around him on a daily basis. For example, I would contact his teacher and explain how punishment and operant conditioning are most effective, which she would hopefully agree to assist with. I