Interpersonal Therapy Case Study of Susan

Her Job as a uncial analyst was a source of lot of stress for her and she did not know how she could relieve or reduce It. She had gotten married some 6 months back, but was now having mixed feelings about if she had made the correct choice. Her husband, Phil had been her friend for the last two years and they were close with each other. Phil had proposed to her and even though she Just saw him as a close friend, she agreed to the marriage because she thought It would be fun staying together all the time.

It was sometime after the marriage that she began to have doubts about the whole thing. In her mind she had Imagined Tanat tings would stay as teen were Deterred marriage out now ten realty AT the marriage was sinking in, she now kept thinking about missed opportunities and if there might have been somebody better to whom she could have gotten married. She felt that she was not ready for this sort of commitment as yet, and that marriage meant that she would loose her independence. All these thoughts keep playing in her mind at all times.

The other factor which was also causing her problems was her need to keep things in a neat and orderly fashion.

She tended to explode if there was anything out of place t her workplace or even at home. She explained this habit of hers in her parents living style. She has been taught that everything must be kept in its place, and in her childhood had been punished a number of times for failing to do so. This has had the effect of ingraining this habit so firmly in her mind that now Susan cannot help but be angry and uneasy until everything is put in its proper place.

In my preliminary diagnosis, I found that even though outwardly she looked fine and refuted the fact that she had any anger management problems, she was clearly ender a lot of stress and that this stress was not Just due to her Job responsibilities but there were other issues also which had to be brought out for her to accept her problem and find a way to resolve it.

She seemed aloof and projected a feeling of superiority towards other people and this could have the effect of alienating people.

Over the course of treatment these feelings will also be investigated to see if there are any maladaptive patterns for which interventions might be required. In interpersonal therapy, the client and therapist, focus on the present and try to ark on the major problem areas identified. There are four major problem areas in interpersonal therapy. The first is _grief= and clients typically present with delayed or distorted grief reactions. These are treated by facilitating the grieving process, helping the client’s acceptance of difficult emotions, and their replacement of lost relationships.

The second major problem area is _role dispute= in which a client is experiencing nonreciprocal expectations about a relationship with someone else. Here, treatment focuses on understanding the nature of the dispute, the current immunization difficulties, and works to modify the client’s communication strategies while remaining in accord with their core values. A third major problem area is _role transition = in which an individual is in the process of giving up an old role and taking on a new one.

In this case, treatment attempts to facilitate the client’s giving up of the old role, expressing emotions about this loss, and acquiring skills and support in the new role they must take on. A final problem area commonly broached with interpersonal therapy is _interpersonal deficits_. Clients presenting interpersonal telnets commonly engage In an analysis AT tenet communication patterns; participate in role playing exercises with the therapist, and work to reduce their overall isolation, if applicable.

Susan seems to have issues in the area of interpersonal deficits. She needs to realize that she cannot function alone in the world and also that friends and relations have to be nurtured and only then they’ll give rich dividends back to her. The roots of her anger and her aloof nature can be traced back to her childhood where there were a number of familial and developmental factors. She was the elder of two children, and her parents can be classified as authoritarian.

This categorization has been based on the research done by Diana Banding (1983, 1991) on the long term effects of different styles of parenting and discipline. This style of parenting has lead to Susan becoming into a person who does not want to be seen as weak.

She soon came to realize that the only way in which she could get something done was to aggressively demand it and never to show your dependence on anybody. According to Winner & Kerri (2000), children of such parents are normally obedient and achieving, yet are also anxious and insecure.