Discussion: Counseling Adolescents

Discussion: Counseling Adolescents

Discussion  Counseling Adolescents

Case Overview

The client in the case study is a female adolescent with anger issues who argues and tells the counselor that he is horrible and stupid. She states that she hates been there and hate talking to the counselor. She further says that the session is worthless and refuses to say anything about her. The adolescent has behaviors aligned to Oppositional defiant disorder, which is a persistent pattern of rebellious, aggressive, and defiant behavior but without violation of social norms or other people’s rights (Cooper, 2018). The disorder is characterized by a child or adolescent anger outbursts, refusal to observe rules, and irritating behaviors.

In oppositional defiant disorder, the child repeatedly argues with adults, loses temper and is resentful, angry, and easily irritated by others (Cooper, 2018). Besides, the child actively oppose adults’ requests and rules and intentionally annoy others. Defiant children and adolescents often blame other people for their behavior and mistakes (Cooper, 2018). The child’s behavior also exceeds the expectations of other children in the same age group. Adolescents with a history of oppositional defiant disorder have a high risk of developing another mental disease in the future and hence should be appropriately managed to minimize the risk.

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Therapeutic Approaches

The adolescent client will be managed with a combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. Psychotherapy interventions will include:

1. Parent management training. This will involve training of the client’s parents on adolescent management skills (Kazdin, 2017).The parents will be trained on behavior change and hence change the adolescent’s behavior at home. Besides, they will be advised to be attentive to disruptive behavior and to adopt effective and non-aversive punishments (Kazdin, 2017). A thorough assessment of the family interaction will also be conducted.
2. Behavior therapy. It will involve positive reinforcement of appropriate behaviors and not reinforcing negative behaviors.
3. Individual psychotherapy. This approach will involve training the adolescent on adaptive responses, anger-management, and ways to express her feelings without offending others.
4. Cognitive problem-solving training. Training on problem-solving aims at helping the client recognize and change the thought patterns that result in negative behavior (Kazdin, 2017). The training will also be done in collaboration with the parent to enable them to identify practical solutions (Kazdin, 2017). Besides, it will help in reducing undesirable behaviors by teaching the client how to respond to stressful situations positively.
5. Social skills training. The client will be trained on social skills to enable her to interact with others and will involve teaching verbal and non-verbal behaviors that are crucial when interacting with people.

Pharmacotherapy will aim at treating comorbid conditions such as anxiety or depression. Literature studies suggest that drugs used to treat Attention deficit hyperactive disorder may be successful in the management of oppositional defiant disorder (Connor, 2015). The client will be managed with Atomoxetine and Carbamazepine, which is a mood stabilizer.

Expected Outcomes

1. Individual psychotherapy. This approach will involve training the adolescent on adaptive responses, anger-management, and ways to express her feelings without offending others.

By the end of the psychotherapy sessions, the client is expected to demonstrate positive behaviors when interacting with others. She should be able to effectively express her feelings, control, and manage her anger and exhibit appropriate adaptive responses. Moreover, she should demonstrate practical problem-solving skills and appropriate social skills when communicating with adults and peers. Furthermore, the parents should report a change in her behavior at home, respect to her parents and adults, and obeying rules and those in authority. The mood stabilizers will act to control anxiety disorders and will help control the client’s mood disorders.

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Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.

Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.

If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.

I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.

As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:

Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.

Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed
• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• Student paper example
• Citing Sources
• The Writing Center is a great resource