Assignment

Your assignment is to map out your therapeutic strategy with Doris based on either a Gestalt approach or a Rogerian approach.  In both orientations, you recognize that Doris has to make her own decisions, and that she needs to increase her positive self regard. In the one therapy you may be more confrontational and in the other you may be more non-directive and suggestive; but in either form of therapy you will recognize that the answers need to come from Doris, not from you.   You have maybe four sessions to work with Doris before she makes up her mind to leave.  Be sure to include theory from both schools of thought as you make your decision about which form of therapy to conduct.  How will you approach Doris’ feelings (e.g. anger, shame, guilt) or her denied parts of the self?   Show the strengths of each approach, as well as suggesting the limitations.  Your essay should be at least one page long, equally and separately addressing the two treatment orientations.

The Case of Doris
(leaving her husband and child)

An older girl friend has referred Doris to a community mental health center where you are assigned as her counselor.  The friend thinks Doris is confused and needs professional help and is concerned that Doris intends to leave her child.  You are trained as a gestalt therapist and as a person-centered therapist and are writing out some of the key philosophical issues and treatment approaches or techniques you might use depending on the particular orientation you decide works better with Doris after hearing her story.  Here is some background data:

Doris was born and reared in Arkansas.  Her father is a reformed alcoholic who drank heavily when the client was a child.  Both parents are religious and the father is described as a strict fundamentalist.  Doris has a younger brother who is now an enlisted man in the Army and is described as the family favorite.  Doris says her parents were stricter with her than with their son and emphasized the importance of marriage for Doris, as well as the woman’s dependent and inferior role in that relationship.

Doris dropped out of high school in the tenth grade.  She worked as a manicurist in Arkansas until marrying and moving to Kentucky three years ago.  She then worked as a waitress.  Her husband says that they have had no fights or arguments during their three year marriage, and Doris agrees.  Six months ago Doris gave birth to a baby boy.  There were no medical complications, and she maintains that she adjusted well to the baby, but she reports just not being able to feel much of anything except tired.  Two months ago, she and her husband moved to Houston so that he could join an amateur band.  She began working as a cashier at a drugstore.  In the course of her work, she began to have a series of brief sexual affairs with fellow workers as well as customers.  At the same time, although her husband is happy with the band, he has not been able to find a steady job.  He has asked her to try to find a second job or to take overtime hours at the drug store.

Doris is considering leaving her husband and child, although she is uncertain how she would continue to support herself financially.  She is also concerned with what would happen to her son, because her husband has no means of support.  She insists that she does not want to take the child with her.