transition/developmental
Modifying Theoretical Interventions for Clients Experiencing Life Transition and Developmental Issues In all likelihood, developmental and life transition issues will form the core of your work as a marriage, couple, and family counselor. These issues are those that couples and families typically encounter through common day-to-day living and may include being newly married, having a child, or sending a youngest child off into his or her own adulthood. They also may include common stressors such as divorce, job loss, or death of a family member, just to name a few. Individuals across all cultures experience developmental and life transition issues in one way or another, and you likely will find yourself sitting across from a couple or family experiencing a similar life event to one you have encountered in your own life. Despite the universality of many developmental and life transition issues, you should still keep in mind that there is no one way to experience a divorce, death, or job loss, nor is there one way to clinically encounter and assist a couple or family experiencing such issues. Different theoretical orientations may suggest different ways for addressing various scenarios, and you may have to modify your chosen theoretical orientation to work effectively with different clients. For this Discussion, choose one life transition or developmental issue, and consider how you might modify your theoretical orientation or infuse interventions from other theories in order to address this issue.
Reply
The life transition/developmental issue that I chose to discuss was children who experienced parental divorce. Research suggests that offspring of divorced parents may experience adverse effects such as conduct problems, academic problems, problems with parents and future relationships (divorce) and, problems adjusting socially, et al. (Braithwaite, Doxey, Dowdle, & Fincham, 2016). All of these effects may bring about or be associated with depressive symptoms or anxiety. My theoretical orientation lies in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is used to treat an array of disorders including depression (Richards, Ekers, D., McMillan, Taylor, Byford, Warren, Barrett, Farrand, Gilbody, Kuyken, Watkins, Wright, Hollon, Reed, Rhodes, Fletcher, Finning & O’Mahen, 2016). I would modify my intervention of choice with this population by incorporating aspects of Narrative Therapy (NT) and Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT). NT would allow the client to retell their story from their own perspective based on the life or story that they desire to experience (Etchison & Kleist, 2000). This would help the client recognize that though they may have been impacted by their parents’ divorce, this does not have to define their own life. In other words, they have the ability to change their narrative to their liking based on their strengths and desires (Etchison & Kleist, 2000). Furthermore, the client would recognize that they have other possibilities which they could pursue. Therefore, after recovering the client’s feelings from their past using CBT techniques, encouraging the client to retell this story seems appropriate.
SFT would be used to help the client focus actual ways to resolve these negative feelings and perceptions from the past (Franklin, Zhang, Froerer, & Johnson, 2017). Likewise, this approach could direct the client move towards developing a plan of action to fulfill this more positive and desirable life moving forward (Franklin, etal., 2017). For instance, I would use CBT to better understand, and help the client understand, their emotions as they relate to their parent’s divorce which led to problems in various life domains. Narrative therapy would be used to help the client imagine and describe the life that they desire and begin to believe that obtaining this life is possible despite their parent’s divorce. Finally, SFT would help the client identify and clarify goals for the present which may include improving communication and relationship-building (Franklin, etal., 2017). We could then develop steps to prioritize and achieve these goals (Franklin, etal., 2017).
References
Braithwaite, S. R., Doxey, R. A., Dowdle, K. K., & Fincham, F. D. (2016). The unique influences of parental divorce and parental conflict on emerging adults in romantic relationships. Journal of Adult Development, 23(4), 214-225.
Etchison, M., & Kleist, D. M. (2000). Review of narrative therapy: Research and utility. The Family Journal, 8(1), 61-66.
Franklin, C., Zhang, A., Froerer, A., & Johnson, S. (2017). Solution Focused Brief Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Summary of Process Research. Journal of marital and family therapy, 43(1), 16-30.
Richards, D. A., Ekers, D., McMillan, D., Taylor, R. S., Byford, S., Warren, F. C., Barrett, B., Farrand, P. A., Gilbody, S., Kuyken, W., Watkins, R., Wright, K. A., Hollon, S. D., Reed, N., Rhodes, S., Fletcher, E., Finning, K. & O’Mahen, H. (2016). Cost and Outcome of Behavioural Activation versus Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Depression (COBRA): a randomised, controlled, non-inferiority trial. The Lancet, 388(10047), 871-880.