Case Study Forum

Choose one of the following scenarios in order to complete Case Study Forum 2.

· Scenario 1

Anne, a 16-year old girl, has been coming to see a counselor once a week for about 2 months now. Her family asked the counselor to work with her because they noticed she had not been eating as she normally did. Anne does appear underweight and freely admits that she is struggling with anorexia. The counselor was hesitant when she took the case because, (1) she had never worked with individuals who had struggled with eating disorders before and, (2) she had minimal education in this area. The client is also having outbursts of anger, and her grades in school are suffering. In her last session with the counselor, Anne admitted to the counselor that she had been hearing voices lately that were telling her to hurt herself and that her anorexia had gotten much worse.

· Scenario 2

A lay counselor is employed by a church in the city to conduct lay counseling for the church members and the public. Jerry, a devout Jehovah’s Witness, comes to see the counselor because he is struggling with gambling. The counselor respectfully tells him that he cannot see him because he is a Christian counselor and the client is not a Christian. Jerry pleads with the counselor, explaining that he really needs help with gambling and his religion will not be a part of the counseling process. Reluctantly, the counselor agrees to see him. Jerry’s marriage is doing well, his two children are also doing well, and his household has little conflict. He admits that he gambles as a way of release because he often gets anxious. Upon further inquiry, the counselor learns that Jerry tends to gamble on Saturdays after witnessing door-to-door. Jerry notes that, while witnessing, he gets rejected often and sometimes people are very rude. He says that, when he finishes witnessing, he feels very anxious, so he goes out and gambles. Also, Jerry tells the counselor that he has not felt very close to God lately and the he feels it has exacerbated his gambling problem.

· Scenario 3

A counselor has a client named Cindy that she has been seeing for about 6 months now. Cindy is a member in the counselor’s church, and she knows her family well. In the latest session with Cindy, she admits that she has been having an affair with another man and that she is thinking about divorcing her husband. The counselor informs her that, because she is a Christian, she cannot keep her affair a secret and that she must tell her husband about the affair. Cindy gets hysterical and explains that she has felt so guilty and hopeless that she has been considering suicide. She explains that she knows adultery is wrong, but she feels miserable and hopeless in her marriage. The counselor tries to refocus her on the subject of her affair, but she is preoccupied and says that she is thinking about taking a bottle of prescription drugs while her children are at school next week.