Overview
The final project for this course is the creation of a therapy plan. Students will select a case study and design a therapy plan using one of the theoretical
orientations covered in the course. The final product represents an authentic demonstration competency because students will be able to apply their counseling
knowledge in a real-world manner. The project is divided in to two milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold
learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Three and Five. The final product will be submitted in Module
Seven.
Objectives
To successfully complete this project, you will be expected to apply what you have learned in this course and should include several of the following course
objectives:
1. Explain the theory, process, and techniques of helping
2. Apply knowledge about the personality theory; the APA ethical code; and social and ethical issues/concerns related to the field of counseling
3. Practice effective attending skills and helping responses
4. Express the core conditions for effective helping: empathy, positive regard, and genuineness
5. Apply theory and learned techniques in role-played helping situations
6. Demonstrate critical, analytical, and self-assessment skills
Main Elements
For this assignment, you will choose one of the following theoretical orientations as well as corresponding concepts to treat the case study:
Psychoanalytic Therapy using concepts such as structure of personality, the unconscious, role of anxiety and ego-defense mechanisms, and stage of
development. Include the role of transference and countertransference in the therapy process. Some techniques that can be included are free
association, interpretation, dream analysis, and analysis and interpretation of resistance and transference.
Adlerian Therapy using concepts such as social interest, birth order, subjective view of reality, unity of personality. Include the lifestyle assessment as well
as the role of the family constellation and early recollections in a lifestyle assessment. Also, include the four phases of the therapeutic process.
Existential Therapy using concepts such as self-awareness, freedom and responsibility, intimacy and isolation, meaning in life, death anxiety, and authenticity. Person-Centered Therapy using concepts such as acceptance, self-actualization, openness to experience, clarification, self-trust, reflection, internal locus
of evaluation, congruence, growth-promoting climate, incongruence, actualizing tendency, genuineness, unconditional positive regard, and here-andnow experiences.
Gestalt Therapy using concepts such as here-and-now, awareness, dealing with unfinished business, contact and resistance to contact, body language,
and the role of experiments in therapy the dialogue experiment, playing the projection, why questions, reversal technique, the rehearsal experiment,
staying with the feeling, empty chair technique, introjection, integration of polarities, projection, blocks to energy, catastrophic expectations, impasse or
stuck point, here-and-now experiencing, projection screen, figure-formation process, boundary disturbance, and language that denies power.
Behavior Therapy using concepts such as systematic desensitization, behavior modification, biofeedback, classical conditioning, operant conditioning,
cognitive trend/processes, target behaviors, self-management, reinforcement techniques, self-directed behavior, homework, observational learning,
behavioral diary, imitation, self-contracting, goal setting, contingency contracting, relaxation training, social reinforcement, social learning, behavior
rehearsal, exposure therapy, modeling, assertion training, feedback, in vivo desensitization, flooding, eye movement desensitization and stress
inoculation reprocessing (EMDR), extinction, functional assessment, positive punishment, and negative punishment.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy using concepts such as internal dialogue, irrational beliefs, coping-skills program, cognitions, stress inoculation, unconditional
shoulds, absolutistic musts, self-observation, faulty assumptions, automatic thinking, self-evaluating, self-sustaining, simple preferences, schema
restructuring, emotional disturbance, cognitive distortions/errors, autosuggestion, schema, self-repetition, family schemata, blame, arbitrary
inferences, anxiety, A-B-C theory, cognitive triad, Socratic questioning, full acceptance or tolerance, cognitive homework, therapeutic collaboration,
disputing irrational beliefs, overgeneralization, changing ones language, magnification and minimization, rational-emotive imagery, personalization, role
playing, labeling and mislabeling, shame-attacking exercises, polarized thinking, alternative interpretations, and self-instructional therapy.
In the paper, you will address all of the following:
Identify a case study that you would like to design a therapy plan for.
Discuss how this case study would be addressed in therapy according to your chosen theoretical orientation. Be sure to include specific concepts related
to your chosen theory. Avoid broad, general concepts that are not related to a specific theory.
Identify possible goals and interventions appropriate for the chosen orientation.
Final Submission: Client History and Therapy Plan
In 7-3, you will submit the Final Paper: Client History and Therapy Plan. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the main elements of the final
product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded using the
Final Project Rubric (below).
