CASE Reports

The Case of Joe and Beth: Joe and Beth show up for their first counseling session with you today. Here is their story…..Joe and Beth have been married for 20 years and have two teen sons (Chris and Brett). They are both white-collar professionals in good careers and are considered upper-middle class. They are coming to you because Joe was unfaithful to Beth for the past year. Joe described the affair as an emotional affair that started with his old high school friend he found on Facebook. After about a month on talking on online with her, they decided to meet and begin a physical/sexual affair over the course of about 10 months. Saying he couldn’t deal with living a second life and feeling torn about his love for Beth, he told Beth of the affair. As expected, Beth was crushed and angry. Being a devote Catholic, she wanted to make her marriage work, and so did Joe. Joe stopped seeing the other woman during this time. About 6 months into the reconciliation, Joe and Beth decided to seek a divorce. Beth expressed not feeling like she can trust Joe and questioned his desire to reconcile their marriage. Joe was feeling torn between his love for Beth and his desire to be with this other woman. They did not seek counseling at the time in hope that they can get through this time without help. Two weeks ago, they told their two sons of the plans for their divorce. The plan for Beth to stay in the house and Joe would buy a home about 2 miles away so that the boys can go freely between the two homes. The boys told them they knew something was wrong because they over heard their arguments, but they never talked with them about the issues in their marriage. They put the pieces of the puzzle together and realized their father was unfaithful to their mother. Joe and Beth have explained to the kids that the details of their “unhappiness” is between them (two adults) to discuss and do not feel it’s appropriate to discuss their detailed adult issues with their kids.
Case Assignment #2: Using the Joe and Beth case, select one of the following schools of family therapy and then address the following questions for the case.
a. Psychoanalytic Family Therapy
b. Cognitive-behavioral Family Therapy
c. Solution-Focused Family Therapy
d. Narrative Family Therapy
Using BOLDED SUBHEADINGS, answer the following questions in a narrative format:
1. What are the key theoretical formations of this theory? (about 1/2 page)
2. Why did you pick this theory for this case and how does it fit your counseling style? (about 2-3 sentences)
3. Explain how it fits into the theory’s definition of “normal family development.” (about ¾-1 page)
4. Explain how it fits into the theory’s development of behavior disorders. (about ¾-1 page)
5. Explain what you would design as this family’s goals for therapy and provide a reason for each goal you create. (about ¾-1 page)
6. Describe the assessment and therapeutic techniques you use with this family and explain why. (About ¾-1 page)
7. Give examples (at least three) of how you would know this therapy technique was useful with working with this family. (about ½-3/4 page)