Charlotte and her personal struggles

COUNSELING

Counseling: Charlotte Case Study

Depression starts growing when its signs and symptoms become visible such as feeling irritable, becoming angrier, and having sleeping and eating disorders. In some serious cases, people suffering from depression are also have known to be victims of substance abuse. This paper aims at explaining the case of a similar patient who is undergoing anxiety and depression conditions. Further sections of the paper would discuss her problem in detail, her family structure, and multicultural considerations.

Presenting Problem

Charlotte is a 28-year-old female who is heterosexual and has grown in a Christian family. Her employment history is not greatly varied since she had only been employed at a restaurant and then a retail company. However, she has been unemployed for the past three months and has financial difficulties. There are no evident legal problems and the only social problem she faced includes dealing with parental pressures to have studied and earned a degree so that her financial stability would have been ensured. She currently survives by living at different friends’ places to make her ends meet.

From her history, it is known that she had been taking counseling sessions with another therapist as well but did not open up about her sexual assault with that doctor. The client’s reason for seeking counsel is treating her own anxiety and depression so that she could regain her confidence and motivation in life.

The onset of her problem seems to be when she was 16 years old and experienced sexual assault. She had been one of the 20 students of color at her school and was therefore treated differently. She had a learning disability and her academic struggles were quite obvious. She developed low confidence and even battled in various stages of her life in the subsequent years. The frequency and intensity of symptoms have increased for the past two weeks as she sleeps most of the day and eats very little. Generally, her history of inpatient hospitalization became obvious at the age of 24 after her breakup with her boyfriend who was verbally abusive and regularly called her ‘stupid’ and ‘lazy’. She is depressed most of the day and feels guarded, which has resulted in the intake of marijuana for self-medication to make her feel better.

The client wants to improve her confidence and motivation for gaining employment again and also to pursue a college degree without hesitation. For that, she wants to get rid of anxiety and depression.

Family Structure

Charlotte belongs to an African American family, which means she is a person of ‘color’. For this very reason, she has been facing different treatment from her school peers as she was one of the 20 rare students with the same ethnic background. Her family has a strong place in her medical condition at the moment since the case describes that she has family-related stressors. Her parents were both medical college graduates and wanted their daughter to have the same level of education, whereas Charlotte experienced a learning disability that did not let her complete her studies successfully. She told the doctor that they were only proud of her when she graduated her high school ten years ago. Her parents felt that at the age of 28, Charlotte should be able to provide for herself and live independently. However, this was not the case and they disapproved of her decision to leave college and they wanted her to be like her brother who was a veterinary doctor.

For the same reason of this lack of confidence from her parents, she did not even report divorce. She did not have any children as she was unmarried and single. Her current living arrangements are complex as she moves between places to live with her friends. Moreover, she did not have any major loss or traumas in her life previously.

Her past family health history includes her father’s anger issues as he was an alcoholic and her mother who took medication for her depression as well. There is no family history of substance abuse. Family violence could be comprehensible in the sense that the father has anger issues and was furious and explosive after being drunk. Stages of developmental impacts have not been discussed clearly otherwise developmental challenges could have been marked.

Multicultural Considerations

As mentioned earlier, Charlotte belonged to an African American family and was a Christian. She had a learning disability that limited her from continuing her education and pursue a stable job. Her affection orientation was heterosexual and was observed when she had a boyfriend with whom she had a breakup at the age of 24, after which a severe hospitalization session was witnessed with extreme depressive symptoms.

Her current age is 28 years and belongs to the Millennials generation. Her socioeconomic status from her parents’ side was relatively good as she belonged to an upper middle class in the neighborhood. The parents earned well due to sound medical degrees after having completed their education. The parents, therefore, wanted their daughter to complete her degree and pursue a well-paid job in the same manner. Despite these conditions, Charlotte’s own financial status was not well, and was taking favors from her friend to provide her with food and a place to live.