Therapeutic intervention techniques for trauma and anxiety

Clinical Intervention: Methods and Techniques

Clinical Intervention Report

CLINICAL INTERVENTION

This research report has been prepared and designed to reveal how a clinical intervention helps in averting a traumatic situation. It is divided into two parts: the transcript and the analysis. In the transcript part, there is a five minutes dialogue going on between a therapist (Dc. X) and the client (Sarah) who is suffering through a traumatic condition. She has got a history of anxiety and is again afflicted with a severe problem which has reinforced her negativism towards life. Dc. X is trying to evaluate her problem by using some important techniques of intervention. However, in the analysis part, it is explained in detail how the therapist perceives the frame of reference of her patient with the help of intervention methods. Each method is discussed in detail to help the reader understand its importance.

Transcript

It was 10AM in the morning. After a soft knock on the clinic's door, a young petite woman with pale eyes, entered the room and quietly slipped into the chair lying next to the doctor.

"Glad to meet you. What is your good name?" Dr. X welcomed her client with a warm smile.

"Sarah." She replied in a low tone while looking down on her lap.

"Nice name! I am like your friend Sarah and I want to help you. Please feel free to discuss your problem with me." The doctor said with concern to initiate the process of intervention.

"…I got separated from my husband two months back;" Sarah replied after a long pause. While biting her lower lip, she continued, "and now I am worried about my three years old daughter."

"May I ask you why it happened?" Dc. X politely asked.

"He found another girl and ditched me." She replied with fingers clutching.

"Hmm and what about your parents, do they support you?" Dc. X asked again.

"No. My parents got divorced during my early teens. My dad lives in another city. He calls me rarely." Sarah answered. "My parents would argue all the time and it was turning me crazy. So my mom decided to get divorce and live by herself. Now I am living with my mom and daughter." She explained while swallowing hard.

"Are you working somewhere?" Dc. X asked.

"I quitted my work." Sarah explained. While biting her nails and staring blankly on the front wall she continued; "I lost the motivation for work. It was the place where I met my husband for the first time."

"Fair enough but don't you think your daughter also loves you and needs you?" Dc. X leaned forward and looked deep into her eyes.

"I can't be a good mom to her ever. I feel like a complete loser, I take drugs, I left my job, I don't like meeting people and I don't know where to move in life." Sarah explained with tears rolling down her cheeks. "Yes…. I want her to have a safe future;" after a long pause she replied; "but I don't know how..."

"Ok let me tell you how I have perceived your story. If I am wrong, please correct me. You think you have lost the faith within yourself due to the two major incidents that you faced in life. First your parent's divorce and second your own separation. Now you are excessively worried about your daughter but you don't know what to do." Dc. X summarized the whole story. Sarah nodded in agreement.

"All you need to do is to relax and don't get too much worried about future. Every problem has a solution and together we will fix your problem. I want you to visit me daily so that we can share more if you want?" Dc. X asked with full of concern.

Sarah smiled back slowly with a ray of hope in her eyes.

-Probing

With the help of attending behavior the therapist strives to observe the body language of his/her client. In the typical case mentioned above, the client was presented with few questions which she had to answer and the doctor observed her body language carefully. Clutching fingers, biting lips and nails, looking blankly into space rather than making an eye-to-eye contact and bursting into tears, clearly indicated the obvious signs of nervousness and severe anxiety. Hence, it is clearly understood that she is afraid of her life problems and has lost the motivation of moving forward.

Through the method of reflection, the client is informed about his/her hidden emotions. Here, the therapist pays close attention to the key words used by patient and then inform him about the sentiments and emotions hidden behind the surface meaning of the words. This helps the patient in understanding of his/her personality. In the case above, Dc. X informed Sarah that, beside all negativism towards life, she still holds love for her daughter which can pave way for her to move forward.

Open and closed questions also facilitate the process of intervention in a positive way. It helps in evaluating the root of patient's problem. Dc. X used some of these questions and came to understand that the patient was already suffering through a history of anxiety due to her parents' divorce. However, due to her own separation, the negative feelings got reinforced.

To find the solution for an existing problem, it is very important for the therapist to create a comfortable environment for the patient and this can be done through summarization. During an interview session, the patient must feel satisfied that whatever he is telling is being fully understood by the listener. Empathy plays an important role here. It is the "psychobiological capacity to experience another person's state of being and phenomenological perspective at any given moment in time." (Wilson, P.J., p.119) When Dc. X explained Sarah about her problem in a summarize form, she felt more comfortable and showed interest for further meetings.

Probing helps in looking deep into a person's consciousness. The therapist examines the general attitudes of the patient and tries to understand the root cause of the problem. It needs careful investigation to comprehend the hidden feelings and emotions of a person. With the help of probing technique, the therapist asks question from his client that takes him inside his mind. He then picks the root of the problem from there and tries to solve it accordingly. However, too much probing can also make the patient feel uncomfortable. The therapist, therefore, should know when and where to use this technique to get appropriate results.