Treatment Plan

Client Profile

Client: Grant

Age: 17

Ethnicity/Race: White

Gender: M

Grade level: High school sophomore

Middle class socio-economic status

Lives in house with family, mother/father, two siblings

Sexual orientation: straight

Religion: Catholic

Intellectual abilities: very gifted, bright, ranks in top five in his class

Physical abilities: thin, energetic, plays some sports with friends but not in a league

Reason for concern: Grant is concerned about what he feels is a strong sexual addiction that goes against his religious beliefs; he struggles resisting Internet pornography and fears what this addiction is doing to his life; he says he feels isolated, as he would rather stay in and look at pornography than go out with friends or meet people even though he says he finds looking at pornography to be very unsatisfying and morally repugnant.

The client also stresses that he feels depressed about his situation as he does not feel there is anyone he can really talk to. He feels embarrassed about out and almost stigmatized by it, fearful that anyone should find out what is going on with him. Client feels that he wants to change his behavior but he cannot. He hates that he is always thinking about pornography after a while and he would like to have a girlfriend and get married some day, but he feels like after a few days he is back to wanting only to look at pornography and then he is too embarrassed about his issue to ever try to ask a girl out on a date.

Three Interventions

Cognitive behavioral therapy

Intervention focuses on treating the thinking (cognition) and actions (behaviors) of the individual

Does not seek to probe any subconscious desires or engage in psychoanalytics

Simply looks to identify the problematic thinking/actions and implement a new directionnew habits, new modes to counter triggers, new direction

Very effective and commonly used approach in treating addictions

This...

It is animated and would likely appeal to an adolescent...…boost his confidence to break out of his isolation and depression

A good resource to explain this approach is on YouTube and helps a person to realize the benefits of group therapy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng86IRYvME8

McKeague (2014) notes that shame is the core affect of sex addiction (p. 203), and so it can be helpful for the client to realize that he is not out of the normal with his issueand this is where group therapy can come into play: it brings people of similar issues together so that they can talk about it in confidence and support one another (Park et al., 2016). Group therapy also helps to remove the stigma of an addiction and to help individuals overcome their depression associated with their addiction (Pluhar et al., 2019). Haney (2006) likewise stresses that it is important for practitioners to normalize pornography addiction for teenage clients, as many teenagers who are developing compulsive pornography problems do so in agonized isolation, often believing that they are perverts and alone in their actions (p. 50). Indeed, this is exactly how Grant describes himself and, therefore, it is important for him not to feel so alone or isolated. Group therapy could for that reason be a tremendous aid in helping him to…