Marital conflict, depression, and therapeutic treatment planning for a client facing separation

Treatment

Client's Problems and Symptoms

The following behaviors are being exhibited by the client; the client is currently married and is having a difficult time in adjusting pre-marriage life to the day-to-day accountability of being married. This lack of adjustment results in anxiety, depression and a possible marital separation.

The marital separation scenario leads to the client feeling remorseful and grief relating to a possible divorce. The client then feels even more grief when thinking of the family splitting up and the subsequent loss of time with the children. The client then becomes restless and a loss of identity because the client relates identity with the marriage and family. The loss of identity suffered by the client leads to exhibited feelings of isolation, sadness and boredom.

Client also shows a marked loss of appetite as well as sleeplessness and a lack of energy. Compounding the client's problems is the lack of communication between the client and the client's spouse. The lack of communication is coupled with the pattern of verbal abuse present in the marital relationship.

Short-Term Objectives

There are a number of short-term objectives that, when reached, will form the basis and provide a foundation for the achievement of the long-term objectives while enhancing the client's way of life.

Chief among these objectives include helping the client verbalize the powerlessness and unmanageability that is the result of the clients spousal partner relational conflicts. To facilitate this verbalization this writer will have the client list five times when addictive behavior which subsequently led to partner relational conflicts. After accomplishing this, the client will be asked to identify the positive aspects of the client's present relationship.

Coupled with the verbalization and the identification of the positive aspects the client will be required to verbalize an acceptance or the responsibility for the client's own role in the relationship, responsibility for the positive, and more importantly, the negative aspects of the relationship.

The client will also be required to meet with spouse for a listening session and show the ability to accept the spouse's perspective on the causes of the relational conflicts. This meeting between the two individuals should help to identify the causes for past and present conflicts within the relationship which would help alleviate the friction between the two.

After the meeting has been conducted, as well as the identification of the causes a plan would be written to change the behaviors that the client would need to change in order to improve the relationship between the couple.

One way that the plan can help improve the relationship is be assisting the client in learning to demonstrate the ability to show affection in two ways; both verbally and non-verbally.

Another short-term objective for the client will be to learn and demonstrate communication skills concerning health issues. By doing this the client opens up other avenues of communication as well as responding to physical health problems that could also be the root of some of the marital problems.

The client would also have to make a commitment to improve the relationship, with verbal skills as well as empathy and sympathy. One way this could be accomplished would be to have the client write the spouse a letter sharing the client's feelings as well as asking for the spouse's support in the recovery process.

Along with the written letter, the client will also be asked to write a plan to meet social and emotional needs during the recovery process, and especially during any separation or divorce proceedings. Along with that plan, the client will have to include a personal recovery plan that would require the client to consistently attend a recovery group, attain a sponsor and attend group and individual therapy sessions.

The client will also be asked to describe signs and symptoms of experienced depression as well as to verbally describe the source of that depression if possible.

Depression will not be the only feeling the client will be asked to express, the client will also be asked to express the client's feelings of hurt, disappointment, shame and anger experienced throughout the client's life.

With these feelings verbalized the client should have an easier time at developing a consistent positive self-image that should help to alleviate some of the client's problems.

The client can demonstrate that improved self-esteem through more pride in the client's appearance, presenting more assertiveness, having a greater eye contact with the client's fellow human beings, and by identifying positive traits by listening to self-talk messages.

A last way for the client to achieve many of these short-term (and long-term objectives) would be to assess the exact nature of the client's sleep pattern, including the client's bedtime routine, the activity level while awake, the client's nutritional habits and any napping practices, as well as the client's actual sleeping time and rhythm of time for being awake vs. sleeping patterns.