It was a long day in the office and I was about to leave when a young lady come running into my office with her mother saying that they needed my assistance, so as the wonderful therapist that I am took out my pen and paper and started listening, the girl I was dealing with is call Adriane and she has recently left for college and is experiencing irrational thoughts and beliefs about her actions, Adriane is a 18 year old heterosexual African American female that is attending a primary white prestigious school , her mother brought her into my office today because she was worrying about her daughter Adriane.She felt that Adrian has been feeling extremely gloomy, and irritable. Adriane’s mom has also mentioned how depressed Adriane has been feeling.
When I asked Adriane why she looked so upset? She denied that she was upset, but she continued to look down upon the floor in silence. I noticed her looking down when she responded but I kept listening to her mother explain more in detail about what’s been going. Then I thought, depression, I thought, how serve the case maybe, but I continued to listen to her I realized that her family does put a lot of pressure on her because she is the first in her family to go to college.As the conversation went on, I had a one on one with Adriane about what has been going with things. Adriane told me that she was lacking sleep and concentration, and she felt a huge sense of loneliness.
I noticed that she opened up to me more today than my previous session with her last time. She also mentioned how she felt as if she wasn’t accepted anywhere.Adriane had mixed feeling while attending her school, (predominantly white)she had a strong interest in joining a sorority, but Adriane felt like an outcast among the sorority sisters because the members in sorority have a higher socioeconomic status than her. Adriane unleashed some anger when explaining to me that she identifies herself as a low to working class with her mom as a produce clerk at a grocery store and her father who is a mechanic. Adriane grew up in a poor, largely diverse urban area, where she is placed with pressure because she is the only one attending a four year college. She was in more shock , now than every surrounded by minority students with high end clothes, laptops and parents with “higher occupations”.
Even though Adriane knows how proud her family and friends are for the opportunity of attending a high ranked university, she feels very secluded from them due to her heavy workload. She also feels this way because she feels misunderstood due to the social pressures and feelings of loneliness. Although her parents strive Adriane to excel in her academics, she still feels a increase in anxiety because she is not socially fit for the people she is with. Even though Adriane was not offered a spot in the sorority she joined other groups but still lacked unsimilarity because they drank and she didn’t. Adriane feels that because her parents have been working an extensive amount of hours since she was small, she had only felt lonely.
lastly She had a thought of growing and changing into a better person in her new institution but still has felt the same way.Adriane’s reasoning for attending therapy is to get back on the right track, excel in her academics, and change her feelings of being lonely and more appreciated. Adriane is looking forward to her sessions with me and im ready to help.Albert Ellis is the founder of REBT, he initially practiced psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a PhD in clinical psychology from Columbia. Albert Ellis Agreed with Freud that irrational forces keeps neurotic clients troubled but Disagreed that irrational behavior are unconscious conflicts from early childhood he also Believed that the core of psychopathology was an continual reindoctrination of oneself in an irrational philosophy of life.Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT) I feel is the best theory used to conceptualize Adriane for example REBT has an ABC model which stands for A) Activating events in life B) Beliefs that individuals use to process the activating events in their lives and these beliefs can be broken into subgroups like rB) Rational and iB) Irrational beliefs and lastly C) stands for the Consequences of the belief, but most importantly D) stands for disputing the clients irrational thoughts while E) stands for a new found rational belief of thinking Rational beliefs are adaptive beliefs that are consistent with social reality while irrational beliefs are An unreasonable conviction that leads to emotional and behavioral problems.
In Adriane’s case she is showing signs of having irrational thoughts for example she feels as if she has to be perfect in order for her friends and family to love and appreciate her, after having a long session with Adriane I have realized that her activating event is her leaving for college which resulted in her belief that she has to be an overachiever partly because she has a lot of people hoping she becomes successful especially her parents being that they scarifies so much for her to be in the school she is attending, with those two factors in mind her consequence for this belief is depression , I as her therapist had to dispute her beliefs by telling her that her parent would love her the same if she was an overachiever or a regular straight A student their love for her is unconditional and it would never change, after giving her my advice she has a new found belief that it’s ok to relax a little bit and not feel guilty for it.Another irrational thought Adriane has is a feeling of not belonging because she doesn’t fit a certain socio-economic status like her peer the activation event is not being accepted into the sorority which in turn made her believe that she is not good enough and there is something wrong with her and ultimately the consequence for this belief resulted in low self esteem and having a feeling of loneliness, what I decided to do was dispute her belief and let her know that just because she didn’t get a spot In the sorority don’t mean that there is something wrong I would tell her that she should look at it as an opportunity to become something great .with the new found belief Adriane realize that not having a spot on in the sorority wasn’t the end of that would and there decisions not to pick her had nothing to do with her financial status.Lastly Adriane has the irrational belief that she has to carry the world on her shoulders the activation event is being the first in her family to go to college the irrational belief is if I don’t make it than my family will look at me like a failure and all my parents hard work will go to vain lastly the consequence for this belief is feeling gloomy, irritable and not lively , to dispute this particular belief I would tell Adriane that even geniuses take some time off to get there head together I would also tell her that yes her parents made a lot of sacrifice for her but to not let that factor consume her whole purpose of going to school, I also except Adriane to walk away feeling like she has a handle on her life.One major article I found to support my thesis on Adriane’s irrational thought is .
Rational and irrational beliefs Research, theory, and clinical practice (Rational and irrational beliefs and psychopathology) this article talks about the differences between rational and irrational thought . The focus of the chapter was expalaining the research on the association between IBs and general psychiatric symptoms including depression, anxiety, assertiveness problems.A couple of goals Adriane and i set in order for her to move forward in therapy is for her to fill out a self-defeating Patten sheet, that way when ever she starts to feel anxiety about an issue she will be able to talk her self through the event in order to enable her to have more rational beliefs and in turn rational outcomes also in addition I would encourage Adriane to try to get involved in more extra curriculum activities in order for her to make social connections and also to alleviate her loneliness lastly we decided that in order for Adriane to get over her fear of rejection she would have to talk to at least two people every week and at least hang out with out of them outside of school.In concluding my sessions with Adriane my Critique of her would be that she is a product of a poor ,urban and cultural deprived society, I understand how hard it is for a women of color to break barriers and be put in a uncomfortable social situations but I feel with her family support she will be triumphant and succeed in every venture of her life, I feel choosing REBT was a perfect fit for Adriane because with this theory I was able to give her clear and concise reasoning as to why I felt her belief were irrational and funny enough she too came around and realized that she had an active part in her negative outcomes Adriane is taking steps toward progress and I feel that Adriane will work hard and grow to her full potential.
