Joe's Story
Joe has been referred to you by his GP as, over the past few months, it has become increasingly clear to the GP that Joe is suffering from depression arising from extremely poor self esteem, a growing lack of self confidence and difficulties coming to terms with events from his earlier life.
His GP has prescribed Citalopram which should help with the depression, but the GP is of the opinion that Joe needs support to work on his self esteem and self confidence and to explore the ‘early life’ events to which Joe had alluded in his discussions with the GP.
You work for a support organisation that provides 1-2-1 and group support for the elderly. You are not a specialist in any particular field, but you are an experienced worker with a proven track record when working with individuals who are struggling with ‘growing older’ and have a ‘knack’ for making people think of their futures in a much more optimistic way.
Joe has agreed to attending 1-2-1 sessions with you, because he is aware that he ‘isn’t himself’. He has gradually settled into the sessions, so much so that, by week 4, he is really starting to ‘open up’ about his feelings and opinions about things, and you feel that he is only a few sessions away from opening up about the earlier ‘life experiences’ that concerned his GP.
By week 8 of the sessions, Joe has engaged fully with the counselling sessions, and is starting to have a much more positive concept of himself. He has disclosed, in the previous weeks about how he felt guilty at not being able to provide for Anna, and his guilt at relying heavily on his son and daughter in law. He was embarrassed at constantly struggling for money, and blamed himself for Anna’s poor physical health, because, had he been able to work, she could have retired earlier and may not have become so disabled by her arthritis. He is resentful that his pension is very much less than the had anticipated it would be due to his early retirement, and so he and Anna are not enjoying the quality of life they felt they deserved.
It is clear that Joe has a poor ‘self concept’. Describe four main points of Carl Rogers’
theory of self concept. (You should aim
to write about 200 words)
With reference to Carl Rogers’ theory of Self Concept, explain two ways you can help Joe develop a more positive self-esteem. (You should aim to write around 150 words. Remember that observing the 3 Core Conditions count as 1 way of helping Joe)
You have worked with him on all of these issues, and, together, you have come to the realisation that the situations for which Joe was feeling guilty were, for the most part, out of his hands. He still feels guilty, and still feels that he has ‘failed’, however he is now starting to realise that dwelling on these past events is actually doing more damage than the events themselves. He is working on ‘reframing’ his thinking, and has taken positive steps, with your advice and support, to address their money worries (there are benefits to which he and Anna are entitled and which they have never claimed) and he has spoken with the local health board about having aids installed in the home to help Anna.
Most recently, however, Joe has also disclosed that, during the early days of his marriage, he was ‘less than pleasant.’ Joe has described a number of occasions where he became aggressive and assaulted Anna. He described, in some detail, one incident which resulted in Anna having to go to the hospital with a broken ankle after he struck her with a table leg during one particularly angry exchange. The hospital, suspecting domestic abuse, noted the incident, but appeared to accept Anna’s story about them ‘messing about’ and it being a genuine accident.
It was clear, from the telling of the story, that Joe felt a very real sense of shame about the incident, and , more-so, that he felt that this incident was what ‘caused’ Anna’s arthritis.
Keeping the 3 core conditions in mind, how should you respond to this story ? (You should aim to write about 120 words)
Once you have typed your answers, please email them to me at swats@borderscollege.ac.uk.
It's easier to find them if they are emailed, as I have an email inbox especially for your class !