Using the Case Study Provided at the End of the Module Identify and Devise a Course of Treatment for Him, Taking into Account Any Ethical Issues

"Using the case study provided at the end of the module identify and devise a course of treatment for him, taking into account any ethical issues"

The title of this essay suggests I should produce a case study describing the needs of the client Mr X who has come to me for therapy. To be in a position to help Mr X I need to identify issues that arise from the initial interview and produce a course of treatment that I feel would enable Mr X to meet his identified goals. The course of treatment that I decide on should be ethical and appropriate.

Mr X is a caring, capable man who desperately wishes to apply for a promotion within an organisation he has worked for a substantial number of years. The job is one he has acted up into in the absence of the manager. He has performed well in this managerial role but he is afraid he may not be successful at interview. He also has low self esteem as he is convinced the workforce do not respect him as a colleague, find him week and boring. He would love to socialise with colleagues regularly to get to know them all better and for them to get to know him but is unable to due to family commitments. He does not feel able to discuss these commitments with his colleagues or to make alterations to his commitment to his mother, who he is in awe of. Mr X would love to settle down with his girl friend, he does not feel confident enough to ask her as he does not feel he has much to offer. This promotion would give him elevated status within the company, with his mother and with his girlfriend.

To gather the above information, an initial consultation would have happened. During this consultation I would have used my initial consultation notation form. This is where the information would be recorded. I would have collected information that would identify not only the reason for the appointment but family medical and life history. Any previous experience of therapies, and the outcomes. Importantly, identifying the motivator. What is the true and most important reason for seeking to change? Hadley and Staudacher (1996) suggest that listening for the motivator is important. There may be a number of reasons for wanting to change behaviour and if you can identify the strongest motive this can be incorporated into the therapeutic screed.

I would suggest Mr X is desperate to become a manager and his motivation is to please his mother and be able to offer security to his girlfriend and gain a wife. The overwhelming themes in the initial information gathered on Mr X is that of low self esteem and lack of self confidence. Mr X knows he is able and capable of becoming the manager however he does not appear to have belief in his abilities. Mr X will also need therapy to manage his impending interview once he has submitted his application. Lastly I feel Mr X would benefit from therapy to improve his ability to assert himself at work and in his personal life.

It also appears that Mr X may have issues relating to his relationship with his mother. The first step I need to take is to establish if I can help Mr X to help himself. Do I have the skills to continue to develop a course of treatment which will be effective and appropriate? Mr X has taken the first steps to change his life for the better it is up to me to ensure any treatment I develop with Mr X will cause him no harm. The Hypnotherapy Society Code of Ethics (The Hypnotherapy Society) demands that therapist work within the set code of ethics to ensure the safety of the client and the therapist.. I feel well equipped to develop a course of treatment to help Mr X with his self esteem and self confidence. However aa there may possibly be relationship issues that Mr X has with his mother, It may be necessary for onward referral to a counsellor to address these issues. For this reason it is essential that therapists have a supervisor to seek support from. If I decided this was required I would ensure I discussed the referral process in full with Mr X ensuring consent was gained to either discuss with or refer to another professional.

Hypnotherapy has not always been favoured by society or the world of medicine. Clients may come to therapy with a very skewed view of what they will encounter. Karle and Boys (1997) suggest that for hypnotherapy to be effective, the clients' expectations and beliefs should be explored to ensure they are realistic. If they are not any misconceptions should be corrected and the client should be reassured that the experiences of hypnotherapy will be personal to them. Therefore it would be important to discuss the process of hypnosis with Mr X, what can and can't happen during hypnosis and that Mr X will be in control throughout the sessions

Establishing the modality of the client is imperative. Personalising a screed is likely to create a therapeutic environment that will be more successful. Grinder and Bandler (1970) the founders of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) first described modalities in the 1970's (Year 1 Module 2). Modalities relate to the senses. They identified that using language that appealed to the individual resulted in them becoming more responsive to therapy. It has already been established that Mr X modality is visual. This means he will respond well to language that describes life visually for instance describing the sound of a water fall would not be as appealing to Mr X as describing the sight of a waterfall. The use of the personalised screed will enable Mr X to relax enough to become hypnotised. Another technique used to establish modality it to observe eye movement. Baken (1970) described Lateral Eye Movements (LEM) (Year one Module two) he noted that when asking clients particular questions they would repeat the same eye movement for accessing stored or remembered information and a different eye movement to create. He also noted that clients with the same modalities displayed the same eye movements. Again this information could be gathered at the initial consultation.

The next step will be to personalise the screed further by establishing the technique required to use to induce hypnosis. There are two techniques that can be used for the hypnotic process Hadley and Staudacher (1996) describe them as permissive and authoritative. The permissive technique uses