Part A: Clinical Assessment

1. Record your client assessment, diagnosis (medical and psychiatric differentials), medical and psychiatric history and psychosocial factors that impact the case. This information should be presented in the same format as your Wheeler (2014) textbook’s Sample Clinical Assessment Form, found on pages 143–145.
2. Conclude Part A with a one-page description of this fictional patient, including all the relevant information outlined in the clinical assessment form as well as relevant and realistic information acquired from your research. Refer to the APA Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Part B: Therapy Session

You will design a therapy session for your client based on his or her preceding clinical assessment. Part B of your assignment will be assessed on your demonstration of proper therapeutic communication. The empathy demonstrated should be consistent with the following operational definition: Empathy is a critical tool for establishing a trusting therapeutic relationship. Rather than parrot back what your client has said, good empathy reflects the thoughts and feelings of your client and notes the importance of what has been communicated. In doing so, it invites the client to self-explore. Empathic feedback avoids “why” questions. When appropriately relayed in a tentative manner, good therapeutic empathy also gives the client a chance to redirect or correct what the counselor has said. 

Your session transcript should:

• Use your personal experiences to replicate realistic patient responses as well as clinical responses. 
• Be a written transcript of more than 2,100 words (at least 15 minutes in length). 
• Evidence empathic feedback that adheres to the operational definition of empathy in the counselor’s responses to most of the client’s remarks. 

Part C:  Therapeutic Intervention

Much of the information you learn through your research can help inform the development of your patient. Research evidence-based interventions involving both psychopharmacological and nonpharmacological services to individuals who have been assessed in a mental health setting. 

There should be three to five evidence-based articles and interventions that encompass both medication and non-medication modalities. Be sure to include two different therapeutic approaches when discussing non-medication interventions. For example, when selecting therapeutic approaches, you can select client-centered and cognitive behavioral therapy.