Case Review: Intervention Therapy

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Case Study 1: Tanya and Nicole

As explained in the case study, Nicole and Tanya are a lesbian couple who wish to start a family after two years of being together and living together as a couple. In order to proceed with their plan to start a family, they both need to inform their families of their decisions so as to receive maximum support. A problem has arisen because only Tanya has been open with her family regarding her sexual orientation, with Nicole holding back on revealing this to her family. Accordingly, Tanya is not willing to go ahead with the plans to start a family with Nicole until she informs her family about Tanya and her relationship with Tanya. At the outset, Nicole needs to come clean with her family and inform them of her sexual orientation. However, this would mean that Nicole risks the possibility of rejection by her family, which will have adverse effects on her. Accordingly, there is need for intervention therapies to help Nicole deal with her problem. Two techniques have been identified to assist Nicole in dealing with her problem including reality therapy and group psychotherapy.

Reality therapy is important in this case, as it will facilitate problem solving, hence encourage understanding of the problem facing Nicole (Matthews, 2005). Accordingly, this intervention therapy technique focuses on present events and their effects on the client’s future life. In essence, the therapist encourages the client to explore their needs and wants, and whether their present actions draw them further away from or nearer to the achievement of their needs and wants (Matthews, 2005). Nicole will be the key participant of this intervention therapy, as she is the one who has chosen to hide her relationship with Tanya from her family. Nicole has gone to the extent of lying to her family about Tanya, and she claims that Tanya is just but her roommate. This intervention therapy will assist Nicole in comprehending how her actions, hiding and lying about Tanya, will affect her in the future. This intervention therapy will encourage Nicole to be honest to her family about Tanya if she wants to start a family with her spouse, as this is the only way Tanya would be willing to go ahead with their plans to start a family together.

Group psychotherapy is another intervention therapy technique that can be used in the case of Tanya and Nicole. This intervention therapy necessitates group counseling for problem solving and as a mechanism of change with those involved in the process (Lorentzen et al., 2002). The key aim of this intervention therapy is the evaluating interpersonal relationships within the group. More specifically, the group psychotherapy to be applied in this case will involve psycho-education for those involved in the group therapy. Accordingly, Nicole and her family have been identified as key participants in the group therapy. This is because they are the group that is more prone to psychological disturbance after the revelation of Nicole’s sexual orientation (Fjell et al., 2007). Nicole risks rejection after revelation hence psychological disturbance, whereas her family also risks psychological disturbance after finding out their daughter has gone against their beliefs. Because her family lives over 200 miles away, the group therapy sessions will take place at her family’s home town and Tanya will be required to attend too to ease the therapy process for problem solving purposes.

References

Fjell, A. et al. (2007). Innovations: Psycho-education: Multifamily Group Treatment in a

Program for Patients With First-Episode Psychosis: Experiences From the TIPS Project. Psychiatric Services 58(7):171-173.

Lorentzen, S. et al. (2002). Change During and After Long-Term Analytic Group Psychotherapy.

International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 52(3): 419-30.

Matthews, A. (2005). Cognitive Behavioral Theories of Counseling: Traditional and

Nontraditional Approaches. Psychiatric Services 56(3):1164-1165.