 Unamed Case: Background: The client is an early twenties female. She is very smart and athletic. She has gotten great grades since first grade. She has been a star athlete her whole life since she started gymnastics in third grade. When she got into high school, her mom took her to their hometown mall to do a catalog modeling shoot. She did great and that was the beginning of her modeling career. She quickly progressed up the ranks from catalog modeling. She noticed that some of the other girls she was modeling with were skinnier than her. She decided to start working out more and eating less. She soon was the same size as the smaller girls, and everyone was complementing her on how good she looked. She decided that the more weight she would lose, the better she would look. Maintaining the small size she was became a problem for her. She feared that if she gained weight she would not be considered pretty anymore. People stopped telling her she was pretty because she lost so much weight she was looking unhealthily skinny. She thought people stopped telling her she was pretty because she looked fat. She began thinking of herself as fat and ugly. She was working out as much as possible and hardly ate anything as it was. That was when she decided she would start making herself vomit. Symptoms: She will not eat for days, and when she finally does, she eats everything she sees. It is an uncontrollable thing for her. She will then feel extremely guilty and bad about herself. She then goes and makes herself vomit. When she is not starving herself and vomiting, she exercises profusely. She has had these symptoms since she was sixteen. Reason for coming: She wanted to talk to someone and express how she has been feeling. She wants to tell someone she doesn't know about how she feels and what she is going through. She is afraid to talk to people she knows about it because she does not want her friends to know what she is going through. Also her mother has caught her making herself vomit on a couple separate occasions. Her mother made her promise to talk to someone about her issues. She is coming because she promised her mother that she would: Her mother made her go and get a second opinion and see if this behavior was normal and whether or not it was detrimental to her health. This is her 1st session. She is unsure what to expect and pretty nervous. She knows that she has an eating disorder, but she is afraid to actually be told she has a problem. | Explanation of Jessica's Symptoms: Jessica is a young woman who has decided to seek a therapist about a problem she has been battling. Dr. Derp has agreed to sit with her and help her with her issues. Jessica is young and explains what interests she has. She was always the girl who played all of the sports and stayed fit year-round. When she was a sophomore in high school, her mom helped her sign up for some local modeling positions. She became so good at it, she graduated to larger jobs with the modeling by the time she was a senior. She was continuously busy with playing sports year-round, doing her modeling jobs, and going to school. She never found herself to be one with a weight problem until another model confronted her about what she should and shouldn't be eating the things she had been eating. Jessica then started to skipping meals and vomiting anything she ate. She became very thin and unhealthy but still couldn't keep up with her friend who kept getting smaller. After her friend had collapsed on the runway and past away later at the hospital, Jessica realized that's not how she wants her life to be. She became scared that she was going to die from not being well. She then seeked help from Dr. Derp to help make herself healthy. One of the techniques that Dr. Derp used was to make sure that Jessica felt she was in an accepting climate. Dr. Derp did not judge her or make her feel like a fool. The Dr. showed empathy towards Jessica and her problems. The Dr. also put themselves on the same level as Jessica by not being authoritive. Active listening was also in play here. Dr. Derp made sure to put themselves in Jessica's shoes and see from her point of view. Jessica in return felt more welcomed and not judged by Dr. Derp. She had agreed to return to see the Dr. because she realized that Dr. Derp was on her side and was there to help her. Jessica didn't become angry or agitated with the Dr. She opened up about her issues and confided in Dr. Derp. |
