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APA Psychotherapy Training Videos are intended solely for educational purposes for mental health professionals. Viewers are expected to treat confidential material found herein according to strict professional guidelines. Unauthorized viewing is prohibited.
In Ethnocultural Psychotherapy, Dr. Lillian Comas-Diaz demonstrates her approach to integrating the implications and effects of human diversity into therapeutic practice. This approach recognizes the concept of self as an internal ethnocultural representation and focuses on empowerment and awareness of context. In this session, Dr. Comas-Diaz works with a young Latina woman to explore the sources of her anger management issues and reach toward a healing transformation. This video features a client portrayed by an actor on the basis of actual case material.
Precipitating Events The client, Celeste, was being considered seriously for the position of managing editor of Vanity Parade, and she had been working hard toward this promotion. A colleague of Celeste's, Rita, was also being considered for the position. According to Celeste, Rita was jealous of her and had been "spreading vicious, vituperative stories" about how Celeste gathered material for her articles. Rita told a number of people that Celeste had questionable lunches with sources to get information for her successful features. She labeled Celeste as a "user," a "manipulator," and a "tease." Last weekend, Celeste was working on a Sunday, and when she walked by Rita's office she noticed that Rita's door was open, and her computer had been left on, with Rita logged in. Celeste went into Rita's office, "just to see what was on Rita's desk," and to shut off her computer. While glancing at Rita's desk, Celeste spotted an interoffice memo, detailing Celeste's behavior with a particularly valuable source. The memo was addressed to the hiring manager for the managing editor position. Celeste became furious, and she started to go through Rita's computer files to see what other "lies" she could find. While she was deleting some of Rita's files, a coworker appeared in Rita's door. He had been watching Celeste delete files. The next day this incident was reported to the hiring manager. Celeste was called into his office, and she was informed that she would not be considered for this job. He also mentioned her now questionable behavior with sources. Celeste was furious, upset, and worried. This was not the first time that her anger had caused a problem for her. Maybe she needed help. In high school, her sister had caught her shoplifting a pair of inexpensive earrings and had told her parents. Her parents made her "confess" and return the earrings. She was furious at her sister. The earrings were only worth $2, and she felt that everyone had made too big a deal of it. She "got back" at her sister by destroying her favorite cashmere sweater by "inadvertently" putting it in the washer and dryer. In college, Celeste became enraged at a teaching assistant when he suggested that her term paper appeared to contain plagiarized material. She lost her temper, berated him, and called him a "toadying worm" and an "intellectual midget." The incident was resolved. Her paper was not plagiarized, but she ended up taking an incomplete in the course and graduating late because she could not "work with this fool."
Preceding Sessions Session 1: Addressed Celeste's presenting problem of "maybe she needed help." She expressed ambivalence toward being in psychotherapy but agreed to try it on a weekly basis. We agreed to work on understanding and managing her anger. Began a clinical assessment, recognized Celeste's emotional status of being furious, upset, and worried, while addressing her immediate crisis. Began to establish rapport. Session 2: Continued establishing rapport and conducting the clinical assessment. Explored Celeste's anger and management including an examination of her dysfunctional and functional responses. Began to work on Celeste's multigenerational genogram and Stages I–II of the ethnocultural assessment. Special attention was paid to Celeste's family's scripts of anger, achievement, and competition. Session 3: The videotaped session. |
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