Essay Sample on Psychology: Examining the Human Mind & Treating Psychological Disorders

Introduction

Psychology is a broad area that deals with study of the human mind and how it behaves under different situations. Studying the human mind and how it behaves under different circumstances has helped to identify certain psychological conditions that are facing human beings. Some of these psychological disorders may be associated with negative outcomes. Therefore, there is need to come up with a treatment plan that will be put into practice to deal with this condition. One such case of a psychological disorder is evident in the case of Julia who is suffering from eating problems. Julia only desires to eat small quantities of food because she fears adding weight and also has a huge desire to slim and trim. It is evident that this problem has been brought as a result of depression and anxiety. If this problem continues there is a high chance that Julia will be severely affected in the future. This paper will focus on the psychological treatment plan that will be used to deal with the case of Julia and ensure that her conditions is completely solved by looking at the behaviorally defined symptoms, the long term goal, the short term objectives, interventions, evaluation as well as the ethics related to the plan.

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Behaviorally Defined Symptoms

The possible problem that the client is experiencing in this case is she is does not have the desire to eat and wants to slim. In this case, it is evident that the client is suffering from anorexia nervosa because she does not want to each a lot of food. This disorder has come up due to anxiety and depressions which has also been evident in the manner in which the client behaves in many ways. Some of the ways that this disorder is evident in the behavior of Julia is that she is always worried about her weight, friends as well as family perceptions. Also, the way that Julia communicated completely changed in that she does not enjoy socializing as well as communicating with other people as she used to previously. Furthermore, Julia has lost interest in most of the activities that she once enjoyed and experiences continuous feelings of sadness as well as hopelessness. The main cognitive and behavioral symptoms related to the condition include isolation from family members and friends as well as not communicating with other people.

Long Term Goal

Treating a psychological conditions requires a long term goal that will be used to help the patients for an extensive period and make sure that he or she is treated from the condition. In this case, there has to be long term goals that will be used to help the patient. The first long term goal that will play an important role in treating the patient is to reduce the signs and symptoms of depression and anxiety in Julia. The second long term goal in this treatment plan is to ensure that Julia starts associated as well as communicating with people well. The third long term goal in this treatment plan is help the patient develop the desire to eat without any fear of adding weight.

Short Term Goals

As much as the long term goals help in dealing with the condition that Julia is facing, it is essential to have short term goals. These short term goals have to be achieved in the shortest time possible. Therefore, one of the short term goals that can be used in the treatment plan for Julia is to ensure that she interacts with a person every days. This objective should be attained within two weeks of the treatment. The second short term goal for Julia is to increase the amount of food that she takes every day. The third short term goal is that Julia should speak to someone about her worries. This approach will help her to free the mind and be free from any form of depression or anxiety and it should be achieved in two weeks also. Also, Julia should start taking part in various activities together with friends and family. This approach will help her to develop interest in various activities that she once used to undertake. This goal should be accomplished within three weeks after the treatment plan has started.

Interventions

Development of the goals and objectives for the treatment plan will not be effective unless action is taken. Therefore, there are several intervention measures that can be taken to meet each of the short term goal that has been developed. In the first short term goal, which is to interact with a person every day, the best intervention that can be used to achieve the objective is to gout out frequently especially where there are many people such as school or attending a fun event. The recommended intervention for the second goal which is to increase the amount of food consumed daily, is to eat frequently. The third short term goal for treating this psychological condition is speaking to someone about the worries. This can be achieved by visiting a therapist once in a while to ensure that she speaks about the issues that she is facing. Speaking out will help other people to understand what she is going through and in the process, they will help her to deal with the condition effectively. In the other short term goal which is to start taking part in various activities, the recommendation that can be used for Julia is that she should assume certain roles that will drive her towards engaging in these exercises.

The selected intervention that can be used for the patient in this case can be derived from various theoretical orientations. One of the theoretical orientations from which the intervention can be selected from is the psychodynamic theory and therapy. The psychodynamic theory and therapy focus on an individual within the mode of illness. While using this theoretical orientation, the condition that the patient has can be traced back in early child hood. Most children when they are young tend to go through certain events that affects them psychologically as they grow. Therefore, in the case of Julia, the psychodynamic theory and therapy can be used to develop interventions her conditions. In this case, the best intervention would be to look at the activities that Julia went through while she was young. After that, the psychologist will chose methods that will help Julia by dealing with past trauma that she could have experienced as a child. Another theoretical orientation where intervention can be selected from is the cognitive behavioral theory and therapy. The cognitive behavioral theory and therapy focuses on the thoughts of a person as the main reason why certain disorders develop. This theoretical orientation can be used to select an intervention for the diseases especially in the case of Julia, whereby it evident that she tends to worry a lot which puts her at a risk of developing severe depression. In this case, the intervention that can be used to deal with the condition is therapy where the patients are given the chance to speak up and get rid of their worries hence reducing the rate of depression. The third theoretical orientation that can be used to develop intervention for this case is the humanistic theory and therapy. Humanistic theory and therapy views human beings are good and that they have all the freedom to choose actions as well as behaviors in their lives. Moreover, human beings desire to choose something that will benefit themselves. The intervention that can be selected in this case is that she should reduce the amount that worries and eat more food so that depression can go down.

The main reason as to why different theoretical orientations have to be used to treat the conditions of the patient is that it provides various options. Having various options when treating a patient is essential in the sense that in case one method fails, there other ones can be used to find out whether it works. Also, different theoretical orientations have to be used because a diseases may be in various forms which require various methods for it to be treated properly.

In the treatment plan for Julia, three modalities will have to be used for it to be treated effectively. The first modality that will be used in this case is the family. The family will be used in the sense that all the members will be investigated to find out if the condition could be as a result of genetics. The second modality that will be used in this case as individual. In this case, Julia who is the patient will be thoroughly assessed to ensure that all the aspect related to the condition are identified for proper intervention to take place. The third modality that would be appropriate to use with the client is the couple. A couples would help to provide more insights on why the patient has the diagnosed condition. These insights may be used to provide accurate interventions to treat the condition.

In the treatment plan, it would be important to include outside providers such as nutritionist, medical doctors, social workers and psychiatrist. These outside providers will indicate more issues related to the disorder that Julia suffering from as well as the best methods to treat the condition. Therefore, the treatment options that will be used to treat the patient will be effective and will go a long way in dealing with the condition as well as achieving the intended goals and objectives.

Evaluation

In the application of this treatment plan, there are certain outcomes that are anticipated. One of the anticipated outcome is that the patient will develop good appetite and start eating any kind of food without the fear of gaining any weight. This outcome will be easily achieved because it is caused by the external stressors. Therefore, when these external stressors eradicated such as peer pressure, there is a probability that Julia will start eating without the fear of gaining weight. The other anticipated outcome from the intervention in this case is that Julia will develop interest in various activities that she used to do. It is expected that Julia will take up active roles that will ensure these activities are completed successfully. Thirdly, it is anticipated that Julia will stop worrying so that the rate of depression goes down. Moreover, it is expected that Julia will start taking to the family members so that they can understand her better and provide help in any possible way.

The interventions that will be used in this treatment plan will be effective in the sense that it will help the patient in various ways. These interventions will go step by step in helping the patient where in the long run the psychological condition of the patient will be treated.

Ethics

In this treatment plan, ethical issues play an important role concerning how services will be done. Ethical issues provide the right direction for activities to be conducted. However, in some cases, there may be certain situations that may arise leading to ethical dilemmas. One of the ethical dilemma that may arise in this treatment plan is the autonomy. In this case, it may be difficult to decide whether the name of the client should not be disclosed. The second ethical dilemma that may arise in this situation is non maleficence where seeks to protect the patient from any harm. In the treatment plan, there may be some information that may hurt the patient. Therefore, ethical dilemma may arise on whether to information the patient of the condition or not.

Conclusion

Concluding, it is evident that the psychological conditions that the patients is suffering from is depression and this has caused a lot of behavioral problems. The continued presence of this diseases may harm the patient. Therefore, it is important to develop a proper treatment plan that will help in this condition. In this treatment plan, there have to be both long term and short term objectives whereby intervention to meet these goals should be properly developed and followed. Furthermore, the treatment plan should be evaluated to find out if...