Relevant Background
Susie’s experience set her agony and how a prior trauma unfolds in her. Her everyday and mental lives have been irreparably disrupted by the sexual assault that was planned years ago. The signs of disorders such as remembrance, nightmares, and hypervigilance show the familiar signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Susie’s story. The signs not only would mess with her consciousness but also would confuse her way of proper sleeping and routine meals, hence offering a state of the horrifying effect of the traumatic involvement on bodily function. Susie’s unshakeable suspicion of other people highlights the underlying dread and vulnerability that permeates her every move. Susie’s history unfolds as a complex and multifaceted post-trauma issue, portraying a clear picture of destructive symptomatology that greatly interferes with her sense of happiness and psychological health.
Susie’s instances illustrate how trauma manifests itself as a permanent and pernicious problem for an individual. Besides, Susie’s trials emphasize the harmful nature of trauma, which penetrates even the nicest features of a person’s life and endures for a long time, even after the initial event is finished. So, acknowledging and dealing with the complicated nature of those symptoms is the prerequisite for successfully providing adequate treatment of cases similar to Susie’s. By seeing the relationship between her symptoms and their interferences with her established daily routine, therapists can individualize the therapy prescriptions based on her needs and eventually lead her to health and recovery.
Referral Reason and Presenting Concern
The person in question, Susie, faces therapeutic intervention after a traumatic event and, in consequence, her mental health. At the age of 21, Susie was sexually assaulted. Now, after three years, it is still affecting her greatly and causing a plethora of symptomatic issues that hinder her daily life. The lady has a medical condition that reflects the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as recurrent flashbacks, nightmares, hyper-alertness, avoidance behaviour, and problems with trust, commitment, and intimacy. First and foremost, Susie is haunted by the coping effect on mental health, relationships, and activity engagement.
Theoretical Application
In the psychological treatment space, the theoretical foundation permits mental healthcare professionals to apply the available tools, which in turn helps in understanding and tackling difficult psychological problems. Experimental studies and clinical experience form the basis of these theoretical frameworks that therapists resort to for their interventions being designed based on the wide range of needs of every client. In terms of transdiagnostic considerations, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of treatment that holds the potential to produce the greatest improvements in managing Susie’s traumatic history and the symptomatology presented. CBT, by far, has accumulated great empirical support, which immerses it as the leading method of treatment for trauma-related disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Zayfert & Becker, 2019). Calling this the core principle of CBT, the well-known thought-emotion-behaviour relations (Beck, 2011) points out that the contradictory role of the triad of emotions, thoughts, and behaviours is the one that holds the psychological stress.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a complex mixture of emotional, thought and behavioural components, each of which suffers from the other. As a result, they carry trauma, and individuals fall into the hole of negative emotions, inappropriate thoughts and bad behaviours, which leads to increasing stress and, thus, the fertile ground for the development of psychological disorders. In the case of Susie, the CBT offers a structured framework that is systematic for overcoming a pattern of thoughts that go contra-express and severe after the assault of her sexuality. Through the cognitive restructuring strategies, Susie may obtain the skills to identify and refute those kinds of self-destructive cognitions that interlink the themes of blaming herself, shame, and fear. She can begin validating the evidence about the true or false beliefs about her appraisal of herself, others, and the world around her (Lyons et al., 2021).
CBT arms Susie with the coping skills that go towards handling, in some cases, debilitating emotions and, in other instances, physical arousal that is inherent in the person living with PTSD. Such techniques as relaxation training, grounding exercises, and systematic desensitization help Susie stabilize their arousal level and perk up more appropriately in front of triggers and reminders of the traumatic situation (Kase, 2023). Through the application of CBT’s tangible techniques, Susie can re-establish a sense of control and management over her symptoms and eventually in all aspects of her life. CBT involves behavioural techniques that gradually bring up trauma-related clues through an environment where the person feels safe and relaxed. In exposure therapy, Susie can deal with her traumatic memories by exposing herself to the sources of her fear without any danger or harm, which in turn makes the memories less emotional and impactful (Craske et al., 2014). By overcoming these avoided situations step by step, Susie can recover some of those areas of her life that had been kept at the periphery of her life by fear and avoidance. CBT can offer Susie an approach to dealing with her traumatic experiences and accompanying symptoms as well as a scientific evidence base. Through challenging maladaptive thoughts, instilling coping methods, and exposing the client to situations, CBT gives Susie back control over her life and allows her to hit the road of recovery.
Personal Application
The implications of my trials and tribulations with trauma and its repercussions on my career path of being a therapist are undoubtedly fascinating. Coming from a family where violence was an integral part of life, by my own eyes, I observed how profoundly persisting traumatic events influence people and their families. The chronic anxiety, uncertainty, and emotional distress I dealt with during these days very greatly corporealized the notion of adversity and resilience to me. Surrounded by disorder, I constituted my refuge in academic tasks and other activities that add value to my daily life. On the contrary, as I aged into my teenage years, the gravity of my family’s hardships overwhelmed me. I got more buried in my feelings of hopelessness and insufficiency, reaching for different unhealthy coping mechanisms to drown the pain. It was during my senior year at college that I got to the point where I could no longer cope with unaddressed trauma and its adverse effects on my everyday functioning. The recollections of suffering and uncertainty tormented me making them a relentless intruder into the territory of my safety and tranquility. It was the absence of light that made me go to therapy, realizing that it was necessary to address my past and rewrite the present again.
With the constant presence and wisdom of skilled therapists and the self-sacrificing love of my friends and mentors, I started a process of self-acceptance and inner discovery. Therapy has become a safe place where I can unravel the complexities of my trauma, unwrap my wrongly held beliefs, and develop inner strength by resisting hardships. I experienced a deeper self-awareness and improved my strategies for surviving on this planet with every session. My personal experience has defined the way I practice therapy, most especially in working with individuals who have undergone detrimental trauma. I pristine my work with my emotional empathy, commitment to creating a safe environment, and always believing in the human spirit of resilience. My struggle to get past obstacles shines through vividly, giving direction to healing and empowerment. These are the same ways that people walk while they pursue their transformation.
Mental Status Examination (MSE)
Appearance
Susie struck the appearance of being neat and well put together yet projecting the signs she had been unruffled from within. The fidgeting and aversion to eye contact on her sides show that she is very much in a state of anxiety and discomfort, which might be the result of the trauma she has come with. After a traumatic experience, a person might decide to cover her body with long sleeves and pants (Ellis, 2015). Such protective actions could reduce the likelihood of further attacks on her senses and the chance of being reminded of the traumatic event throughout her body. It serves as a guide to the magnitude of the effect trauma has had on Susie’s inner being or psyche and well-being, which is evident from the external manifestation of the trauma experienced. This also represents the undercurrent of internal dilemmas one experiences in the aftermath of a traumatic experience.
Behaviour
Susie evidences the sustained vigilance and alarm of the trauma process, which is an embodiment of her everlasting battle with the aftermath of traumatic events. This uneasiness occurs regularly and hints at hypervigilance, a constant state of attentiveness within the surroundings. She is always on watch for any threats or danger coming towards her (Capitão et al., 2014). The guarded body language, involving the crossed arms and the pose of caution, illustrates a defensive mode that rather constitutes an instinctive response meant to ward off any potential unwanted attention. On the one hand, Susie’s look points to the complex way trauma may affect a person’s well-being and how they react to life as they proceed through the world with an unnerving sense of uncertainty and apprehension and are always looking for threats and dangers.
Speech
Susie’s dialect is intricate and complex, revealing that she is more tense and internally frustrated, referred to by a quicker and more hurried conversational style. This is the faster and the spoken speech, which conveys the sense of agitation and stress that she is in (Pollio et al., 2023). The psychological strain symbolizes the strains she may be facing. Her intermittent silence that goes along with the words uttered makes me believe that she sometimes has episodes when it becomes difficult to verbalize her thoughts and feelings, struggling to make sense of what is happening to her, denoting cognitive interference and internal conflict. These verbal hesitations find a source of their existence in the tremendously emotional circumstances she goes through, as making this emotion understood by somebody else becomes hard. The main function of the mental unrest that Susie is experiencing, as stated in her speech manner, is to illuminate more about how emotional distress and verbal expression tend to interact very closely.
Cognition
Sustaining attention and recalling the events are not Susie’s strong points, but thankfully, her complete cognitive functioning points to a promising command over the situation as she approaches awareness of the psychological repercussions of the trauma she has suffered on her mental health. Though she is from time to time weak regarding keeping her concentration and remembering information, at the same time, she perceives the great impact of traumatic experiences on the quality of her existence, which expresses the same fact deeply. The admission on Susie’s part suggests a proactive means for handling her distress, considering the need for therapeutic intervention as a viable one and showing a willingness in Susie to go through with the therapeutic process and look for ways to heal and recover. In general, although traumatic memories at times cause difficulties for Susie in the form of the symptoms of trauma, her cognitive functioning overall remains quite numerous and active, which serves as a basis or ground for successful collaboration and further development within the therapeutic environment.
Thought process
The way Susie thinks bears quite a resemblance to the far-reaching influence of trauma on her cognitive processes, as demonstrated by the presence of traumatic memories and their jumping into her head all the time, thus interfering with her narrative coherence. PTSD symptoms, among them intrusive thoughts and recurrences like flashbacks and nightmares, equally underscore the traumatic experience of persistent re-experiencing, representing her deep psychological distress. Particularly, this being said, Susie’s thought process seems disordered conveyed in sudden and incomplete sentences which fail to make a single story. The fictional character may experience this disorganization as a result of the rush and miracle of the events, which will hinder their ability to logically connect her thoughts like a coherent sentence (Morris, 2015). Susie’s strain of thought reveals the severe nature of trauma as a psychiatric crisis, which leaves mental abilities affected in her case, illustrating that psychological damage and cognitive disruption can be entwined after a trauma.
Thought content
Susie is shown to be fixated on the negative side of terror, vulnerability, as well as mistrust, which hints at the devious nature of the trauma as a whole with regard to her assessment of herself, along with the world. The main point she makes, which is that victims of trauma have the dominant emotions of fear and vulnerability, and they perceive the universe as being constantly dangerous and uncertain, shows how heightened stress and insecurity are some of the aftermaths of trauma (Fowler et al., 2013). Aside from this, Susie also implies deep feelings of regret and self-defence for the assault, trying to hold on to apparently shifted perceptions of herself and the role she played contributing to the traumatic crisis. It might lead to the internalized discrimination of the fact that she actually is suffering from a mental problem and make herself even more disappointed and bitter. The thoughts of Susie reflect how difficult and horrid it might be for a person to deal with cognitive distortions and negative self-assessment, which are usually traced back to the trauma. Thus, therapy is imperative to retrain and vary the thinking patterns.
Perception
Susie’s worldview has been drastically altered due to the fact she has been through trauma, which is illustrated through the loss of sensory functioning and the change in the perception of reality. The brutal flashbacks and the ear noises she describes demonstrate the presence of this traumatic episode, carrying them into her present consciousness and erasing the boundaries between the past and the present. Besides this, Susie notices episodes of extreme detachment in relation to her environment. These are dissociative experiences where she becomes temporarily unable to relate to her surroundings. Hence, these apparent separations from a concrete world in Susie’s perspective pinpoint a deep disruption in reality, where she feels distant and alienated from herself and the environment surrounding her. In essence, Susie’s perception is spread all over the place by an invisible force, which makes a terrible distortion of what she thinks is real. Therefore, the experience of the trauma has a large influence on her subjective perception of the world.
Judgment and Insight
Susie dares to recognize and deal with her traits of PTSD as she not only manages to admit that she is showing scary symptoms, but she is also genuinely willing to go for psychiatric help to deal with them. By acknowledging the link between traumatic events that occurred previously and her current emotional distress, she exhibits a clear sign of self-reflection and self-awareness at a high level. She shows that she is aware of how those previous influences her current functioning by how she explains that. Insight is one of the critical elements for treating the problem (Mruk, 2013). Her proactive step of seeking treatment manifests her dedication to the path of healing itself and also the recognition of the necessity of professional support in overcoming the different abuses she has been subjected to. Ultimately, Susie’s aptness and perception a crucial elements in establishing a successful collaborative effort, and are also the tools needed by her on her journey of healing and rebuilding.
Conclusion
In the assesment of Susie`s case, the traumatic nature of it is shown, as well as the multifaceted impact that it has on mental health. Via the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) perspective, we demonstrate how all these experiences connect. This theory is, put, based on the idea that what we think, feel, and how our behavior is influenced by the way we think and interpret events happening to us. Such groundwork is essential in the development of interventions that aim at replacing dysoperatives thoughts with healthy adaptive strategies. Further, the interweaving of individual thoughts that come from personal trauma and recovery endured by the therapist contributes to the creation of empathy and the development of therapeutic alliance on trust and collaboration. The mental status examination sheds light on Susie’s expression in both emotional and cognitive areas, giving us the overall picture of how to make a treatment plan, as well as the ways of intervention. Together, the components depict the need for a comprehensive and personalized approach to trauma healing this way, the focus would be on whoever is recovering by empowering them and fortifying their inner strength, which helps in restoring their psychological well-being.
References
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Craske, M. G., Treanor, M., Conway, C. C., Zbozinek, T., & Vervliet, B. (2014). Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach. Behaviour research and therapy, 58, 10-23.https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.brat.2014.04.006
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Morris, D. J. (2015). The evil hours: A biography of post-traumatic stress disorder. HMH.https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mbXaAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=It+is+possible+that+the+fictional+character+may+experience+this+disorganization+as+a+result+of+the+rush+and+miracle+of+the+events+which+will+hinder+their+ability+to+logically+connect+her+thoughts+like+a+coherent+sentence&ots=eIKZX3lX8k&sig=q-6oO-iyrveyoyoo1TDEgc5zenQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
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Pollio, H. R., Barlow, J. M., Fine, H. J., & Pollio, M. R. (2023). Psychology and the poetics of growth: Figurative language in psychology, psychotherapy, and education. Taylor & Francis.
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