Assignment Task:
For your initial post, read Different Approaches to Psychotherapy. Then read each scenario below and determine which approach would best serve this client and why.
Jayden, a 5-year-old boy, is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). His treatment provider is trying to help him increase eye contact with others.
Trina, a 50-year-old woman, is diagnosed with bipolar I disorder. Her treatment provider is trying to help stabilize her mood.
Desmond, a 22-year-old college student, is diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The treatment provider is trying to help decrease Desmond's overall level of worry.
How does the concept of treatment for psychological disorders apply to any of the following programmatic themes? Looking for Assignment Help?
You may want to review the Programmatic Themes PDF document.
- Self-Care
- Social Justice
- Emotional Intelligence
- Career Connections
- Ethics
Respond to Summer and Rochelle while being respectful of and sensitive to their viewpoints. Consider advancing the discussion in the following ways:
Engage in conversation with your peers around different treatments for specific psychological disorders.
Consider asking a question or sharing your personal experience.
Summer post
In the case of Jayden, a 5-year-old boy diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), his treatment would need to include behavior therapy with desensitization included so that he could be made less sensitive while making eye contact and in turn, this would enable him to be able to make eye contact more readily for the five-year-old child. You would be helping to shape behavior that needed to be modified in this case and, in a sense, creating the desired response: the child would feel less sensitive over time to making eye contact. In addition, considering the patient is a child and children respond well to reward systems, operant conditioning could also be utilized as a method of therapy offering rewards and punishments to train the child's behavior so they become more aware that eye contact is a rewarding behavior.
Trina, a 50-year-old woman diagnosed with bipolar I disorder, treatment provider could stabilize her mood by trying cognitive behavior therapy. Taking bad, negative thoughts and behaviors and replacing them with good, positive thoughts and behaviors.
Desmond is a 22-year-old college student diagnosed with a generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) being a treatment provider trying to help decrease Desmond's overall level of worry should use integrative and holistic therapy. However, cognitive behaviorial therapy would work well her, as well, replacing his negative worrisome thoughts with positive, good thoughts would most likely clear up any troubles the overall level of worry was causing him.
The concept of treatment for psychological disorders applies to the following programmatic themes. You may want to review the Programmatic Themes PDF document.
Self-Care. One must be able to not only admit that they need help to take care of themselves and self-regulate but also accept treatment for the disorder. So, it has everything to do with self-care and self-regulation.
Emotional Intelligence You must know yourself and what you need to accept that self-care and self-regulate and also be respectful of those around you, knowing that by treating your own disorders, you are helping others.
Ethics: There is definitely an ethical practice in getting help for your own or helping others get help for their disorders.
Career Connections: You will help yourself more for your future in reaching out for help if you are in that position of having something in need of therapy or treatment to help not only you but those that you affect or that are affected around you.
Rochelle post
For Jayden, the 5-year-old boy diagnosed with ASD whose provider is trying to help him increase eye contact with others, I believe the best treatment plan would be Behavior Therapy. In an article found at Chicagoabatherapy.com "Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy is an approach that focuses on understanding and modifying behavior" (Chicago ABA Therapy, 2025) First it will be necessary to examine to identify any communication, anxiety, or sensory issues that may be present. Because Jayden is such a young boy, this kind of therapy would seem to be a gentler approach to modifying his behavior with operant conditioning as it stated in our reference article (American Psychological Association, 2025) This will apply positive reinforcements as a way to encourage, motivate and reward the desired behavior. This seems to be a kinder positive way to encourage more of the desired behavior
In the case of Trina, a 50-year-old woman, who has been diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder, her treatment provider is trying to help stabilize her mood. It appears that cognitive therapy CBT may be used coupled with medicine depending on the severity of the episodes Trina is facing. If the patient refuses medication therapy, CBT would be the recommendation and close monitoring for patient safety. Cognitive Therapy is advised because it "emphasizes what people think rather than what they do." (American Psychological Association, 2025) The article goes on to say "People can change how they feel and what they do." (American Psychological Association, 2025) Rather than immediately try medication therapy, I think it may be worth trying to see if her body can correct itself by introducing a cognitive therapy approach.
Looking at the case of 22 year old college student, Desmond, who has been diagnosed with GAD, General Anxiety Disorder, I would also suggest Cognitive therapy. According to an article in PsychCentral, "the first line treatment and gold standard for treating anxiety is Cognitive therapy." (Tartakovsky & Arthur, 2021) According to the article, this approach is a multi-level treatment course that aims the treat the client on multiple levels: physically, cognitively, and behaviorally. In this approach the client and therapist partner to find the most effective treatment plan and balance to therapeutic aids.
Emotional intelligence is one programmatic theme that applies to the treatment of psychological disorders. From the perspective one someone who has received a diagnosis you will need to be pretty tuned in to the symptoms you are facing and forthcoming enough to honestly describe them to your treatment team. Additionally, self-care would come into play because you would need to be kind enough to yourself to get treatment and strong enough to keep going even when things get hard.