MY OWN THERAPY

  

Express-Reflect Therapy or ER therapy is based on Psychoanalytic Free association method and Rationale-emotive Therapy. In this therapy the client is free to express his/her ideas, opinions, feelings and emotions and anything he/she wants to say or share with the therapist. The target client of this therapy is young children who experienced emotional disturbance because of their environment, past experiences and people around them that can affect their behavior.



View of Human Nature

This therapy view human nature by means of environment, past experiences and the people around the children that can affect the behavior of young children. Everything that the child experienced may cause to his/her emotional aspects that sometimes affect the behavior of the child. There are some children who are very aggressive and hyperactive in the classroom maybe because of their environment in home or in the school also. As the teacher we can use his therapy to help the child to eliminate or maybe change the maladaptive behavior of the child by giving this ER therapy that the child can express his/her feelings and emotions freely. But the therapist can also be his/her teacher who will guide the child to manage his/her maladaptive behavior.



Development of Maladaptive Behavior          

There are lots of factors to be considered in the development of maladaptive behavior such as the environment, past experiences and people around the child that sometimes leads to emotional disturbance that can affect the behavior of the child. In ER therapy, the therapist looks out the causes of maladaptive behavior like separation, death of the member of the family, neglect and abused. Because of those causes children’s behavior can be affected. Aggressive and hyperactive are some common maladaptive behavior that the young children can possess.



Function of the Therapist          

The therapist in ER therapy can be the teacher of the child. Here the therapist is a good listener. Everything that his/her client likes to say the therapist should have to listen. Here are some functions of the therapist: To help the client to free to express his/her feelings and emotions regarding to his/her problems, to help the client to distinguish the reality and not. To help the client to understand that his/her beliefs even his/her environment can affect his/her behavior, to help the client to reflect on his/her problem and look for the causes and effect on it to his behavior and prepare for the possible solutions to solve their own problem. And the most of all the function of the therapist in ER therapy is to NOT to give an advice BUT to GUIDE and facilitate the problem of the client for him/her to reflect to solve his/her own problem.



Goals of Therapy         

 The goal of therapy is to help the client to express their feelings and emotions without any hesitations and to reflect on it. This therapy helps the client to analyze and to correct their irrational beliefs to become rational. This therapy also helps the client to eliminate or change his/her irrational beliefs or ideas that affect is/her behavior. This therapy convinced and persuade he client to use and strengthen his/her behavior to become rational.



Major Methods and Techniques

1.   Free association

This method allows the client to say anything and everything that he/she wants to share with the therapist no matter how illogical. Silly, painful or irrational it is.

2.   Express-Reflect Writing

This method allows the client to express their feelings and emotions through writing. Sometimes there are client who is timid, they don’t want to share or say anything. So, in this method the client can write anything that comes to his/her mind regarding to his/her problems. After expressing his/her emotions in writing the therapist may read it in front of the client after that the therapist let the client to read also his/her work in front of the therapist and the therapist ask some questions like: “why do you think it happened?” or “How did it happened?” and then allow the client to reflect on his/her own problem and write it. Through this method the client is free to express his/her feelings and emotions and reflect on it.

3.   Express-Reflect Drawing

This method like ER writing Method that allows the client to express their feelings and emotions through drawing instead of writing. The client is ask to draw whatever he/she wants to draw regarding to his/her problem. The therapist here interprets the drawing of his/her client. In ER drawing they can reflect based on his/her drawing. They can also draw his/her possible solutions regarding to his problem.

CASE STUDY OF FELIX

Case study of Felix

Section A. Personal Data Summary

Name: Felix John A. Espejo                              Age: 5 ½ yrs. old

Birthday: March 21, 2005                                 Birthplace: Quezon City

----- School Background-----

Grade: Prep. A

School: St. Francis Day Care Center

          Franville II Subd. Brgy. 175 Camarin, Caloocan City

Name of Teacher: Virginia T. Valeno

----- Family Background-----

Name of Mother: Norma Espejo                                Age: 40 yrs. Old

Occupation: Housewife

Name of Father: Carlito Espejo                                  Age: 45 yrs. Old

Occupation: Maintenance in Mcdo

Name of Siblings (from eldest to youngest, including Him)

1.    Sarah Jane A. Espejo                                                  Age: 20 yrs. Old

2.    Jovi Joy A. Espejo                                                        Age: 18 yrs. Old

3.    Cherry Mae A. Espejo                                                 Age: 15 yrs. Old

4.   Felix John A. Espejo                                                    Age: 6 yrs. Old

5.    Nicole Ann A. Espejo                                                  Age: 2 yrs. old

Section B. Joining Process

          
      Felix John is only 6 years old, studying at St. Francis Day Care Center. He is my Neighborhood. Were not too close but he called me “Ate Che”. He is very active like other children, he play outside their house and sometimes bullying his younger sister. I expected him to act naturally for the successful of this case study. My goal in this case study is to observe and record the behavior possessed by Felix John. My role as a teacher is to help him to eliminate or change his negative behavior. As a parents help him to realize the negative effects of his behavior to him and to his family. And as a friend, to enjoy his childhood experiences without enemy because of his aggressive behavior.

Section C. Presenting Problems

The Problem of the client is about his behavior and this is also the problem of his mother when I interviewed her. She said, sometimes his son Felix is too aggressive. He always teased his younger sibling. There are times that he bite and hit his sibling and in the school he is very naughty as his teacher said when I interviewed her. He is active but sometimes did not participate in the discussion. He is also aggressive in the school because when I observed him in their classroom, he fights with his classmate because of the pencil.

Section D. Psychosocial Therapy

D.1 Time line

MARCH 2005à 4^th child (Felix was born, youngest son)

MARCH 2006à 1^st B-day (everybody was happy because the clown in the party was his father)

MARCH 2007à 2^nd B-day (No party but his father gave him a gift, toy car.)

OCT. 2008à Nicole was born (Felix was jealous because of they have new baby, he felt ignore by his parents)

MARCH 2009à Biking (His father bought him a bike as a bday gift)

 JUNE 2010à 1^St day in school (Felix was excited but he don’t want to go to school unless his mother sent him to school)

JAN. 2011à New Year (They had a lunch outside their house together with their neighborhood)

D.3 Sociograph

D.3 Sociograph in School

* If you were having a swimming trip with your family which of your classmates would you like to join. Choose three classmates.

In this sociograph, we can see that only two of his classmates chose Felix. Because when I interviewed them they said that they don’t want Felix because of his behavior.

D.3 Sociograph in Home

* Which of your Family members are always watched the television? Choose two members.

In this sociograph, it tells that Felix always watched the television and maybe this is one of the reasons of his aggressive behavior.

d.4, d.5, d.6 Personality Dynamics

D.4 Self- Mastery

          
The child is very active especially in play. He plays outside with his friends. He knows how to ride a bike. He always wants to watch his favorite television shows. He also plays cards and marbles. In the school, he knows to write his complete name, he knows his birthday and age. He can now recite the alphabets and recognize it. He can also read some basic words in Filipino and English. He can count 0-100. He knows how to add and to subtract.

D.5 Relationship

Felix relationship with his family is not so good, maybe because of his behavior. He is more closed with his father because every time he wants a toy his father will buy him a toy. In terms of relationship of Felix with his mother, they always have a conflict because Felix is very naughty. He wants to play outside even though his mother does not allow him to go outside. Aside from that he always bullies his younger sibling, maybe because he was jealous with his sibling. And with the relationship of Felix with his classmates is like the relationship with his family. They have friends but sometimes those are become his enemy because he fights and teased them.

D.6 Action

        
Felix always play with his friends outside their house, he play his bike and his toys like robots, cards and marbles. He can do his personal hygiene such as bathing and grooming. He knows how to dress up on his own. He can do his assignments with the guidance of his mother. He always watched television of his favorite shows. In their school, when I observed him. He is very talkative, chatting with his classmates. He teased his girl classmate.




  

Section E. Theoretical Framework

In this diagram we can see different factors that affect the behavior of Felix John to become aggressive. The first one is 4^th child, and being the youngest son of Mr. & Mrs. Espejo. All the attention of his parents is for him. Next is the born of his younger sister namely Nicole. He was jealous because the attention of his parent is not for him but for his sister especially the attention of his mother. He feel ignore by his mother that’s why the third factor is the attention that he gets to his mother. And the last factor is the Peer pressure and his environment because one of his playmates is came from a problematic family because of that Felix John can easily imitate the behavior of his playmate.

According to Albert Bandura’s the social learning theory advocates that individuals, especially children, imitate or copy modeled behavior from personally observing others, the environment, and the mass media. Biological theorists argue that the social learning theory completely ignores individual’s biological state. Also, they state that the social learning theory rejects the differences of individuals due to genetic, brain, and learning differences.

According to Alfred Adler individual psychology on birth order, Adler often emphasized one's birth order as having an influence on the Style of Life and the strengths and weaknesses in one's psychological make up. Birth Order referred to the placement of siblings within the family. Adler believed that the firstborn child would be loved and nurtured by the family until the arrival of a second child. This second child would cause the first born to suffer feelings of dethronement, no longer being the center of attention. Adler (1908) believed that in a three-child family, the oldest child would be the most likely to suffer from neuroticism and substance addiction which he reasoned was a compensation for the feelings of excessive responsibility "the weight of the world on one's shoulders" (e.g. having to look after the younger ones) and the melancholic loss of that once supremely pampered position. As a result, he predicted that this child was the most likely to end up in jail or an asylum. Youngest children would tend to be overindulged, leading to poor social empathy. Consequently, the middle child, who would experience neither dethronement nor overindulgence, was most likely to develop into a successful individual yet also most likely to be a rebel and to feel squeezed-out. Adler himself was the second in a family of six children.

          Behaviors like aggression can be learned by watching and imitating the behavior of others. A considerable amount of evidence suggests that watching violence on television increases the likelihood of short-term aggression in children (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2005, though for a dissenting viewpoint, see Freedman, 2002). Individuals may differ in how they respond to violence. The greatest impact is on those who are already prone to violent behavior. Adults may be influenced by violence in media as well.

Section F. Prognosis

According to the mother of Felix john the problem of her child is his aggressive behavior because he always caught his younger sister. He bites and pushes it when he saw his sister holding a toy. According to his teacher, he is also aggressive in the classroom to the point that he punched his classmate with his pencil. And according to my observation in their house, Felix john always wants to watch television after hat if he saw his sister holding a toy he get it and throw it away. His mother gets angry with him because of his behavior but Felix john ignore it. He bites his younger sister and his sister cried. As I observed him outside their house, his playmates playing like a boxer he joined them and act like a boxer too. But one time he accidentally punched his playmate in the nose so his playmate punched him too that’s why they fight.

          I guess the reasons why Felix John acting like that is because he was jealous with his younger sister. He is the 4^th child in the family before, his mother and father always buy him a toys because he is the youngest. Every time he wants a toy his father bought him a toy. His mother always care for him but when his younger sister was born the attention of his mother is not him but for his sister. Felix john was jealous because he feels he is no longer a center of attention of his mother. Or maybe because he was also ignore of his siblings. His ate sarah always in the school because she is a college student, his kuya jovi is not always in their house while his ate cherry mae is in the school also. So, Felix John always left with his younger sister although Felix John was also schooling he only spend almost 3 hours in the school but most of the time Felix John is In the house together with his younger sister.

          Another thing is the peer pressure and his environment one of his playmate was a bothered child by his father that’s why he is aggressive and Felix John imitated it.

Section G. Therapeutic Plan

          G.1 Knowledge Building

At the end of the case study the client child must be able to build the following knowledge about:

1.    Self-concept

2.    Self-mastery

G.2 Skills Building

          At the end of the case study the client child must be able to build the following skills about:

1.    Social Skills

2.    Listening Skills

3.    Communication Skills

G.3 Attitude Building

          At the end of the case study the client child must be able to build the following attitude about:

1.    Valuing the importance of being an older brother.

2.    Valuing the importance and friends and family.

3.    Respecting family members and others.

Section H. Therapeutic Intervention

Therapeutic plan	Activities	Schedule
Knowledge Building 1.         Self-concept 2.    Self-mastery	Creative writing Make-believe play	March 14, 2011 March 14, 2011
Skills Building 1.    Social Skills 2.    Listening Skills 3.    Communication Skills	Role-playing Story Telling Puppets	March 15, 2011 March 15, 2011 March 16, 2011
Attitude Building 1.    Valuing the importance of being an older brother. 2.    Valuing the importance of family and friends. 3.    Respecting family and others.	Role-playing Group-play with friends Role-playing	March 14, 2011 March 16, 2011 March 16, 2011

Section I. Therapeutic Progress

Activities	Schedule	Progress
Knowledge Building 1.    Creative Writings 2.    Make-believe play	March 14, 2011 March 14, 2011	Felix expresses his feelings and emotions through writing. Felix enjoys the play about his abilities and skills.
Skills Building 1.    Role-playing 2.    Story telling 3.    Puppets	March 15, 2011 March 15, 2011 March 16, 2011	Felix is now friendlier. Felix is now interested and develops listening skills. Felix can now use his language to communicate and use it in conversations.
Attitude Building 1.    Role-playing 2.    Group play with friends 3.    Role-playing	March 14, 2011 March 16, 2011 March 16, 2011	Felix doesn’t want to participate in the role-playing. Felix enjoys the group play activities with his playmates without bullying and fighting with them. Felix participate in the role-playing but suddenly he changed his mood and go outside their house.

Section J. Therapeutic Result

          My therapeutic plan in knowledge building is self-concept and self-mastery. In this objective I want my client to express his feelings and emotions of how he defines himself through creative writing. In the activity, Felix actively participate in the writing activity, defining himself and role-play what he wants to be and of course he showcase his talents and abilities as he said he wants to be a dancer.

          In the skills building, Felix really enjoyed different activities that develop his social, listening and communication skills. I observed him and now he is friendlier than before, he is now more interested and develops his listening skills. He can now use his language to communicate and apply it in the conversations.

          In the attitude building, Felix participates in role-playing but sometimes he doesn’t want to play. In the group play activities, Felix actively participates and enjoys the play with his playmates without bullying and fighting them.

          I must say that my objectives in this case study are really achieved because I can see some changes in the behavior of Felix and I know that conducting different activities helps him a lot to develops his good behavior and it can also helps to his family.

Section K. Summary, Conclusion, and Recommendation

Summary:

          My client child is Felix, a six year old child of Mr. and Mrs. Espejo. I approached his mother and ask permission that I want Felix to be my client in this case study and his mother surely agreed. Felix is my neighbor that’s why it’s easy for me to observe him and conduct an interview with his family. As I interviewed his mother and teacher, they said that the problem of Felix is his behavior. Sometimes he bites his younger sister without any reasons. He always teased his classmates and fight with them said his teacher. His teacher also said that Felix is talkative and doesn’t want to recite. In the theoretical framework I include different factors that can affect the behavior of Felix. I used the theory of Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, wherein the child use imitation and modeling and environment also affects his behavior. I also used the theory of Alfred Adler individual psychology on birth order, wherein the birth order of the child can also affects his behavior. I have objectives to attained and conduct some activities that will help Felix to develops his behavior.

Conclusion:

          I there for conclude that this case study helps me a lot to understand the behavior of my client to formulate some solutions and did some activities that help to achieve the goal of this case study. This is not easy because I have to observe and interview the parents, teacher, classmates and his playmates to gathered different information that will help me to assess my client. I have to observe him in the house and school to record his behavior. I also conclude that there are a lot of factors to be considering that can affect the behavior of the child. And birth order also contributes to the aggressive behavior of Felix.

Recommendation:

          I recommend to the parents of Felix to continue support the needs of Felix especially in the school, continue understanding the mistaken behavior of Felix and give him special attention for him not to be jealous with his younger sister.

          I recommend to the family members especially to his siblings to join Felix with them, guide and help him in his assignments to continue their good relationships.

          I recommend to the teacher of Felix to continue support Felix in his studying and maintain good relationship with Felix. Also continue to encourage, guide and understand Felix most especially in his behavior.

Section L. Implication to Education and Assessment

          This case study is related to the education and assessment. It may serve as the basis for information on how to understand the behavior of young children and what other factors that can contribute to the mistaken behavior of the child. My experiences in doing this case study will serve as my guide as I go along in the teaching field. I can compare and use that knowledge that I’ve learned to understand the behavior of my future students.

          This case study also helps to assess the child because there are a lot of information gathered from the members of the family, playmates, teacher and classmates. Remember that in assessment, you don’t have to look on one side of the child but it’s better to assess the child by gathering many information that the teacher can formulate, analyze and assess to fully understand the behavior of the child.