Mary is a 40-year-old woman who has come to counselling as she feels unhappy and unsatisfied in her life.

How you would apply Person-centred to this case.

Case Study-

Mary is a 40-year-old woman who has come to counselling as she feels unhappy and unsatisfied in her life. Her mother died when she was 10 and Mary grew up living with her father, who she describes as a good man, who worked hard to support his daughter. However, he struggled with anger and alcohol issues and was never able to fully recover from the death of Mary’s mother. Mary felt that her father was distant and so caught up in his own grief that he was never able to love her.

Mary describes herself as a rebel when growing up, who gave her father a hard time but that she worked hard and went to university, which she saw as a way out of the small village she grew up in and a way to escape her father. She now has a successful career in corporate law and is married with a young son, Michael, who is one year old. Mary was initially happy in her career, as she loved the challenge and the money that came with her job. She has been able to give her husband, Chang, all the things that she missed out on as a child: they have a big home in a good suburb and Michael will go to private school. They are planning to have another child next year.

Regardless of all of the positives in her life, Mary still feels unhappy. She loves her husband and son but is feeling oppressed by the constant demands of parenthood and feels that work is suffering because she has to commit more time at home. She enjoys work less than she did and feels that her relationship with Chang is also suffering as she finds herself wanting to spend more time away from home and is stressed and frustrated with the situation and worries about whether she can really be a good mother and wife. She is also disappointed in herself for not being able to have more control over her life.

You can use these as sub-headings

• Explanation on the relevance of the person centred approach to Mary’s case (why this approach may be helpful for her)
• Identification of the key principles and goals of the approach in working with Mary. (whats the goal as a counseller in working with Mary) e.g the alleviation of suffering, an opportunity for Mary to address her concerns and issues in a private caring supported space…..believe that Mary has all the answers in within her…….she has proven that time and again as she overcame tough situations before)
• Explanation on your role as the counsellor when applying the approach
• Suggestion of two techniques or interventions from the approach that you would use with Joel to

facilitate change.

Introduction-

This essay is going to examine the case of Mary……….

Main body

(i)Explanation on the relevance of the chosen approach to Mary’s case (why the suggested approach may be helpful for him)

(ii) key principles and goals of the approach in working with Mary

(iii)Explanation on your role as the counsellor when applying the approach

(iv) Suggestion of two techniques or interventions from the approach that you would use with Mary to facilitate change.

Conclusion