Example of preliminary case formulations case study

INITIAL PATIENT REPORT

In this section of the report, the confidential data of the patient “ Kate Doe” would be described in detail.
1. Identifying Information -: The patient, Kate Doe, is a Caucasian woman who is lives in a town near north of San Francisco. She was born on January 1, 1980 and is an attorney.
2. Presenting Problem and Behaviors-: Kate had been experiencing “ spitting headaches” since seven days (a week), after recently breaking up with her boyfriend. Upon arriving to the office, Kate showed signs of being tired and tearful. In addition, her speech was also slow along with her face being expressionless and vacant. In addition, she shows clear signs of low self-esteem and depression
3. Family History-: Kate’s parents got divorced when she was in the fourth grade. The reason behind the divorce was her father being an alcoholic. Ever since their divorce, Kate had rarely med her father and is very angry with her father for being absent from her youth days.
4. Relationship History-: Kate was in a stable relationship with a boy named “ Brad” and was very much in love with him. She believed he was the one for her and she would get married to him and live happily. On one night, after drinking too much at a party, she had a big fight with Brad over driving while drunk. Consequently, they broke. Since then, she had been leading an emotionally disturbed life with vivid dreams about running over Brad with a car.
5. Occupational History-: Kate works as an entertainment attorney at Alpha Beta Productions. While in the past, she has been successful in establishing the credibility of her work, recently, the chief counsel has complained about the quality of her work. This is because she keeps neglecting her professional responsibilities and also face very frequent crying spells.
6. Initial Diagnosis-: The initial diagnosis of Kate’s case showed that she was expressing acute clinical depression because of her separation with her boyfriend. Her problems and crying spell may also be related to her suppressed anger regarding her father’s betrayal. She still feels that her father preferred alcohol over her, which might lead to feels of inferiority.
7. Medical History-: Apart from recent headaches and signs of depression, Kate does not have any serious medical history or problems.

Answer 1:
For the purpose of preliminary case formulations of Kate Doe, I would recommend using the Cognitive-Behavioral approach for treating her problems and issues. The Cognitive-Behavioral therapy is an approach which addresses the maladaptive behaviors and dysfunctional emotions through various explicit, goal-oriented and systematic behavior. In case of Kate, she showed various dysfunctional emotions like the crying spells and also maladaptive behaviors like very low self-esteem and neglecting her professional responsibilities.

Answer 2:

I would choose the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, because unlike psychodynamic therapy, it focuses on alleviating suffering of the patient as quickly as possible. The psychodynamic approach tried to examine why people behave the way they do. However, in Kate’s situations, the reasons behind her behavior very evident. In addition, her problems needed to be treated as soon as possible because, if continued, her maladaptive behaviors could lead to serious harm for her professional and personal life. Thus, for Kate, the psychodynamic approach does not seem as suitable as the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.