Case Presentation Form Assignment

1. Counseling interns name: Luisa F. Zapata

2. Client/Students first name, age, grade, gender, sexual orientation (if known), race/ethnicity,
religion, economic class (free-reduced lunch), first generation, family background (parents?
Siblings?), and/or other basic relevant demographic information.
The students first name is------
18 years old
Female
We did not touch on sexual orientation
Latina (born in Mexico)
Catholic
Low-socio economic status
Denisse lives with mom, dad, little brother, and sister. Her older brother was deported to
Mexico about 3 years ago.

3. Date session occurred; session number; length of session
The session occurred Wednesday September 25
th
. This was my second session with
Student. I had called her to my office the second week of school to introduce myself as
her counselor and to talk about her graduation status. The session lasted approximately 45
minutes.

4. Use S.O.A.P. (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) notes to capture the presenting
issue:
Subjective:
During my session with student the topics that came up involved the importance of
family in her life and her graduation status for this year. Although I will only share with
the class our conversation regarding graduation and what it means to her to be able to
graduate, she also opened up about her brothers deportation two years ago. Here are
some of the things discussed with student about her brothers deportation.

Counselor: How was it for you to have experienced this?
Client: Very hurtful sadI miss him and stuff but he is doing fine
Counselor: I can see you getting really sad. Your eyes got a little watery.
Client: Nodding yeah silence
Counselor: What happens when you think about him?
Client: It makes me sad like the pain that my mom went through..not having him
around and stuff you never see her crying, she is a very strong women.

Another important topic that came up was her graduation status. Sadly, she will not be
able to graduate this year. This causes a lot of disappointment for her.

Counselor: Is school something that causes you a lot of stress?
Client: Yeah now like thinking I am not going to graduate how I am not going to
make my parents proud.
Counselor: So graduation is something that has been in your mind a lot?
Client: yes. Silence
Counselor: What does it mean for you to graduate?
Client: To me? That I did something good I guesssometimes I feel like giving up but
that is something I am not going to do At least I want my diploma..
Counselor: What I hear is that if you graduate you will make your parents proud?
Client: Yeah because I have 3 bothers and none of them have graduated I know that
was something they wanted me to do.

Objective:
Student was well-groomed during our session. According to our conversation, student has
a supportive and loving family. She has a part-time job at MacDonalds. Student is a
semester short for graduation. She has missed school a couple times during this school
year. So far she has As in two classes and a D in chemistry. She cannot afford to fail
another class this year or she will fall further behind. Student has a full schedule this year
to recover some of the classes she failed in the past. Regarding our session, she was quiet
and showed emotion a couple of times. Talking about not being able to graduate was
what made her cry.


The assessment
According to this session with student, the root of the presenting problem is both
psychologically and sociologically. It is psychologically because the student admits she
does not think she is smart enough to graduate. Due to this thinking pattern, she
constantly loses motivation and stops trying.
It is also sociologically in that family means everything to her. She feels she has the
obligation to make her parents proud of her to perhaps compensate for her brothers
deportation and the fact that she would be the first one in the family to graduate. Due to
her socio-economic status, she feels the pressure to become someone in life as she
mentioned but does not believe she can do it. This issue is definitely affects students
academic, career, and personal social development.

The Plan
Specific: During this session, student was able to come up with long term- goals, the different
obstacles that do not allow her to reach these goals, and short-term goals to reach the main goal.
My plan with her is to keep working on achieving the long-term goals she described as important
to her. The way I will do this is by helping her identify thinking patterns that stops her from
being motivated. Also, she will re-write the goals she came up with during our session in the
S.M.A.R.T format so she feels the urgency of do well in school.
The plan to address self-esteem to increase the students motivation involves having her identify
personal interests, strengths, and areas of improvement. I want to help her find ways to become
more positive in her attitude and behavior. From this session I was able to notice that she focuses
on the things she has done wrong and on the things she is not good at, however, I want her to
focus on the things she has done right in the past and what she is good at. I want her to fill out
different self -esteem statements that will allow her to remind herself how valuable she is.
Some of the self-esteem statements are:
o I feel good about:
o Im loved by:
o People say I am a good:
o I consider myself a good:
o What I enjoy most is:
o I have been successful at:
o The traits I admire myself for are:
o Goals for my future are:
These statements are an adaptation from www.self-esteem -experts.com

Measurable: I will check on students progress by looking at her progress report and teachers
notes on our school system. Even though I will be checking on the above constantly, the goal is
that by the end of October I see improvement in her grades.

Achievable: The goal of our sessions is that she improves her grades by doing her homework,
turning it on time, attending class every day, and studying for exams. The idea is that she feels
capable of reaching both her long-term goals and her short-term goals.

Result- Focus: The result of our one-on-one sessions is that she graduates high school and that
she feels capable to attend and succeed in college.

Time-Bound: By the end of October 2013 improvement in her grades should be visible.


a. Microlevel: I will be working on a one-on-one basis with student every other week
to assess her progress. When I asked her how she liked talking to me during this
session, she said it was very helpful to have someone to talk to about her problems.
It is important that issues with self-esteem are discussed during one-on-one sessions.
b. Mesolevel: Given that motivation is one of the main issues with this student, in the
next couple of weeks I want to speak with the teachers where student is performing
the lowest in order to come up with up ideas that can help motivate student to do
better. We all want what is best for her, therefore collaboration is crucial in reaching
this goal.



5. What multicultural factors are at play? How multicultural factors influence the client-
counselor relationship?
o In the Latino culture, family plays a very important role in ones life. It is important
that I continue to acknowledge this in my interactions with student. I understand that
the focus has to always be on the client sitting next to us, however, I cannot forget
that individualism is not a trait of this culture. Many of the decisions we make are
based on the wellbeing of the family as a whole.
o Even though student and I belong to the Latino culture, we are still from different
countries. What this means is that we are brought up accordingly with our countrys
values which in many occasions they differ.
6. What counseling theories are you using in this session
I decided to start my session with art therapy. I provided the student markers, crayons,
color pencils, and paper and asked her to draw anything she thought symbolized her. I
also gave her the choice of drawing anything that was important to her in her life. I find
that art therapy really helps students feel more comfortable when talking to a stranger,
plus it uncovers very important topics that maybe would not have come up otherwise.
For the second part of the session, I chose to use goal setting, which is a CBT technique
to help student come up with a list of long-term goals she wishes to achieve. I also had
her identify the current obstacles that do not allow her to reach those specific goals.
Lastly, I asked to come up with more realistic, short-term goals that will help her reach
the long-term goal.

7. Good things I did:

I used good attending
I carried out a little intervention during the session
I was empathetic and provided feedback (the two times her eyes got watery)

8. Things to work on:
Allowing more silence
Giving her more challenging responses
To not stock responses