Background

Ms. R is a teen age mother. At the age 16 she already had a 5 month old baby. She

is a high school graduate. Ms. R and her husband don’t live together; Ms. R lives with her

family, but her husband make sure that he would visit them twice a week. When Ms. R

became a mother she faces a lot of changes in her style of life especially in her sleeping

pattern. Now that she’s already a mother there were times that she was awake in the

evening and asleep in the morning. She doesn’t have enough time for herself, she never

go out with her friends like what she did before. Her full attention and time was focused

on her daughter.

Problem

The problem of Ms. R started when her father and mother reconcile after they

fight because of her. Ms. R made a story about her father that results to separation of her

parents. When her parents were separated she lived temporarily on her husband’s house.

But when her parents reconciled she was forced to go back in their house and there were

times that her relatives confronted her regarding to what happened in their family. After

that Ms. R became silent, sometimes she was absent minded and she locked herself inside

the room with her daughter. Her eating habit changed. She doesn’t eat well like before.

But if her husband was there Ms. R became lively again. She thinks that her husband

would look for another girl, that’s why she doesn’t want her husband away from her. She

thinks that all the attention of her family was divert to her daughter.
Therapeutic Approach

I used cognitive therapy in the case of Ms. R. this therapy suited for her case

because she has this false belief and distorted idea. Her thinking should be revised

because that false belief causes her to feel depressed. Cognitive therapy would help her to

realize and revise her thinking towards herself and to other things.

Session 1

September 14, 2007

In this session we just had a simple conversation. I asked her about her life as a

mother. She said that now she’s facing a lot of changes and still she’s on the process of

adjustment. She also shared that even her sleeping pattern has been changed, because of

her daughter, most of the time she was awake in the evening and asleep in the morning.

This session only lasted for 30 minutes because her daughter keeps on crying and she

need to breast feed her daughter.

Session 2

September 15, 2007

In this session it seems that Ms. R is more comfortable in sharing her story.

Unlike in our previous session she’s hesitant to share something about herself. She

discuss in this session what is her feeling toward herself, now that she’s already a mother.

She said that now she doesn’t have enough time for herself because of her daughter, she

stated “ kahit ang manalamin nga ay hindi ko na magawa” but she added that if she

knows that her husband would come, she make sure that she looks nice and beautiful. She

also said that “gusto ko lagi sumama sa asawa ko kahit nagagalit ang mga mama ko.”
Session 3

September 22, 2007

In this session we discussed about her feeling every time her husband was away

from her. At first she was shy to share. But later on she starts discussing her feeling every

time her husband is not around. She said that she feel at ease every time her husband was

not with her. She stated that “ hindi ko kaya ng wala siya. Gusto ko lagi ko siya kasama’

she said that is the reason why she always want to go with her husband every time he

leaves in their house. She never said directly that she feels insecure but it shows in her

action and on her statement “baka kasi makahanap siya ng mas magnanda sa akin”

(Laughing). We also talked a bout what happened when her parents had an argument and

she just said “galit ako sa mga tropa ng daddy. Iba na nag daddy” she didn’t elaborate to

me the story about the argument that happened to her parents and our conversation ends

there.

Session 4

September 29, 2007

In this session we didn’t talked that much because she’s taking care of her

daughter, she just told me that it is one of the hardest part of being a mother. If she wants

to do something and nobody would take care of her daughter, she has no choice but to

delay the things that she wants to do. She added “kung andito lang ang asawa ko

matutulungan nya ko ditto.” I decided not to continue this session because she can’t

co0ncentrate in our discussion.

Session 5

September 30, 2007

In our last session I am surprised that she’s very active in sharing her story. In this

session we discuss her problem regarding her family. She said that her parents didn’t

allow her decision, which she and her daughter would stay in her husband’s house for 2

weeks and the other 2 weeks they would stay in their house. She asked “ bakit ganon

anak ko siya pero ako ang naghihiram sa kanya” she added “ para nanang wala pakialm

sa akin si mama sabi niya kahit dun ako tumira (in her husband’s house) basta yung anak

niya maiwan dito.” After several question that I asked, in the last part of our session I

asked what she realized after our conversation, but she said she just keep that in herself.

Summary

On the first part of our session Ms. R is hesitant to share her story with me. So to

become comfortable with our conversation I just asked her first about herself, how is she?

I asked her to share her story about her experience as a mother. But as our session go on

Ms. R became more at ease in sharing his story. During our session it reveals that Ms. R

has feeling of insecurity, she also thinks that the attention of every body was caught by

her daughter, that her mother doesn’t care about her, she also thinks that if her husband

was away from her he would see another girl and leave her. After that 5 session it seems

that she made some revision on her thinking. But there were times that she can’t avoid to

become silent and sad every time her husband was not there.
How I am beginning to think differently?

Before I thought that establishing rapport is very easy, but when I was

experiencing it, I realized that it is very hard to make my client feel at ease and

comfortable in sharing her story. Through this I realized that important of good

relationship between the client and the therapist. If the therapist and the client fails to

establish rapport the client would feel uncomfortable in sharing her story. And it is hard

on the part of the therapist because the client may only give limited information.

Realization

When I am applying what I learned in cognitive therapy, I realized that it is not

easy like what I thought before. It is hard to revise the thinking or idea of an individual

about things, because she lived with that idea for a long time. If the client is not

cooperative the therapist would be having a hard time in diagnosing the problem and hard

time in knowing the therapy that should be used in the client. However there is other way

on gathering information about the client- through interview with the family and even

through art. After those 5 sessions I also realized that establishing rapport between the

client and therapist is very hard and rapport is very important, because if there is no good

relationship between the client and therapist. There would be a hard time on the part of

the therapist to diagnose the problem of the client, because the client is hesitant and feel

at ease in sharing her problem that would make the client to just give limited information.

Through this I realized and I proved to myself that having a child at early age has

really a great impact on the on the emotional aspect of an individual, especially after

giving birth, because the individual faces a lot of changes in her life, new responsibilities
and she need to do big adjustment. If the individual get little support from the family it

may led to the development of depression.

Case study
In

Psychotherapy

Submitted by:
Katrina Elaine p. croox
Bs psychology

Submitted to:
Dr. paulino galvez
(Professor)