Reg's behavior demands proper treatment, making cognitive behavioral therapy one of the most appropriate treatment methods that can help address the behavior and change it for the better. Various types of behavioral treatments exist, but unlike other therapies that focus on humanistic therapies, behavioral therapy focuses on the action. Since the behavior of the patient itself is the problem, the aim of the treatment is to teach the client new behaviors that help minimize or eliminate the bad or harmful actions of the individual. Cognitive-behavioral therapy also teaches the patients that since they cannot control every aspect of the world that surrounds them, they can have control on how they interpret and deal with some of the things in the environment.
Psychological Evaluation
Conduction an evaluation on the patient is essential because it enables the psychologists to have a clear insight of the problem affecting the patient (McHugh, Whitton, & Peckham, 2013). When conducting a psychological evaluation on Reg, it is essential to use the clinical interview as one of the tools because it enables physician as well as psychologists to make an accurate diagnosis of the condition of the patient. Using both structured clinical interviews and clinical diagnostic interviews are essential towards achieving a detailed evaluation of the mental disorder influencing the behavior of Reg, thus enabling proper therapy treatment. It is also vital to conduct Intellectual Functioning Assessment (IQ) to the patient because it provides critical information concerning mental retardation. There are two primary methods that psychologist use to measure the intellectual functions of patients, and it includes intelligence tests and neuropsychological assessment. When assessing the intellectual capacity of Reg, it is essential to use neuropsychological assessment method because it provides not only the intelligence test but also help determine cognitive strengths and deficits of an individual.
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When conducting evaluation exercises on Reg, it is also essential to carry out personality assessment that involves administration, scoring and interpretation of personality traits. Carrying out personality assessment on an individual can play a significant role in refining clinical diagnosis, structuring and informing psychological interventions as well as enhancing accuracy in personal prediction behavior (Boswell, Gallagher, & Sauer-Zavala, 2013). It is also essential to incorporate behavioral assessment to psychological evaluation when preparing to provide Reg with cognitive-behavioral treatment. The behavioral assessment helps to identify the disorder in an individual and help psychologist in making decisions on which appropriate behavioral or cognitive intervention to use for treatment. Psychologist and physicians usually use direct observations, self-monitoring and interview as techniques of carrying out a behavioral assessment on the patients.
Counseling Plan-Behavioral therapy
Behavioral therapy is a treatment technique comprising of several treatments for treating mental health disorders. When addressing the condition of Reg, one can use cognitive-behavioral therapy because it combines both behavioral and cognitive therapy aiming at identifying, changing self-destructive or unhealthy behaviors of an individual. Behavioral therapy treatment believes that people learn all the behaviors, and it is possible to change unhealthy behaviors and make them positive. The procedure is likely to use aversion technique because this technique is appropriate in reducing or eliminating unwanted behaviors in an individual or patient undergoing therapy treatment (Hofmann, Asnaani, Vonk, & Sawyer, 2012). The therapy treatment will also use operant conditioning to modify the behavior of an individual using a set of stimuli and response actions after understanding the behavior of an individual by looking at reasons for actions.
After identifying the target behaviors that one need to change, it is also essential to have self-management programs the enables the individual to monitor his/her behavior. Using self-management sheet can play a significant role in allowing the patient to carry out self-management. Self-management sheet will allow the person to indicate the number of times the repeat the target behavior to enable provides reinforcement for the absence of the behavior with the aim of changing the behavior of an individual to the better. It is also vital to have goals in therapy treatment; for instance, in the case of Reg, he might come up with the aim of managing anger and aggression. The psychologist or physician will work with the patient towards proper management of violence and attack at the end, enabling the person to live in peace with people even when a misunderstanding occurs.
It is essential to have behavioral rehearsals during therapy because this ensures that the patients practice and imagine using the behaviors responses and social skills that will later help them when it comes to handling the same things in reality. Encouraging Reg to imagine being in a commonplace and managing his anger and aggression play a critical role in enabling him to modify the behavior to the better allowing him to live with other people peacefully especially in social places such as in a bar. It is also paramount to consider social and ethical issues when providing behavioral therapy treatment to the patients; for instance, a psychologist can consider using aversive techniques that help the patient in reducing cases of self-injuries. Avoiding negative or painful stimuli such as punishment, electric shock and squirting lemon juice on the patient can help the patient achieve the set goals at the end of therapy treatment.
Counseling Goals
Conducting behavior assessment is critical in helping the psychologists or physicians to understand the behavior of the patient before deciding on the most appropriate method to provide behavioral therapy treatment. Understanding the behavior of the patient makes it easy to identify some of the destructive habit and behaviors enabling the doctor to administer the medication that aims at eliminating the harmful habits and behaviors and encouraging the individual to learn the appropriate practices (Street & Haidet, 2011). The primary goal of behavioral therapy treatment is to reduce or eliminate the undesirable behaviors that individual have through teaching or increasing the acceptable practices and at the end, improving the quality of life. Taking the ultimate responsibility of ensuring that the individual learns new acceptable behavior in the process, eliminating the unacceptable response is also essential when providing behavioral therapy treatment.
Taking responsibility means ensuring that Reg undergoes all the necessary procedures and techniques that will allow him to change the behavior of having short temper and aggression. Encouraging Reg to participate in behavioral rehearsal play a significant role in ensuring that the person learns new acceptable practices and eliminate the unacceptable once. It is also crucial to ensure that the individual reduces the behavior of aggression by incorporating aversion techniques that enable the individual to remove such behaviors and replace with positive and acceptable practices. Showing the core conditions that help patients respond to treatment appropriately, such as positive regards, and empathy play a significant role in enhancing the therapy treatment process of the patients. When an individual is responding well to the treatment, it is essential to complement them accordingly, and that can indirectly motivate them to work even better and change their behaviors with the acceptable once.
Conclusion
Behavioral therapy is a technique that psychologists use to provide treatment to mental disorders such as depression phobia, anxiety and other forms of psychopathology. It is essential to conduct a psychological evaluation to the patient using methods such as clinical interview, personal assessment, behavioral assessment and assessment of intellectual functioning before selecting the appropriate purpose of administering the treatment. It is vital to adhere to all the necessary requirements in the treatment method to ensure that the patient replaces the undesirable behaviors with the acceptable once. It is also important to complement the patient when they make positive achievements in the treatment process because this encourages them even more in responding to therapy treatment.
References
Boswell, J. F., Gallagher, M. W., & Sauer-Zavala, S. E. (2013). Patient characteristics and variability in adherence and competence in cognitive-behavioral therapy for panic disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 81 (3), 443.
Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J., & Sawyer, A. T. (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Cogniti ve therapy and research, 36 (5), 427-440.
McHugh, R. K., Whitton, S. W., & Peckham, A. D. (2013). Patient preference for psychological vs. pharmacological treatment of psychiatric disorders: a meta-analytic review. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 74 (6), 595.
Street, R. L., & Haidet, P. (2011). How well do doctors know their patients? Factors affecting physician understanding of patients’ health beliefs. Journal of general internal medicine, 26 (1), 21-27.
