Panic Attacks in Social Places - Case Study Example

Systematic (Family) Therapy (Students Name) (Institution) (Date) Systematic (Family) Therapy Introduction Systematic Therapy is one of the widely used approaches in the field of psychology. The approach views a person as a component of an entire system, family or a network. People exist within a social school and are not merely lone-rangers within the social arena. Therefore, the social system dictates the thoughts, behavior and the character of a person. In the same manner, the Systematic Therapy views a problem as part of an entire system and not as an individual occurrence. The proponents of this approach believe that things happen due to their connecting and relations with other alternative things in the environment. For example, a problem occurs due to some other related within the entire system. Systematic Therapists tend to look at a person as belonging to a system and therefore the problem occurring being related to such a system. Therefore, the suggested solution is taken outside the individualized approach and given a more holistic, generalized and systematic perception. Overview of the cause of the problem presented in the case study The case study presents the situation of Robert Mitchell who suffers majorly from panic attacks whenever he is exposed to a social place. Robert tends to seek a more familiar surrounding such as his compound for him to regain his self. Besides, Robert appears to be more anxious and highly apologetic to others for being ‘boring’ and not as social as expected. This makes him live a life such as that of a person under a camera watch all the times. One rationale to be considered is the kind of family background from which Robert hails. Both the parents got married to one another at a tender age of 18 years. The father was quite temperamental and seemed not to have a deep emotional connection with Robert. The other younger brother demonstrated a different personality being boisterous and therefore making Robert have difficulty in getting along with him as it’s normally expected. Robert had difficulty in interacting with her mother. He, therefore, remained lonely and left to go and stay on his own. Therefore, the case of Robert appears to be falling within a system composed of family members and friends. The case study describes that the life of Robert was of much solitude and he lacked any personal contact with whom he would share, interact and confide personal information to. This has been the definition of his life from childhood. The client has been having very short sexual relationship terms at any moment. He feels that that the entire society rejects him and nobody is able o understand him. The problem of Robert appears to have been caused and further worsened by misunderstanding and no close person who was able to relate to the client. His solitary life affected him and further made him phobic to social interaction. Actually, Robert felt a sense of not belonging and always thought that he was interfering. The family system is usually an integral part of dictating and shaping up the behavior, thoughts, and life of a person. Members of a family contribute significantly to the growth of interpersonal and social skills of a person right from childhood (Snyder & Deaux 2012). This makes a person understand the value of being around people and a sense of recognition and appreciation among peers. The systems approach considers the significance of other people within the social set up (family) in shaping the character and behavior patterns of a person. Intervention for the problem in the case study Social Integration of the client The first intervention practice applicable in this case regards the aspect of Social Integration as a construct in a Systems approach. The main concept in the Systematic Therapy regards the aspect of perception of an individual as part of the entire social system. People are normally viewed as belonging to some general system and therefore the problems which occur must be viewed as contributed by both the client and the people or factors within the system. Robert has been suffering from social inclusion for the better part of his life. During his childhood, he had no close social and emotional connection with both the parents. Further, the client had no demonstrated close connection with the younger brother. Therefore, he suffered from what is referred to as ‘Family cutoff’ which forced him to relocate and seek a private life in a nearby flat (Kazak et al. 2003). Interaction and close family ties have been seen as an important determinant of a person’s character, thought process and behavior. Social inclusion approach would imply that the client is taught and taken through stages of integrating within the social circles without the feel of guilt, remorse or anxiety. In the case provided, Robert appears not to like being in social places as this had not been part of his life. He feels he is boring and having no much good being with other people. This force he to refrain from social participation and most of the time seeks to belong to his familiar environment which is his neighborhood (Robin & Foster 2003). The intervention to help manage this situation is to slowly take Robert through the importance of socially integrating with others and to practically help the client to socialize. For example, the psychologist needs to attend some of the social events or activities with Robert, introduce him to new friends and learn to include him to participate in social activities such as sports. The exposure of the client and helping him integrate within the different social circles will help him learn the significance and also appreciate being among people. Several social circles such as churches, cinema houses, sports centers, comedy are among other social places will enable Robert to appreciate the purposes of being with people. The underlying rationale for this intervention is based on the fact that system is responsible for causing problems and the same differ solutions for the same problems. Participants within the social system have the advantage of finding healing through the same system (Cooper et al. 2007). The process of commencing social integration for Robert would, therefore, be quite important, and this will enable him understands the importance of belonging to social circles. Fostering communication channels with the client Communication is one aspect that is highly emphasized when using the Systematic Therapy as a psychological intervention process. Every person requires communicating with other people. Whenever communication lacks, a person would feel less appreciated, secluded and not valued like others. Communication, therefore, builds social ties, understanding, provides a means of expression of one’s problems and also offers an avenue for the solution of the problem. During the childhood stages of Robert, there was nobody in the family or in the surrounding that could engage in any close communication with the client (Kazak et al. 2003). There was no close connection between the client and the parents. This was equally manifested in the manner in which the client could respond to social grouping. This resulted in avoidance by the client of the social places. Lack of communication made Robert feels like he stayed in a vacuum and was always guilty at all times like a person staying under the watchdog of a camera. Communication is bets intervention in as a means of building social links and allowing the client express himself to people. This should begin by the therapist being close to Robert so as to allow him to build the power to open up, dialogue and interact. Further, the therapist needs to spread the communities to other people within the immediate environment. Communication is one of the ways through which a person openly lets out any thought or feeling resident within him or her. It acts as a form of relief for a person. This would be quite important to Robert since most of his challenges come from a protracted social life which has made him less social and not able to share his challenges with other people in the challenge (Cascio et al. 2005). The people within the system are the first step towards the healing process of the patient. The ability to foster communication between the client and the members of the society and even other family members would encourage proper relation of the patients. Building Personal confidence of Robert One the contributors to the current situation facing Robert is the predominant feeling that he is less important in the society and less important among others. The client demonstrates that he lacks confidence in himself. Most of the time he is seen to be avoiding public places and social places. For example, he feels sorry most of the time when he could not participate in the social drinks other friends in the bar. The phenomenon of lack of self-confidence is usually disastrous and can make a person have an inferior feeling (Dick et al. 2006). The end result is fear or lack of participating in what other jointly does. The process of building personal confidence is usually demanding and takes a lot of effort from the therapist and from other people within the system. The family is the closest asset in helping a person builds his self-worth and self-confidence. This is usually the case when the parents assign family roles to the siblings and also entrust the siblings with some tasks in the family. The entire life of Robert has no indication of any time he was entrusted with any responsibility. He always feels inferior in the sight of others, and this affects him even into his adult age. The relationship of Robert with the opposite sex has contributed significantly to loss of self-confidence. The case study asserts that the client suffers from the challenge of building any relationship that could last for long and therefore this subjected him to low self-confidence (Smith & Conrey 2007). The best way to intervene and help the client address his problem is to engage him in performing some tasks, responsibilities and also recognition for the efforts that he demonstrates. The systems approach recognizes the role of other members of the society in helping have the self-confidence of a person. The immediate family needs to be closer to him, regard him as anything good and also help boost his confidence. Besides, Robert requires a person who best understands his challenge and is closer to him for a sustained relationship. The sexual relationship is significant in the life of a person suffering from such condition (Norman & O'reilly 2003). Reflective account of the Systems Approach The use of Systematic Therapy is one of the best ways to address problems associated with psychological issues. It best explains and determines the roles of various parties in explaining and determining the problem solution to a problem. The implementation of this approach demonstrated various strengths and weaknesses in the case of Robert due to the unique features in his case (Seligman & Darling 2009). Strengths One of the strengths of using this system in the case of Robert concerns the fact that it relates to the family as one of the systems within the social circle. The family has often contributed immensely to though and character development in a person. In the case of Robert, the challenges stemmed from his family background which further contributed to his situation in adult life. The Systematic Therapy clearly focuses on the importance of family in shaping up a person. This system, therefore, was every specific to the case of Robert and were instrumental in advocating for various strategies to help manage the situation (Molden et al. 2006). The other strength of using this approach is its focus on the fact that an individual is a part of the system and therefore the challenges are partly contributed buys the system. The application of the various interventions, in this case, focused on the roles of other players in helping manage the condition of Robet. The advocacy for better therapeutically is based on better understanding of the origins of the problem In this case; most of them were generated by the social aspect as part of the entire component. The approach underscored the importance of family ties and connection as being part of the problem and also being part of the solution. Other methods fail to recognize the significance of family aspect in the resolution of the problem (Kerzner 2013). Therefore, this approach has strength in solving the challenges expressed for Robert in this case. Weaknesses One of the weaknesses in the use of this approach regards its assumption that problems arise due to the failure or challenges within the system. The approach is based on the fact that there are various components and players within the system whose interactions can cause or resolve the problems. However, some situations result from individual challenges without necessarily involving other players existing within the system. For example, a person may face challenges specific to him and not necessarily resulting from interactions of various components in the system. References Cascio, W. F., & Aguinis, H. (2005). Applied psychology in human resource management. Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis. Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J. O. (2006). The systematic design of instruction. Kazak, A. E., Rourke, M. T., & Crump, T. A. (2003). Families and Other Systems in Pediatric Psychology. Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons. Molden, D. C., & Dweck, C. S. (2006). Finding" meaning" in psychology: a lay theories approach to self-regulation, social perception, and social development. American Psychologist, 61(3), 192. Norman, K. A., & O'reilly, R. C. (2003). Modeling hippocampal and neocortical contributions to recognition memory: a complementary-learning-systems approach. Psychological review, 110(4), 611. Robin, A. L., & Foster, S. L. (2003). Negotiating parent-adolescent conflict: A behavioral-family systems approach. Guilford Press. Seligman, M., & Darling, R. B. (2009). Ordinary families, special children: A systems approach to childhood disability. Guilford Press. Smith, E. R., & Conrey, F. R. (2007). Agent-based modeling: A new approach for theory building in social psychology. Personality and social psychology review, 11(1), 87-104. Snyder, M., & Deaux, K. (2012). Personality and social psychology. In The Oxford handbook of personality and social psychology. Read More

The first intervention practice applicable in this case regards the aspect of Social Integration as a construct in a Systems approach. The main concept in Systematic Therapy regards the aspect of the perception of an individual as part of the entire social system. People are normally viewed as belonging to some general system and therefore the problems which occur must be viewed as contributed by both the client and the people or factors within the system. Robert has been suffering from social inclusion for the better part of his life. During his childhood, he had no close social and emotional connection with both the parents. Further, the client had no demonstrated close connection with the younger brother. Therefore, he suffered from what is referred to as ‘Family cutoff’ which forced him to relocate and seek a private life in a nearby flat (Kazak et al. 2003). Interaction and close family ties have been seen as important determinants of a person’s character, thought process, and behavior.

The social inclusion approach would imply that the client is taught and taken through stages of integrating within the social circles without the feeling of guilt, remorse, or anxiety. In the case provided, Robert appears not to like being in social places as this had not been part of his life. He feels he is boring and having no good being with other people. This forces him to refrain from social participation and most of the time seek to belong to his familiar environment which is his neighborhood (Robin & Foster 2003). The intervention to help manage this situation is to slowly take Robert through the importance of socially integrating with others and to practically help the client to socialize. For example, the psychologist needs to attend some of the social events or activities with Robert, introduce him to new friends and learn to include him to participate in social activities such as sports.

The exposure of the client and helping him integrate within the different social circles will help him learn the significance and also appreciate being among people. Several social circles such as churches, cinema houses, sports centers, comedy are among other social places that will enable Robert to appreciate the purposes of being with people. The underlying rationale for this intervention is based on the fact that the system is responsible for causing problems and the same different solutions for the same problems. Participants within the social system have the advantage of finding healing through the same system (Cooper et al. 2007). The process of commencing social integration for Robert would, therefore, be quite important, and this will enable him understands the importance of belonging to social circles.

Communication is one aspect that is highly emphasized when using Systematic Therapy as a psychological intervention process. Every person requires communicating with other people. Whenever communication lacks, a person would feel less appreciated, secluded, and not valued like others. Communication, therefore, builds social ties, understanding, provides a means of expression of one’s problems, and also offers an avenue for the solution of the problem. During the childhood stages of Robert, there was nobody in the family or in the surrounding that could engage in any close communication with the client (Kazak et al. 2003). There was no close connection between the client and the parents. This was equally manifested in the manner in which the client could respond to social grouping. This resulted in avoidance by the client of the social places. Lack of communication made Robert feels like he stayed in a vacuum and was always guilty at all times like a person staying under the watchdog of a camera.

Communication is the best intervention as a means of building social links and allowing the client to express himself to people. This should begin with the therapist being close to Robert to allow him to build the power to open up, dialogue, and interact. Further, the therapist needs to spread the communities to other people within the immediate environment.

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