Your work in this week will focus on one of the models you have
studied in this course. Your task in your Signature Assignment is to
demonstrate thorough knowledge of your chosen therapy model, including
how the model approaches both case conceptualization and treating
planning. To do this, you are expected to describe the model’s main
assumptions and concepts and then apply this model to conceptualize and
design a course of treatment for a family from your chosen movie. (select a different movie from the one selected for Week 3).
You can find these movies on Netflix (or other subscription video
streaming website), Red Box (or video store), or at your local public
library.
Antwone Fisher
Big Fish
Crazy/Beautiful
Dan in Real Life
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Father of the Bride (1 or 2)
Jenny’s Wedding
Juno
Madea’s Family Reunion
Mildred Pierce
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
Ordinary People
On Golden Pond
Pursuit of Happyness
Seasons 1 OR 2 of Downton Abbey
Sleepless in Seattle
The Blind Side
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
The Kids Are Alright
I. Introduction to the paper (overview of what you’ll be doing in
paper, which is to describe your chosen model and the apply this model
to a case from a movie)
II. Describe your chosen therapy model
A. Thoroughly articulate the component
parts of your selected Classic Model, including a specific illustration
of why this model can be considered among approaches based on
systems-based theories.
B. Describe the main assumptions and
concepts from your model. This includes the model’s assessment concepts
concerning families and family functioning, its main goals and
interventions, and its view of the role of the therapist, and its view
of what the goals of therapy are. (This is one of the most important
sections of your paper, so focus your energy here and on IV B. This
section may include some information from the articles you located in
week 10.)
C. Critique of your chosen model (discuss
any possible limitations from this model, perhaps discuss cultural
competency of the model, discuss any shortcomings of the model based on
the research articles you located.)
III. Apply the model to the family from the movie
A. Provide a brief background on the
family (this is not a scene-by-scene overview of the movie; it should be
a paragraph or two that provides relevant information about the family
and the challenges they’re facing; see examples of case studies in
Gehart, 2014)
B. Discuss how the model’s most important
concepts apply to the family from the movie. What you are doing here is
conceptualizing the case using your chosen model’s assessment concepts.
(This is one of the most important sections of your paper, so focus
your energy here and on II.)
C. Discuss any limitations to using this
model with the family from your movie. This might include cultural
considerations or other possible limitations.
IV. Develop a treatment plan to treat the family. Present a complete
treatment plan that uses your model to develop goals and interventions
that are specific to the family from your chosen movie. Your focus here
is specifically on a treatment plan (as opposed to case
conceptualization, which you have already done). Look at the treatment
plan examples in Gehart, 2014, for guidance. You should format the
treatment plan as you would during therapy (with appropriate
labels/numbers for goals, etc.) rather than just writing in paragraph
format. Explain what the focus of therapy might be, if you were to work
with this family in therapy. The treatment plan should be centered in
the selected Classic Model.
V. Conclusion- Summarize the main points of your paper.
To successfully complete this assignment you are required to apply
your knowledge of the selected model to the case conceptualization and
treatment planning. Please do not provide a detailed description of the
movie or a standard template of a treatment plan that could be found in
the Gehart text. Rather select a specific situation in a movie and/or
utilize movie characters to create a specific case scenario that you
will then address in your case-specific treatment plan. All three pieces
of your essay (case description, model application, and treatment plan)
should demonstrate a whole, where your professor will be able to follow
your understanding and application of a specific Classic MFT model.
Length: 9-12 pages – excluding the title and references pages
