Biopsychosocial Approach in Counseling
This assignment is structured to allow the student to be the counsellor/researcher. As the student is the counsellor and researcher, the expectation is for the student to recognize what the experience is like and the value of what a trained counsellor brings to the experience. The assignment is to promote the student’s understanding of biological and psychological social and cultural aspects and their impact in understanding human thinking and behaviour. The student needs to research what they need to understand in each section of the paper.
Using the scenario provided select a disorder/topic and assess the client provided through BPS and Cultural/Social/Socially just factors. BrieZy explore ethical considerations. You may choose the gender, culture, and race of the individual in the scenario. You may also add or delete sections that would add to the scenario in a more appropriate manner depending on the disorder you have chosen.
Click here for the Scenario.
Please select the disorder/topic from this list only. Please note you must choose oonnllyy oonnee of the following disorders:
ADHD
Anxiety
Bullying, self-harm, suicide prevention
Mood disorders (Depression, Post-Partum Depression,
Bipolar)
Substance abuse/addiction - name the substance ie.
alcohol, marijuana
Dementia/Alzheimer’s
Biopsychosocial Approach in Counseling
Your Name
Faculty of Behavioural Sciences,
Course #, section
Dr. Firstname Lastname
[date of submission goes here: either Month dd, yyyy OR yyyy mm dd]
Biopsychosocial Approach in Counseling
In this paper, I will explore how anxiety can adversely influence an individual’s life by using Jonah’s case. Numerous things can happen in life, making a person worry about what is about to happen next. For example, when an individual loses a loved one or encounters other bad things, it is likely that the person will grieve, which is likely to lead to behavioral changes. Although such incidents should be left to take their natural course, it can sometimes become challenging to manage anxiety. Mental health is significant and individuals should always prioritize it so that they can be able to engage in their daily activities optimally. In that light, I will analyze the case of Jonah, a 35-year-old cisgender, gay man, living in Ottawa, Canada, with Stephen, his partner. Specifically, I will focus on Jonah’s case using the metatheoretical lens, Biopsychosocial model (BPS), Culturally Responsive and Socially Just approach (CRSJ), and the therapeutic relationship. Moreover, I will provide concluding comments pertaining to the therapeutic relationship.
BPS and CRSJ Overview
Overview of the Metatheoretical Lens
When it comes to counseling, it is crucial to understand how different concepts and theories can be applied to help improve people’s mental health. A metatheoretical lens provides the best philosophical framework that facilitates a critical analysis of theories to facilitate effective therapy sessions. For instance, some of the metatheories and paradigms that will be used in this paper include the big five personality traits, namely agreeableness, neuroticism, extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness (John & Srivastava, 1999). Individuals with high openness have a wide range of interests, are eager to learn, are creative, adventurous, and enjoy new experiences. Conscientiousness is usually defined by good impulse control, thoughtfulness, and being goal-oriented. Extraversion is characterized by assertiveness, emotional expressiveness, sociability, talkativeness, and excitability. In addition, agreeableness entails affection, kindness, trust, prosocial behaviors, and altruism (Cekici, 2019). Neuroticism includes emotional instability, sadness, and moodiness.
Other crucial aspects that influence the practice of counseling and psychology are multiculturalism and social justice. The model that the counselor in the scenario at hand will be using is the BPS model. In particular, the most significant thing about the BPS model is that it emphasizes the collaboration of psychological, socio-environmental, and biological factors. When a counselor applies this model, it shows the benefits of maintaining individuals’ wellness in different aspects of their lives. The biological aspect focuses on the relationship between bodily health and the disease. Additionally, the socio-environmental factor entails the interpersonal factors, including community activities and social interactions. The psychological aspect emphasizes emotional and mental wellness that relates to a person’s behavior. All these aspects will guide the counselor’s practice in helping Jonah to overcome his mental health problem.
The CRSJ framework focuses on how social locations, cultural identities, sociocultural contexts, and lived experiences affect the client-counselor relationship (Collins, 2018). Although the CRSJ framework is theoretical, it poses essential things that can significantly contribute to the conceptualization of the case at hand. Collins (2018) argues that individuals’ social locations, beliefs, worldviews, and values are crucial in understanding mental health issues. As such, counselors should not avoid these concepts since they can facilitate improving the mental well-being of their patients. Additionally, Collins asserts that beliefs, worldviews, and values are constructed socially. At this juncture, the author means that counselors should always remember that it is vital to consider people’s culture when trying to address psychological problems. For instance, if two individuals from different cultures, let’s say an Indian and an African American, have a similar psychological problem, the counselor cannot give the same remedy since counseling practices are significantly influenced by people’s culture. In particular, the eight primary dimensions of an individual’s cultural identity are spirituality or religion, age, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, gender, ability,