Treatment Plan, most Treatment

Jane was able to access community support groups for adults who had been molested as children. She used her therapy time carefully, exploring her tendencies to ignore her own pain and put up tough, hard driving defenses. Although it may have helped in the short run, addressing Jane’s surface wish to leave her daughter alone for longer periods would have blatantly missed Jane’s more pressing needs.

The two case examples illustrate the complexities of assessing client resources and preferences as they relate to treatment planning. However, such assessment must be based on information that comes from the working alliance, or therapeutic relationship, between the people involved. This important fact brings us to the other R in the treatment planning R & R. A multicultural case example is provided in Individual and Cultural Highlight 10.1.

Relationship

The C in L. Seligman’s mnemonic DO A CLIENT MAP represents “Clinician characteristics viewed as therapeutic.” This is as close to swinging the spotlight on the therapist as most treatment planning models get. Seligman consistently focuses on professional and personality attributes of the clinician that are necessary in a well developed treatment plan in her article Selecting Effective Treatments . To be comprehensive, treatment planning must include the person of the therapist in the equation. For example, when you use bibliotherapy as a treatment adjunct, the books you recommend should be books you have read yourself and can personally or professionally endorse. Also, the techniques you use must feel authentic and helpful, not contrived or simplistic. The homework you assign should be in the realm of something you would consider doing yourself, if you were faced with a problem similar to your client’s. If this is not the case, and you ?nd yourself willing merely to match a set of techniques with a set of problems, you are violating not only your client’s humanity-you are violating your own. Just as the treatment plan must strive to include all relevant aspects of the client, the treatment plan equation must include you as a caring, informed professional. If it does not, your clients sense it, and the working alliance never develops to any signi?cant extent.