Psychoeducational tool: the client handout

Prior to beginning work on this interactive assignment, please review Cases 18, 19, and 20 in Case Studies in Abnormal Psychology (Gorenstein & Comer 2015) and any relevant Instructor Guidance.

In practice, clinical and counseling psychologists utilize psychoeducational tools (e.g., bibliotherapy, client handouts, worksheets, etc.) to enhance the client’s knowledge about mental health issues, coping strategies, and resources.

For this interactive assignment, you will create a visually interesting client handout based on the case study chosen for the Psychiatric Diagnosis assignment in PSY645 and your Week Six Psychological Treatment Plan in this course. You must attach your client handout document to your initial post in the forum.

The client handout will include the following required elements.

Education: Explain, with as much visual information as possible, the client’s cognitive or behavioral symptoms based on your selected theoretical orientation. You may choose to create diagrams, figures, or charts to illustrate the relationship between the client’s cognitions, affect, and behavior.

Intervention: Create a self-help exercise (e.g., a dysfunctional thought record, meditation, deep breathing, guided imagery, muscle relaxation, thought stopping, etc.) to assist the client in monitoring or reducing maladaptive cognitions, affect, and/or behavior outside of therapeutic sessions. Include an explanation about how the handout could be useful in reducing the client’s symptoms. You may choose to visually represent this exercise with charts, scripts, steps, or other media.

Resources: Assess current trends in psychotherapy, and list complete APA reference entries for five sources that would help the client learn more about his or her presenting problem(s), early warning signs of relapse, and managing symptoms. Please include hyperlinks if such exist for your resources.