Course Case Studies
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- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
CASE STUDY 1
Ms. V is a white, heterosexual woman, 26 years of age. Assigned to a public mental health agency, she is in the internship phase of a Master's degree program in clinical counseling at a small, Christian university. Ms. V opted to go to graduate school immediately after finishing her Bachelor's degree in psychology. Her initial motivation for studying psychology was to help people, and she chose to do this despite the protests of her upper middle-class parents, who believed that there was no "future" (financially) in the psychotherapeutic professions. Partially to ease their protests and partially to "get on" with a career, she entered graduate school. Ms. V has found working with clients to be quite a struggle. She went into the field with every good intention of helping people, and she believed it was part of her spiritual path. However, the first time a client from a background different to hers, a tall, African American man on welfare, towered over her and told her that she "didn't know what she was talking about," Ms. V melted down and spent the rest of the day in her office crying. She called off from her site duties for the rest of the week, citing illness. At this point, Ms. V is wondering if a career in counseling is really the best fit for her because of her discouraging experiences working with clients. Yet the thought of going through a Master's degree program and not using it, especially when her parents paid and supported her through the program, is a shaming prospect to her. At this point, she is at a juncture and feels trapped.
MS. V
CASE STUDY 2
Mr. B is a homosexual man, 38 years of age, of multiple ethnicities. (His mother was born to a Jamaican father and a white mother, and his father was of Dominican origin.) Mr. B is recovering from a substance use disorder (heroin and alcohol), having amassed three years of clean time in his chosen twelve-step program. A machinist in his first profession, Mr. B was not able to maintain employment because of unreliability in showing up. After trying rehabilitation programs several times, unsuccessfully, his last attempt seemed to stick, following his diagnosis with hepatitis C. Taking an open mind to recovery, Mr. B discovered a new life for himself, and he especially found that working with others gave him a renewed sense of purpose in life. At two years sober, he decided to complete an associate degree program in chemical dependency counseling at his community college. Mr. B loves school and loves working as a chemical dependency counseling intern at his community's correctional treatment facility. He has every intention of going on to complete his Bachelor's degree and perhaps a Master's degree, but he is not sure if he is "smart" enough to handle the writing component of this advanced education. The clients at the facility connect with Mr. B's easy, natural style, partially because it is very clear that he has been to the dark places that they have been.
MR. B
CASE STUDY 3
Ms. T is an African American woman, 50 years of age, who completed her Master's degree in social work two years ago. Ms. T was grandfathered into being a licensed social worker in her state before formal licensure laws came into effect; she worked her way up the ranks in the medical social work department at a hospital near her hometown. Around 40 years of age, she became restless in the "paper pushing" culture of her hospital and decided it was time to make some changes. She thought about going to school for another profession, like nursing, but ultimately decided to complete a Bachelor's degree in social work and stay on for her Master's. She enjoys working with clients in an individual manner, conducting therapy; she feels that she has a great deal to share because of her rich life experience. Ms. T is the mother of three, the grandmother of five, and lost one of her grandchildren in a fatal car accident. Ms. T's father worked with Medgar Evers during the Civil Rights movement, and Ms. T was raised with a strong commitment to social justice. Despite liking her clinical job at a company near her hometown, Ms. T experiences frustrations. For instance, she never thought that there would be as much paperwork in clinical life as there was in medical social work. She finds juggling her schedule, with the mixture of clinical and administrative demands, to be a challenge. She also finds working with some of the younger counselors from a more privileged background to be a struggle, as she sees them as being "out of touch" with what their clients go through. Moreover, Ms. T's clinical supervisor is 18 years younger than her, and Ms. T often has resentment in having to take direction from her.
MS. T
CASE STUDY 4
Mr. N is a self-described "family man," 52 years of age and of Polish Jewish descent. His parents were refugees following the Second World War and immigrated to the United States in the 1940s. Education was highly valued in his family growing up, and Mr. N immediately went to college, finishing a Bachelor's and Master's degree in social work. Mr. N established a career working with Jewish family services in a major American city as a clinical social worker, and he genuinely enjoyed his work. At 45 years of age, Mr. N was compelled to return to college and complete a PhD. His brother is a medical doctor and his sister is a lawyer, and even though he is successful in his own right, he was always made to feel like the underachiever in the family for not living up to his full potential. At the advice of his agency director, Mr. N decided to pursue a PhD in psychology, not in social work, as completing the degree would make him eligible for a psychology license. This new license would make Mr. N eligible to do forensic and educational evaluations that could be quite lucrative in his state; after all, his agency always "contracted out" such services. However, completing a PhD in psychology means that Mr. N would have to complete another internship with a licensed psychologist. He has a friend who is willing to conduct the supervision, monitoring his existing hours at Jewish family services, in addition to mentoring him through other evaluation-based tasks that he must learn. About halfway through the program, Mr. N finds he is growing weary of being supervised again and wishes that he would have chosen to complete a PhD in social work instead.
MR. N
- Back to Course Home
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.