John's Wellness Box (Dd)

John, a seventeen-year-old aboriginal male has had a difficult life and has undergone various degrees of loses; including his father, who has been sentenced for twenty years, and his grandfather who past away from cancer. He suffers from Gardner’s syndrome, ADD, ODD, and has addictions to both LSD and ecstasy. He had displayed various issue regarding authority and violence, which had caused many issues in a school environment; and was abused by classmates. This caused him to be moved into a behavioural classroom when he was eleven until he graduated to high school.

His earliest known criminal acts were at age of twelve, which was when he first began experimenting with drugs and committed petty crimes as well due to peer pressure. At the age

Due to the high amount of negative emotions John is experiencing, a wellness box could be used as a grounding mechanism and help him feel a larger amount of support while also lowering his anxiety and depression. This box can be private or can be shared with the counsellor, which would help act to form a counsellor/client bound.

Depending on whether John can write or not, it can also be recommended that John writes a private journal; starting with one entry per week and gradually increasing amounts until he is writing every day. This can contain whatever he would like, so long as he writes in it. This can be used as a tool for john to deal with stress and as an outlet for his aggression.

Both these methods respect John’s privacy while also providing him with easy to achieve goal that will still provide a form of support. It is reasonable to assume that John will not be completely compliant with the sessions do to his age and history; therefore, these can allow him to take part in the sessions without having to feel exposed so

His age, criminal history, addiction, disorders (including Gardner’s syndrome), past issues with authority, and social status all contribute to possible difficulties and risks which need to be considering when planning sessions and goals. It is impossible to predict violence; however, it is important to still prepare when dealing with a high-risk client. This will help when using self-disclosure, empathy responses and boundaries.

In John’s case, cognitive behaviour therapy would be very effective. This would be able to address his negative outlook regarding his situation and past situations. John has a high risk of depression, which is a sense of hopelessness. By using cognitive therapy, one can effectively increase John’s confidence and understanding of himself and others while also lowering him amount of risk to self.

The casual approach would work well do to John’s age, as it allows him to choose the general direction of the sessions and consists of providing more positive outlooks without being very invasive or suffocating. This may also help him improve his socialization skills as he will likely learn how to better communicate.

Therapy Session: Action