Miguel's Family: A Case Study

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The unthinkable as happened a tornado has destroyed the community where Miguel, Martinez, 57 and his family reside. Dozens of homes and businesses were destroyed, and many lives lost (Laureate Education, 2013e). Although the Martinez family lost their home, they are physically okay. Miguel’s best friend died as well has his long-time friend and supervisor. Miguel presents to counseling at the urging of his wife, who thinks that her husband is withdrawn, and is not himself (Laureate Education, 2013e). Although Miguel thinks he is okay, he is displaying symptoms such as difficulty sleeping, not his usual self, and withdrawn (Laureate Education, 2013e). In addition, Miguel and his wife are active in the church. Miguel resigned from a church position. Miguel states that “he finally has clarity on things and wants to do something meaningful with his life.” There are times when a stressful event can trigger a person to reflect and take inventory of their life. An event can be an awakening of sorts, a turning point or/lesson learned (Sutin, Wethington, & Eaton, 2010). At some point, in a person’s life, everyone needs to accept and come to terms with their life story (Broderick, Blewitt, 2016). The crisis Miguel and his family have recently endured has caused Miguel to do some soul …show more content…

Miguel is showing coping mechanisms, and to some degree resiliency, in how he deals with the stress of the recent crisis. However, there is reason to be concerned. The two developmental challenges I identified are getting Miguel to up open and communicate his thoughts about his life, and the recent traumatic event he experienced. The other developmental goal is to ask Miguel to elaborate on his comment “he finally has clarity on things and wants to do something meaningful with his life.” I would want to explore what his interpretation of meaningful means to