Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II. In last week’s Discussion, you conceptualized cases and selected theory-based interventions for couples or families experiencing life transition and developmental issues. As you develop professionally, you may find certain issues more meaningful to you and your practice.

This week, you continue to explore life transition and development issues so that you may begin to think about areas in which you may experience challenges. Awareness of these issues and the steps you might take to overcome them will ultimately help you narrow down your focus in the future.

Students will:

• Analyze challenges when working with couples or families experiencing life transition or developmental issues
• Analyze professional development to overcome challenges
• Design treatment plans for couples or families experiencing life transition and developmental issues
• Analyze evidence-based interventions

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Gurman, A. S., Lebow, J. L., Snyder, D. K. (2015). Clinical handbook of couple therapy. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

• Chapter 20, “Couple Therapy and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”
• Chapter 24, “Couple Therapy and Sexual Problems”

Document: Treatment Plan Template (Word document)a

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Required Media

Please select, obtain, and view one of the following movies to use with this week’s Assignment:

Gilbert, B. (Producer), & Rydell, M. (Director). (1981). On golden pond [Motion picture]. United States: IPC Films.

Demme, J., Armian, N., & Platt, M. (Producers), & Demme, J. (Director). (2008). Rachel getting married [Motion picture]. United States: Sony Pictures Classics.

Schwary, R. (Producer), & Redford, R. (Director). (1980). Ordinary people [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Fischoff, R., & Jaffe, S. (Producers), & Benton, R. (Director). (1979). Kramer vs. Kramer [Motion picture]. . United States: Columbia Pictures.

Pratt, C. (Producer), & Carlino, L. J. (Director). (1979). The great Santini [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Bros. & Orion Pictures.

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Optional Resources

Use the link below to access the MSW home page, which provides resources for your social work program.

MSW home page

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Discussion: Overcoming Challenges to Working With Life Transition and Developmental Issues

You bring your own couple and family experiences that may enrich or detract from your success as a couple and family practitioner. Contextualize these issues within your professional practice, and think about how your experience might impact your work with clients. Consider whether there are issues you might find challenging to work with because of your personal history, values, or beliefs, and then reflect on how you might address these challenges.

For this Discussion, you will examine your personal experiences and the challenges you might encounter when working with life transition and developmental issues as a couple and family practitioner.

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

By Day 4

Post a brief description of the life transition or developmental issue you find most challenging to work with and explain why this issue is challenging for you. Then, explain professional development steps you might take to overcome this challenge.

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the resources.

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Read a selection of your colleagues’ postings.

By Day 6

Respond to two of your colleagues’ postings in one or more of the following ways:

• Ask a probing question.
• Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Make a suggestion.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting.

Return to this Discussion in a few days to read the responses to your initial posting. Note what you have learned and/or any insights you have gained as a result of the comments your colleagues made.

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 8 Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 4 and Respond by Day 6

To participate in this Discussion:

Week 8 Discussion

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Assignment: Applying Theoretical Interventions for Clients Experiencing Life Transition and Developmental Issues

Couple and family helping professionals have varying degrees of work. What they all have in common is that their clients represent the variety of human experience. Even those helping professionals with a specific clinical focus see variety in the ways in which specific issues manifest in different relationships. Part of the goal of your program is to expose you to varying scenarios so that when you are faced with differing client situations, you will have the evidence-based research knowledge, flexibility, analytical skills, and theory-integration practice to know the best course of action to take with a particular couple or family.

For this Assignment, select and view one movie from the list provided in this week’s resources below. If you need assistance locating these movies, see this guide: Does the Walden Library have popular films or novels? Begin to conceptualize the couple’s or family’s problem through your theoretical orientation, and identify interventions that you might use. Finally, begin to locate articles in the Walden Library that could be used to justify the interventions you selected.

Gilbert, B. (Producer), & Rydell, M. (Director). (1981). On golden pond [Motion picture]. United States: IPC Films.

Demme, J., Armian, N., & Platt, M. (Producers), & Demme, J. (Director). (2008). Rachel getting married [Motion picture]. United States: Sony Pictures Classics.

Schwary, R. (Producer), & Redford, R. (Director). (1980). Ordinary people [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Fischoff, R., & Jaffe, S. (Producers), & Benton, R. (Director). (1979). Kramer vs. Kramer [Motion picture]. . United States: Columbia Pictures.

Pratt, C. (Producer), & Carlino, L. J. (Director). (1979). The great Santini [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Bros. & Orion Pictures.

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

The Assignment (2–3 pages)

• • Identify the movie you selected and the life transition and developmental issue present in the couple or family.
  • Conceptualize the couple’s or family’s problem through your chosen theoretical orientation.
  • Design a treatment plan including short- and long-term goals.
  • Explain two evidence-based interventions you would use to address these couple’s or family’s issues and how you would use them.

Note: The interventions may not emerge from your chosen theoretical orientation.

• Justify the intervention you selected with two evidence-based research articles.

Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the resources for this course.

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

By Day 7

Submit your Assignment.

Submission and Grading Information

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

To submit your completed Assignment for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Assignment using the naming convention “WK8Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 8 Assignment Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Assignment.
• Click the Week 8 Assignment link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK8Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 8 Assignment Rubric

Check Your Assignment Draft for Authenticity

To check your Assignment draft for authenticity:

Submit your Week 8 Assignment draft and review the originality report.

Submit Your Assignment by Day 7

To submit your Assignment:

Week 8 Assignment

Week 8:Life Transitions and Developmental Issues II

Week in Review

In this week, you continued to explore life transition and development issues you began to think about areas in which you may experience challenges.

In the next week, you will shift further along the continuum of care beyond life transition and developmental issues to pervasive mental illness and health concerns that may have a relational component to either their development or treatment.

To go to the next week:

Week 9