Use this Case Study to answer the questions below Grace is a 37-year-old single woman. She is currently balancing a demanding full-time job and being a full-time graduate student working on her Ph.D. Both of her parents are engineering professors, and they expected she would become an engineer as well. Instead, she chose to become a psychologist. Her parents see her entry into this field as frivolous and taking "the easy way" to earn a Ph.D. They minimize the difficulty of her program and the time she has to spend studying. When she talks to them about her stress, they dismiss her and talk about how complex their degree programs were and how they were "real" degrees. When they make these comments, Grace reports she feels hurt and withdraws from them. Since beginning graduate school, Grace has reported problems with sleeping, racing thoughts, hair loss, and significant weight loss. She states she lives on coffee and granola bars because she does not have time to cook. Socially, she reports she does not have time for friends as she is either working or studying. Going out with friends would take away the time she needs to study as she plans to graduate with the highest honors as she has done with her previous degrees. Her mantra is "nothing but an A." At work, Grace is well-liked, and she is in a management position. She has always received stellar reviews until the most recent one. With this review, her boss noted she was late on a critical report and that a few of her team members complained about her snapping at them when they asked questions. The poor review is something she has never experienced in her life, and she continues to think about it all the time. She fears she will lose her job and then be unable to continue her degree. Because her friends stopped asking her to go out, and her parents are unsupportive of her degree and the pressure she feels, she says she has no one to talk to about her feelings.

Questions

1. Identify and describe the CBT counselling theory that provides the theoretical foundation for a treatment plan for counselling the client in the case study below.
2. Summarize the rationale for the selected counselling theory, incorporating the theory's philosophy and constructs.
3. Utilize research that supports and provides a rationale for the selected theory and incorporates the theory's overarching philosophy.
4. Consider the following points in your decision-making process for selecting and justifying the chosen counselling theory:
   • What population/problem was it created to address?What are the underlying philosophies?
   • What propositions/ideas are at the foundation of the theory?
   • How does the theory describe a person's distress?
   • How does the theory describe how a person moves from psychopathology to health?
   • Given the theory you have described, how do you as the counsellor understand the client's distress?