‘Thirteen’ Case Description and Theoretical Analysis
Section 1: Case Description
Tracy Freeland is a thirteen year old Caucasian female. She is a seventh grader at a Los Angeles, CA middle school. Tracey has recently begun a pattern of stealing money from individuals, as well merchandise from stores. She has started to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sexual activities. Over a four month period that these activities took place; Tracy has also started to act out her emotional turmoil with various forms of verbal aggression, as well as self-mutilation. These issues are not known to be patterns of past behavior, but instead recent manifestations associated with her current befriending of classmate Evie Zamora. However, Tracy’s identified past family history is a source of emotional trauma for her. Tracy is the youngest child, with an older brother named Mason. Their parents are divorced and both children currently reside with their mother. The father does have visitation rights, however due to his current job he is not consistently available. He does try to offer financial support but has some difficulty, resulting in stress upon the family especially for Tracy’s mother. The mother, Melanie, is a high school dropout, and recovering from a substance abuse addiction. She does attend substance abuse recovery meetings, which may be the closest Tracy has “experienced” or been around psychotherapy/counseling. Melanie works as a hairdresser from home to try and financially support the family. Melanie also has an on again, off again boyfriend who is a recovering cocaine addict. While his place of residence is usually half-way houses, he also stays in the family home, much to Tracy’s displeasure. Tracey is an intelligent adolescent as observed through her talent in writing poems. Until recently, she was a good student and received good grades. However, she began flunking tests, as well as not turning in homework or completing projects. As a result
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