Celie Case Study Essay

My client Celie is a middle age African American female. She came to therapy because of her history of abuse. She was abused and raped by her Pa, who took away her children after they’re born. Eventually, Pa married Celie off to a man who is just as abusive as him. Celie’s husband, Mr., simply married Celie to take care of his four children, look after of his house, and work in his fields. Celie’s younger sister Nettie was kicked out the house for not encouraging Mr. sexual advances. Although Nettie promises to write, Celie doesn’t hear from her. Celie’s life worsens as she’s now separated from the only person in the world whom she loved.
After years of suffering, Celie’s life changed when Mr. brought his mistress home, whom he made Celie nurse back to health. Mr. mistress, Shug, was everything that she wasn’t. She was sexy, vivacious, and independent. Celie fell in love with Shug and her vivacious
spirit. For the first time in Celie’s life, she has a chance to enjoy sex, romance, and friendship. Together, Celie and Shug discovered the mystery of Nettie’s silence for so many decades. Essentially, Mr. was hiding all of Nettie’s letters. Celie doesn’t know her sexual orientation, because she never experienced true love until Shug. When Celie finds her sister’s letters, it unlocks a new world for her. Instead of being submissive and oppressed, she realizes the full extent of the abuses she has suffered from Mr. This knowledge gives her the strength to leave him. Celie headed off to Memphis with Shug to start a new life.
Nettie’s letters transform Celie’s perspective of life. Celie obtains knowledge that Pa is not actually her biological father. Celie also acquired information regarding where Nettie is currently living and whom she living with. Apparently, Reverend Samuel had also adopted Celie’s two children from Pa many years back. Nettie, Samuel, and the children plan to return from Africa.
Soon after, Celie finds out that Pa has died. She also finds out that the house that Pa lived in actually has belonged to Celie and Nettie from their mother passed away. Celie owns a home, which she prepares for Nettie’s arrival. Now an independent woman emerges, and she eventually reunites with her sister and children.
I chose this client, because of her hardships and resilience. The three dominant attributes of Celie's personality are strength and endurance, unconditional love, and the constant search for truth. From adolescence into adulthood, Celie endures sexual, physical, and emotional abuse; still she remains a caring and gentle soul who finds it easy to love when it is a mutual. Her resilience is truly astounding and worth noting while her husband, can do as he pleases. She loves others more than she loves herself. She has clear evidence of self-hate, low self-esteem, and poor mental health. However, It is only towards the end of her journey that Celie realizes she can be content without depending on anyone but herself, but it took years of pain to arrive at this sense of self-sufficiency. She doesn’t fit into any of the latter stages such as encounter, immersion-emerison. internalization, or internalization-commitment. She does not fit into this, because of her inability to gain self-awareness. However, it is only towards the end of her journey that Celie realizes she can be content without depending on anyone but herself, but it took years of pain to arrive at this sense of self-sufficiency. Not yet to address her identity as a black woman, more so as a human being. In order to evaluate possible countertransference, I must compare the stage that I currently hold. Essentially, in the Black Identity Development model, I am on the last stage. I am an activist for the African American community. I am biracial, which at one point in time, made me devalue my African American roots, because of the media portrayed African Americans to be. I realized that personality and culture development stemmed from years of oppression and voiceless opinions. I realized that everyone can have pride for their culture, and still be united and life in harmony.
My strength with this character, is that I can build rapport based on my empathic approach and active listening skills. I have been in her stage, in which I wanted to hide my culture, and since I am not at a stage of contentment. I am able to flashlight for her and guide her through her self-actualization. My weakness would be the very exact concept. Essentially, since I have been through the stage before, and I am an African American female, there could be possible countertransference, because I could reinforce my beliefs of my racial development stage in which she not yet ready to partake in. I have to be mindful of that while implementing counseling. I typically value independence, which is something that she struggled with throughout her life, so I might place emphasis on something that is not natural to her. Placing values that were not instilled in her.
When utilizing CBT, I will help Celie recognize unhealthy thinking patterns, and change them in a structured way. This is a process that is referred to as cognitive restructuring. I will teach Celie relaxation techniques, advising of ways to increase activities she used to do before becoming depressed and other skills to help her cope with any negative feelings. I will participate in active listening.
My client’s mood is directly related to her pattern of thought.
Celie’s mood of hopelessness is directly related to her belief that she is not worthy of living another day. This concept of learned helplessness is indicated through the traumatic memories of her accepting the physical abuse from her dad and husband. The goal of cognitive behavioral therapy is to help a person learn to recognize negative patterns of thought, evaluate their validity, and replace them with healthier ways of thinking. Celie’s current age is appropriate for this therapeutic approach, as children as still impressionable and have a higher rate of change.
Celie’s experience with physical abuse reinforced the underlying schemas about her self-worth and education level. She has many negative automatic thoughts that are driven by these underlying schemas. Her behavioral pattern of withdrawal, reduced involvement in pleasurable activities has deepened his depression and aggravated his low self-esteem. Celie’s maladaptive schemas appear to have been shaped by early negative experience with her
“Pa”.
I will make sure that I will be available to the client, because her passed neglect experiences. I will also ensure that I am attentive. I want to be a counselor who listens and captures everything. The counselor should be respectful toward patient. It is difficult for her to learn because she is both physically and emotionally beaten by her abuse; but she never gives up trying. She focuses on her faith in God, and continues to live despite her daily abuse. I will emphasis her faith with God, and include her religion. It is important to know your client, and empathize with their belief system.
CBT is goal oriented. Celie and I set aside three goals that she wants to make happen during her time in therapy. The client wants to find a reason to live. The client will be able to complete this goal as evidence by creating an activity schedule and decreasing isolation as evidence by her to finding purpose as she focuses on the things that she loves to do (make clothes and write). The second goal Celie came up with is to refocus her thinking to something more positive. As evidenced by the client being able to complete and adhere to a thought change record. This allows her to see the thoughts and view the reasoning behind them, and the actual truth of that particular thought/feeling. Celie wanted to stop self-doubts, because she doesn’t want to be an influence her children. This can be completed as evidence by reinforcing her self-worth. This will be done through reflect and exposure of negative thoughts.