Practicum – Week 2 Journal Entry

Assignment: Practicum – Week 2 Journal Entry

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Apply documentation skills to examine family therapy sessions
• Develop diagnoses for clients receiving family psychotherapy
• Analyze legal and ethical implications of counseling clients with psychiatric disorders

The Assignment related to this Learning Objective is introduced this week and submitted in Week 3.

Select two clients you observed or counseled this week during a family therapy session. Note: The two

clients you select must have attended the same family session.

Then, address in your Practicum Journal the following:

1. Using the Group Therapy Progress Note in this week’s Learning Resources, document the family session.
2. Describe (without violating HIPAA regulations) each client, and identify any pertinent history or medical information, including prescribed medications.
3. Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), explain and justify your diagnosis for each client.
4. Explain any legal and/or ethical implications related to counseling each client.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.