the patient underwent a short term psychodynamic therapy for her intimacy issues. Her diary throughout the sessions is attached.
The style of the paper should be a narrative review. The paper should be structured as follows:
Introduction
A description of the type of treatment you are reviewing. You could include information about the conceptual or theoretical underpinning of the treatment, and the conditions for which it has been used.
Review
Here you would want to inform the reader about what we have learned about the effectiveness of the treatment. Try to find 5 or 6 papers that describe the results of clinical trials that have been conducted. Briefly describe these studies. Look at other narrative reviews of psychological interventions that have been published and try to model your paper accordingly.
Synthesis and Conclusions
For this section you will want to pay close attention to issues that were raised in the Discussion of some of the studies that you summarized. Essentially, you will want to answer questions such as: What have we learned so far, how consistent are the findings, what type of problem does this treatment seem best suited for, what do we still need to know, where do we go from here.
The paper should be written in APA style; it will likely need to be at least 10 pages double spaced, no more than 20 pages.
McGill University Psychotherapy Diary Zeena Mawlawi - 260769320 PSYC493: Special Topics Prof. Sullivan, April 2020 15/01/2020 Dear Diary, I’ve never actually written a diary. I don’t even know if I’m meant to start by saying dear diary, but that’s what I’ve read and seen people do in movies and books, so I guess I might as well… So Aya, my best friend, suggested that it may be beneficial for me to see a therapist because I’ve been pretty mopey lately. Well not lately, just since the breakup with Nicholas, which happened right before Christmas. It was tough.. we had been together for almost two years and I don’t think I’ve ever felt like this about someone. It was kind of my fault, so the only person I should be blaming is me. He didn’t do anything wrong per se, I think I just freaked out. I pushed him away and now I’m sad. So sad that my friend thinks I need to see a shrink. It’s pretty funny, I’m not allowed to be sad if I’m the one who did the dumping right? Like why am I getting so sad that I have to see a freaking psychologist… My appointment is tomorrow around noon. It’s a good thing that I switched to the night shift at work. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where this therapy thing will go. I’ve never been someone who can talk about their feelings very well. I don’t think I’ve ever really talked to anyone about the way I feel. I don’t even think I allow myself to think about my feelings. I usually just kind of drown them out with work or something else. Since the breakup, the only thing that seems to allow me to feel more or less like my usual self is alcohol. I’ve been drinking quite a lot…. Ugh, what the heck? What can I lose by going to therapy other than an hour of my time and 100$ from my savings? Why am I writing? I don’t know to be honest. I’ve been doing some research and apparently one thing that seems to help people who are undergoing some sort of emotional problem and are involved in some sort of therapy or another benefit from writing down what they’re feeling. Maybe it helps them reflect on their own thoughts and emotions? I don’t know where it’ll lead me but it’s worth a shot. Wish me luck for tomorrow. Who am I kidding, you’re a piece of paper (well, a word document since I’m typing you out). 16/01/2020 So. I’ve just had my first session with Elisha (I don’t know if that’s how one spells her name, I’m sorry if she ever reads this and it’s wrong). It was interesting to say the least. At first it was pretty basic, she asked me what my reason for being here was and I told her that I’ve been down for a while, especially since the breakup with Nick, and so my best friend suggested that seeing someone might help me. I went into the details of the breakup so that she would kind of get a better sense of it. I told her that Nick and I had been together for over a year, and that he had his own place and I had mine but because his place was on the south shore, he would sleepover at mine pretty often since I live downtown and we both work downtown. A week before the breakup, I came home from work really upset and annoyed for some reason, and found him lying on my couch half naked with a beer bottle in his hand. He was really cheery and I was not in the mood for that. Then over dinner, he blurted out the sentence which triggered the series of events that would end our relationship: “I think we should move in together”. I was completely dumbfounded, speechless really (which is rare for me trust me). I didn’t know what to say. He kept giving arguments for how much sense it would make for him to move in with me since we were already spending so much time here anyway and that we were getting serious. But like did he not read my mood? Was that night really a good time for him to start asking serious questions about the future? I didn’t really respond, but he took it as a yes and every day that week he started bringing more and more of his things over. I started finding his stuff all over the place and we started fighting a lot (granted, I started a lot of these fights but I mean come on, I don’t need to find your sock on my couch). All these fights ended up in him just saying “I quit, you’re crazy, you don’t make me feel wanted” and it was over, his stuff was out of my house. Elisha was very understanding, she acknowledged my feelings and somehow that made me ramble on even more. I told her something I hadn’t really thought of before. I told her that it was my place. That I worked so god damn hard to get to where I am today, I emancipated myself, I moved to Montreal by myself, put myself through night school while working two day jobs just so I could become a producer and work in the media industry like I had always dreamed. I got there. I got my dream job at CBC and I got this beautiful apartment in a luxurious building in downtown Montreal and took my time making it into my own personal safe haven. I was more than happy to have him over as my guest but I guess I was threatened that it would not be my own anymore if he moved in fully, and I would lose all I worked for. I wasn’t ready for that and he should’ve seen it. I confessed that I don’t understand how all this happened so fast and that I haven’t been able to talk to anyone about it. I still can’t understand why we had the fights we had. Like oh my god we were so good together. How can we have been fighting like this about why he didn’t do the dishes? It wasn’t all me though, he brought up things he had clearly been keeping in like telling me I’m too focused on myself and my work and that I never talk about things. I don’t know man, shouldn’t he have been accepting of the things that make me, me? I told her that I went to Toronto for Christmas, checked myself into a hotel room, binge drank a bottle of wine and passed out with raccoon eyes and a movie playing in the background. Nothing seemed to distract me from that literal heartache. I thought it was just a metaphor: “heartbreak” but it literally feels like my heart was breaking in half. I have never ever ever cried over some guy like this. I had never gotten myself in this kind of an emotional mess before. I don’t cry! I’m Zeena! I don’t fucking cry. I also told her about the first time I saw nick since the breakup. Found him at a bar he used to take me to, on new year’s eve, but *plot twist* WITH ANOTHER GIRL! Yeah. I ran out and fell down on the sidewalk and bawled so hard a police officer had to call an ambulance. I was hyperventilating and I was scared I was dying. The paramedics said it was a classic panic attack. Thankfully, he didn’t come out of the bar and have the pleasure of seeing me in this state. I went home and went to sleep exhausted. She asked me if I had ever had a panic attack before. I remembered the time Papi told me he was getting married to someone that wasn’t my mother and how I felt then which seems to be pretty close to that episode on the sidewalk. I brought home a guy once and when he left, I called Patricia in such a panic and frenzy that she suggested for me to see the therapist. Elisha asked me if I felt I could confide in Patricia. I told her I felt I could but that I wouldn’t do that because I don’t want to burden her. She has so much going on, she doesn’t need any of my shit. Her husband already hates me. I said something which really spooked me. I said that I was scared I would put her in a position that would make it easy for her to leave me. I’ve never felt this vulnerable. God this therapy thing is doing things to me I didn’t even know it could be doing. I think she’ll want to focus more next session on this feeling of burdening others and my need for self-sufficiency… I don’t know how far we’ll get. Let’s see how this psychodynamic therapy thing is going to go. Hoping for the best! 7/02/2020 The last few weeks have been so fucking horrible. I just had my second session with Elisha. When she asked me how things had been since last we met, it started this rant that I couldn’t stop. I kept talking and talking and oh god the poor woman must have thought I’m completely mental. I haven’t been able to sleep much. Well no, that’s a lie, I’ve been sleeping a lot. I just don’t feel like I’m resting. Like all of my dreams are flashbacks to the times nick and I were happy together (like what drew me to him (btw it was all the qualities any girl would want in a man: independence, ambition, care, listening skills and he showed me he loved me), the little quirky and embarrassing stories from our first few dates) or to the times where I would sabotage everything. It’s so hard to focus these days: all I think about it December and why it happened and how I could’ve stopped it from happening. I didn’t have to be such a bitch to him when he wanted to take the logical step forward. It didn’t need to end.. She asked me to talk about the expression that I used earlier to describe the pattern I saw myself doing in every relationship (sabotage). I’m usually the one who ends things especially when things get too serious or complicated but nothing has affected me this much. I liked having that control over my life and who was in it. Now it just feels like I’ve lost it and I’ve lost all sense of who I am. Like I’ve never ever doubted myself and this breakup has me doubting everything I’ve ever done. I’m so confused and tired at this point in the session but I keep on talking somehow. Talking just made me realize how much I loved him and how lost I am right now.