Counseling Suicidal or Depressive Adolescents

Counseling Suicidal or Depressive Adolescents

            Helping people attain a fruitful and an overall satisfying life is one clear aim of a health practitioner (Cox & Klinger, 2004; Bergmans & Links, 2002). Hence the importance of motivation in therapeutic or counseling setting. Motivation is defined as “the internal states of the organism that lead to the instigation, persistence, energy, and direction of behavior towards a goal” (Cox & Klinger in Ferguson and Chaplin, 2004).Those who may be needing the support and help are deficient of proper motivation that enables them to go for those things that establish healthy manner of life. Whenever a break is available or occasions arise for these people, these are often missed thereby affecting tragically their ability to enjoy a productive life. What makes it worse for these individuals is their tendency to resort to unhealthy options in order for them to achieve a sense of contentment and happiness (Cox & Klinger, 2004). Substance abuse, toxic relationships and forms of food addiction are some of the examples that are common to many today. Distress or psychological illness may at times develop when the deficits are out of proportion (Cox & Klinger, 2004). It is in this particular milieu that a person’s individuality is also inseparably linked with his/her motivational goals: what make him/her distinct from others are those things that motivate him/her (Coggan, Disley, and Patterson, 1998; Bergmans & Links, 2002).

            The final project I am intending to undertake concerns counseling adolescents with suicidal/depression behaviors. Since the level of distress is already in the acute stage where the subjects are concerned (i.e. depressive and suicidal teens), it is important to note what specific and clear dynamics of motivation that are at play. Consequently, with the project, the personality constructs of individuals then who are suffering with psychological distress are assumed and projected to be isolated and identified (Coggan, Disley, and Patterson, 1998).. The personalities of individuals particularly in the adolescent stage are assumed at the outset to be diverse and difficult to predict those who will be prone to depression or attempt to commit suicide. However, the idea here is that introducing proper assessment to teenagers will help identify immediately the candidates for early or immediate interventions because they are considered high risk for depression and suicide.

            The rationale behind the assessment is the understanding that there are marked distinctions on the dimensions of personality that may help in the progression of the therapeutic help from acute to functionality (Brent, Holder, Kolko, et al., 1997). This refers to what is early on described in the first part of this paper as the dynamics of one’s personhood which makes him/her distinctly him/her including basically the person’s right goals that may enhance and enrich his/her life and sense of contentment and minimizing or eradicating errors of patterns of thinking. It is therefore expected that whatever achievement the adolescent in crisis must try to attain is dependent or related with the kind of personality that person possesses (Brent, Holder, Kolko, et al., 1997). To introduce the concept of arousal for example, the teenager suffering with depressive disorder has limited and slow arousal which impedes his or her ability to take notice of significant relationships around him/her and the responsibilities that are involved in being related. The level of arousal is indicative of a teenagers’ level of efficacy, his or her capability to sustain or extend care and not just to receive it (Coggan, Disley, and Patterson, 1998).

            What are the teenagers’ current goals? How relevant are his/her undertakings at present to the overall goal of optimal functioning? These are just a few questions similar to those assessment tools that exhaustively provide an index or profile of an adolescent’s motivational structure (Cox and Klinger, 2004; Coggan, Disley, and Patterson, 1998). With these dynamics in mind, counseling the target population will be less difficult and there will be more convenience on how to attain the goals to alleviate depression or intervene with teenagers who are at high risk of suicide.

REFERENCE:

Bergmans, Y. and Links, P. S. (2002) A description of a psychosocial/psychoeducational             intervention for persons with recurrent suicide attempts. Crisis, 23, 156-160.

Brent, D. A., Holder, D., Kolko, D., et al (1997) A clinical psychotherapy trial for          adolescent depression comparing cognitive, family, and supportive therapy.   ARCH.GEN.PSYCHIATRY, 54, 877-885.
Coggan, C., Disley, B., and Patterson, P. (1998) Community based intervention on
adolescent risk taking: using research for community action. Inj.Prev., 4, 58-61.

Cox, W. Miles and Eric Klinger (2004). Handbook of Motivational Counseling: concepts,             approaches, and assessment. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.