Details: Case Study. Read the details below and answer the questions below. You will be exploring gendered
patterns of interaction in close relationships. You will also meet Tanya
and Mel, a couple that is the focus of this lesson’s case study. For
Tanya and Mel, you will analyze and conceptualize their presenting issues
within the framework of gendered patterns of interaction and evaluate how to
help them move forward together in reaching their goals. Something to
keep in mind is that the couple is your client.
As human service providers, it is
important that we model healthy coping for our clients and know how to use the
tools we provide to them. So, for this case study, use your
resources–case consult with each other, use the couple’s strengths to prioritize
goals for treatment planning, and use your own strengths to identify two
approaches to resolve your potential counter transference issues.
Tanya (43-year-old Puerto Rican
female) and Mel (39 year old multiracial female) are life partners who are also
parents to two children, Adya and Evan. They live in the suburbs of
Nashville, TN. They have been together for 13 years and married for 8
years. Each partner carried one of the children and used the same
anonymous sperm donor for the father. The children have no legal or
social relationship to the biological father and each parent has equal parental
rights, as they took additional legal precautions to become respective adoptive
parents to the children. Adya is four and Evan is six. Since having the kids, both
partners feel their relationship has changed. They feel like they are
great parents, but they have less physical intimacy and time for themselves as
a couple. In addition to becoming parents, Tanya, a highly respected
pediatrician with her own busy practice works full-time and financially
supports the whole family. Mel is a registered nurse practitioner but
resigned from her job to stay-at-home full-time parent after Evan was
born. Mel is struggling to find her independence from the family and is
thinking of going back to work. The idea of Mel returning to work
presents some childcare challenges for the couple as they do not have easy
access to family or care providers who will be sensitive to their family
dynamic and Adya’s special needs. Adya was born legally blind, although
she possesses some sight it in one eye, she meets the medical standard for
legal blindness. Tanya has also recently expressed
that she feels Mel’s family treats her and Evan differently, and she feels that
this is causing tension in Mel and Tanya’s interpersonal dynamic because Mel becomes
defensive when Tanya brings it up. Additionally, Tanya’s family is not
very supportive nor in the picture of their lives as a family, so Mel’s family
is all they’ve got for an extended family network. Tanya does have a
younger brother who is supportive, but he lives in San Diego and they do not
get to see him much.
Tanya and Mel have been close over
the years with a few lesbian and gay couples, but since having children their
relationship dynamic has changed. Their friends are not parents and spend
a lot of time socializing in the “big city.” Both feel their same-sex
couple friends don’t quite understand them as parents, but they do try to stay
in touch. Additionally, since Tanya works full-time out of the house and
Mel is a stay-at-home parent, Mel meets other moms and dads (more moms) but not
as a couple. Tanya feels like she cannot relate to Mel’s new “mom”
friends. The couple is concerned that they
are drifting apart and are seeking support through your agency.
Instructions: Review
the case study given on Tanya and Mel. Then respond to the following
prompts/questions in a cohesive written case report as if you are a social
worker writing up your notes for the agency you work for. (100 points)
Describe the client’s presenting problem(s) through a
theoretical framework of gender. Identify any gendered patterns of
relational behavior that may be present in the case. (20 points)
Identify the intersectional aspects of identity that
need to be explored to better understand your client—the couple—and
evaluate how these intersections may play a role in the couple’s strained
social support system. (20 points)
With the information provided, give an assessment of
the couple’s strengths? (10 points)
Identify three goals for treatment you think are most
significant for this couple’s presenting problem(s) and present an
objective for each item to achieve these goals. (30 points)
Identify two countertransference issues that might
come up for you while working with this couple and how you will work to
resolve them. (20 points)
Reference
Fixmer-Oraiz, N., and Wood, J. T.
(2017). Gendered Lives: Communication,
gender, and culture. (13th ed.). Cengage Learning, Inc.