Cognitive Therapy Case Study

Jo, age 32, comes to see you for a history of depression, overeating and grief over her father’s death. In the intake session she tells you that she is very confused about her father’s death because she feels sad and glad. She tells you that he sexually abused her for three years from age 9-12.
Jo has come to my office with the chief complaint of depression, as well as a history of over eating. During her intake, she states that her father, who has died recently, sexually abused her while she was a child. She indicates that she is not sad that he is dead, but that recently, she has begun to think more and more about that time in her life. I am aware that she is an only child, and that her mother is still living independently nearby. What does she want to achieve in therapy? During the initial sessions, I want to focus on psychoeducation about trauma and behavioral therapy so that we can cognitively change some of the maladaptive behaviors that she is experiencing. This would happen through exploration of those feelings, teaching her how

She says that, as a child, she always remembers being heavier than her peers. Now, she is still the heaviest among her friends. She states, “I feel inferior to my colleagues most of the time. I’m a frumpy 32-year-old spinster with cats, you know. They [fellow teachers] are all cheery and happy…the only people who like me are my kids.” The feeling that I am getting from this statement is that she is deeply saddened by her father’s death because she was never vindicated. She feels helpless to change her life because she doesn 't think she knows how. I ask her if her students like her. She smiles and tells me that they do, and that her classroom quickly fills up with siblings of past students. I ask her what she does well at work. She says that she genuinely cares for her students, especially the ones who have it hard at home. I ask if she felt validated at her job, and she said she