Erikson's Psychosocial Model: A Case Study

Six-step model:
Step 1. Firstly, the clients’ point of view needs to be understood. In this session it is important to show core listening skills of empathy, genuineness and acceptance. A crisis will be caused by an event - an initial, identifiable occurrence in the life of the individual. The scale of such events can vary enormously, from large-scale natural disasters and wars to situations that can appear less dramatic (e.g., incidences of bullying in a school, a marriage, transition from college to a job). The important element about the event that causes a crisis is that some element of it is perceived as threatening to the affected individual. (Tedrick Parikh & Wachter Morris, 2011)
In this phase we define the type of crisis Emma is in.

(James & Gilliland, 2013) “Developmental crises are events in the normal flow of human growth and evolution whereby a dramatic change or shift occurs that produces abnormal responses” (James & Gilliland, 2013, p. 16) With Emma being sixteen years old, according to Erik Erikson (1902-1994) theory about the social development, she is going through the stage Identity versus Identity Confusion. Erikson’s psychosocial theory consists of eight developmental stages that people need to go through starting from birth until death. Each phase in the psychosocial development of people is characterized by a conflict. This conflict must be solved in a positive way before the individual can move on to the next stage. (Kail, 2012) We can assume that in Emma her case there is an identity crisis, “the awareness of our ultimate aloneness can be frightening, and some clients may attempt to avoid accepting their aloneness and isolation.” (Corey, 2009, p. 144) Emma’s mother is so occupied with her own problems that Emma deals with a role confusion as she is no longer the child but she needs to take care of her brother. “Identity issues come in two forms, personal and social.