It is recommended that students review the e-book The Complete Adult Psychotherapy Treatment Planner (Jongsma, Peterson, & Bruce, 2014) for additional assistance in completing this assignment.

Clinical and counseling psychologists utilize treatment plans to document a client’s progress toward short- and long-term goals. The content within psychological treatment plans varies depending on the clinical setting. The clinician’s theoretical orientation, evidenced-based practices, and the client’s needs are taken into account when developing and implementing a treatment plan. Typically, the client’s presenting problem(s), behaviorally defined symptom(s), goals, objectives, and interventions determined by the clinician are included within a treatment plan.

To understand the treatment planning process, students will assume the role of a clinical or counseling psychologist and develop a comprehensive treatment plan based on the same case study utilized for the Psychiatric Diagnosis assignment in PSY645. A minimum of five peer-reviewed resources must be used to support the recommendations made within the plan. The Psychological Treatment Plan must include the headings and content outlined below.

Behaviorally Defined Symptoms

• Define the client’s presenting problem(s) and provide a diagnostic impression.
• Identify how the problem(s) is/are evidenced in the client’s behavior.
• List the client’s cognitive and behavioral symptoms.

Long-Term Goal

• Generate a long-term treatment goal that represents the desired outcome for the client.
  • This goal should be broad and does not need to be measureable.

Short-Term Objectives

• Generate a minimum of three short-term objectives for attaining the long-term goal.
  • Each objective should be stated in behaviorally measureable language. Subjective or vague objectives are not acceptable. For example, it should be stated that the objective will be accomplished by a specific date or that a specific symptom will be reduced by a certain percentage.

Interventions

• Identify at least one intervention for achieving each of the short-term objectives.
• Compare a minimum of three evidence-based theoretical orientations from which appropriate interventions can be selected for the client.
• Explain the connection between the theoretical orientation and corresponding intervention selected.
• Provide a rationale for the integration of multiple theoretical orientations within this treatment plan.
• Identify two to three treatment modalities (e.g., individual, couple, family, group, etc.) that would be appropriate for use with the client.

It is a best practice to include outside providers (e.g., psychiatrists, medical doctors, nutritionists, social workers, holistic practitioners, etc.) in the intervention planning process to build a support network that will assist the client in the achievement of treatment goals.

Evaluation

• List the anticipated outcomes of each proposed treatment intervention based on scholarly literature.
  • Be sure to take into account the individual’s strengths, weaknesses, external stressors, and cultural factors (e.g., gender, age, disability, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, etc.) in the evaluation.
• Provide an assessment of the efficacy of evidence-based intervention options.

Ethics

• Analyze and describe potential ethical dilemmas that may arise while implementing this treatment plan.
• Cite specific ethical principles and any applicable law(s) for resolving the ethical dilemma(s).

The Psychological Treatment Plan

• Must be 8 to 10 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least five peer-reviewed sources in addition to the course text.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.