Rhianna Solida

Psychosocial Assessment Assignment

Sowk 312-003

April 13, 2023

Client Identifying Information and Background

Jen is a 27-year-old woman from Maryland, living in South Carolina pursuing her MSW.

She is divorced of about two years and is reaching out to this counselor through the university.

Her family is in Maryland still, she is living alone in South Carolina and states that she doesn’t

make it home as often as she would like. She has previously received a bachelor’s degree in

psychology but decided to change fields. She is not experiencing financial strain right now,

despite not working. She states that she is concerned about some of her eating and exercise

habits and is particularly concerned about some weight loss. She does not have friends in South

Carolina like she did back in Maryland and is not involved in any recreational activities outside

of class and her internship.

Current Situation

Jen states that she used to eat healthily and exercise regularly in Maryland when she had

friends to do these activities with, but since moving to South Carolina, she is struggling to keep

up with those healthy habits. She partially attributes this to her lack of friends, and also because

of the fact that she is tired when she comes home from class and doesn’t want to cook or expend

the little energy she has left. She states that she is no longer able to enjoy the same mental

stimulation that she used to, like reading, because it is now hard for her to focus on things like
that after spending so much time focusing on school. She is also experiencing a feeling of a lack

of support religiously, after leaving her long-term Catholic church in Maryland and having a

difficult time finding a suitable church in Columbia. She is divorced for almost two years, and

while she says that the divorce was amicable, she says that it was a great loss, and she doesn’t

mention having a relationship with her husband. Her entire family is still located in Maryland,

and she has no familial support system in Columbia. She is also grappling with the fact that she

has not been able to make it back to Maryland for the holidays, so it doesn’t seem like she has

seen her family in a while. One large issue that seems to be affecting Jen in several different

areas of her life is that she doesn’t have any friends in Columbia. She is feeling isolated from her

peers in the MSW program because of the age difference and from the people who are living in

her community because they are mostly military families.

Client Strengths, Capacities, and Resources

Jen has previously been involved in a church that has supported her throughout her time

in Maryland. She also had previous interest in exercise with walking and jogging which has also

been a way to spend time with her friends. She is also obviously open to seeking counseling as

she has reached out through the University counseling office. She also spoke of a therapist that

she was seeing before her divorce that she saw up to eight times a month leading up to the

divorce. At this point, Jen is struggling with the social aspect, but she did speak of a farmers’

market that she enjoys going to which could be a social outlet for her.

Impressions, Assessments, and Recommendations

For this client, I believe that a task-centered approach would be best to alleviate her

problems. Many of her concerns seem to be centered around social situations like school, and the
lack of community that she feels in Columbia, so by giving Jen certain tasks to help get her out

of her comfort zone, it may help her to feel more comfortable in certain social settings, better

than changing her mindset might. The first goal that I would like to suggest is creating a better

school and life balance for Jen. She stated that she has been feeling difficulty with the strain of

her schoolwork load and that by the time that she gets home she has no energy to do anything

else. To do this, I would like to propose several smaller objectives. First, I would suggest that Jen

talk to her professors and let them know some of her concerns about the schoolwork. This may

allow for some of her professors to work with her to make the load more manageable. I would

also like to suggest that when Jen is doing her schoolwork that she plan out breaks so she does

not become overwhelmed or more burnt out from working. I think it would also be important for

Jen to take certain times or days to do only do things that make her happy and not worry about

school as long as that is feasible. These objectives could be measured by Jen and based off of the

number of times that she feels overwhelmed with her workload per week. This could be

measured weekly, and hopefully the number of overwhelming times would go down with each

week and be significantly decreased within a month. If these goals and objectives are met that

could mean that Jen’s stress levels about her school could go down and she would feel less burnt

out. These goals and objectives could be difficult because of the nature of due dates and how

they are often inflexible and stress inducing, but with the help of a set schedule it should, in

theory, be easier to manage and due dates often fall on the same days, meaning that Jen could

plan out her week in advance so that she could have a day or two to herself.

The second goal that I would like to propose to Jen is that she try to become more active

in the community. I think that this will help her to feel less isolated and like she has more of a

support system in Columbia. To accomplish this, I would like to suggest that she first find a
church or worship group that suits her needs. This may be difficult because of the few Catholic

churches that are in the area, but I would like for Jen to try all of her options until she finds one

that feels right and aligns with her needs. Whether it be through the school or though a church I

think it will be important for Jen to find support through her faith and that it would be a good

place to begin with becoming more social. This objective could take a while as she may need to

try several different places in order to find one that sticks, but I would like to suggest that she

does research and tries a new place at least once every two weeks until she finds one that she

enjoys. I would also like to suggest that she finds a place in the city that has to do with some of

her interests, a gym, a restaurant, a library, etc. and visit it at least once a week. This could allow

her to get to know other people that have some shared interests with her and open up the

opportunity to talk to people that she feels more comfortable with than her classmates. These

kinds of places are also more readily available than a church could be so this goal may be easier

for her to accomplish in a shorter period. One final objective that I would like to suggest for Jen

is that she try to talk to some of the people at her farmer’s market or try visiting other markets

that are similar, like Soda City. This goal should be very achievable for Jen because she already

attends the farmer’s market on a regular basis, she would just have to step slightly out of her

comfort zone. In order for the goals to measured, Jen would have to keep track of the number of

times, or the level in which she feels isolated. Once she feels like she has made friends or

become a more of a member of the community within Columbia she will know that she has

accomplished this goal.