Teresa Simoneau
SCHC 554
April 14, 2015
Susan Hayward
Overview
Movie
Trailer
Summary
Goals
Client
Profile
Group
Outline
Group
Counseling
Theory
Group
Outline
Summary: “Speak”
The young adolescent Melinda Sordino arrives at high school feeling confused, depressed and alone. Her school peers call her "squealer", because she alerted the police during a summer party after she was sexually assaulted by Andy
Evans. She refuses to tell anyone the events that took place. Her depression and distance from people is made worse by the increasingly large gap between her and her parents. She finds great support with her art teacher Mr. Freeman and her school friend David Petrakis. Her feelings threaten to engulf her but Melinda learns to grow from her experiences instead of repressing the past emotions that have scarred her for the rest of her life.
Movie Trailer: “Speak”
Video Client Profile
Melinda Sordino, is an only child, a high school freshman, is the protagonist in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. The summer before starting high school, she was raped by a senior student, Andy
Evans. Due to her trauma and inability to tell anyone about what happened, Melinda spirals into a dark depression; loses her ability to speak with ease; and can express her pain only through physical acts, such as biting her lips and nails. Melinda's introspection and dedication to her art allow her to grow and eventually see herself as a survivor rather than a victim. She learns that the only way to counter evil is to speak out against it.
Melinda's reasons for not talking about being raped aren't a hundred percent clear – to us or to Melinda. Her feelings are confused, but she seems to be scared and ashamed, and not even sure if it technically was a rape. She thinks maybe it was her fault.
Video Client Profile
Melinda Sordino, is an only child, a high school freshman, is the protagonist in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. The summer before starting high school, she was raped by a senior student, Andy
Evans. Due to her trauma and inability to tell anyone about what happened, Melinda spirals into a dark depression; loses her ability to speak with ease; and can express her pain only through physical acts, such as biting her lips and nails. Melinda's introspection and dedication to her art allow her to grow and eventually see herself as a survivor rather than a victim. She learns that the only way to counter evil is to speak out against it.
Melinda's reasons for not talking about being raped aren't a hundred percent clear – to us or to Melinda. Her feelings are confused, but she seems to be scared and ashamed, and not even sure if it technically was a rape. She thinks maybe it was her fault.
Group Counseling Theory
Surviving Rape, the structured, developmental theme group outlined in the pages that follow, is a structured model for working with rape survivors. Its aim is to provide a safe therapeutic environment where members may explore behaviors, feelings and attitudes, as they make life choices which enhance adjustment and recovery.
Structured theme groups such as Surviving Rape are developmentally based in that they focus on the resolution of issues that are problematic for some individuals through the course of their lives and that, unresolved, may result in chronic behavioral or psychological patterns that restrict adjustment to daily life.
This structured group model takes organismic developmental theory as its basis for promoting change and growth. Organismic theo-
Group Counseling Theory
Feminist theory of psychological development suggests that women may develop best when they mature within an environment that supports their connectedness to one another, and that appreciates the psychological strengths inherent in such connectedness. The manifestation of power in oneself is realized through relationship with others and the empowerment of others (Braude, 1987).
These theoretical tenets are translated