Case Study
Patient Demographic: Client Age: 27 Sex: Female Gender: Female Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Ethnicity: Caucasian Relationship Status: Married Counseling Setting: Career Counseling Center Type of Counseling: Individual Presenting Problem: Employment-related Stress; Anxiety Diagnosis: Adjustment Disorder with Anxiety 309.24 (F43.22)
Mental Status Exam: Mental Status: The client was well-groomed and dressed appropriately. She appears nervous and jittery and quickly places her hands under the table when she notices them shaking. The client states that she is not sleeping well and says it is difficult making it to work each day knowing that “things rarely go as planned.” She explains that she has irritable bowel syndrome, which is exacerbated by stress. The client reports that there are no known medical conditions that would cause her chronic headaches. The client denies homicidal or suicidal ideations but remarks that she has felt like this in the past. Wor
Presenting Problem: You work in a career counseling center, and your intake is a 27-year-old white female employed as a fourth-grade elementary schoolteacher. The client has been a teacher for 3.5 years and has become increasingly dissatisfied with her job. The client explains that she is “at her breaking point” and relays that her stress level has increased sharply within the past 3 months. This is her first school year with a newly hired principal who has been “unreasonably demanding and unsupportive.” The client states that she was already second-guessing her career choice and explains that disruptive students and a lack of parental involvement have made teaching incredibly challenging. She reports “stress-induced physical symptoms,” which include acute stomach distress and chronic headaches. She worries that her skill set is nontransferable.
Other Contexts: The client reports that her husband’s patience continues to wear thin, so she has explored the possibility of alternate employment. She states that she applied for a position as a curriculum sales representative but did not get an interview. The client reports that the company used a personality inventory to prescreen job applicants. She says that someone in human resources told her she was not selected for an interview because the company was looking for someone who was more extraverted and a “thinker” rather than a “feeler.” The client explains that she was under the impression that they were looking for a male. She expresses an interest in using personality inventories to help identify employment that would be a good fit for her.  You administer the Self-Directed Search (SDS) career assessment tool to determine the client’s three-point Holland code

Question: You administer the Self-Directed Search (SDS) career assessment tool to determine the client’s three-point Holland code. If the client’s code is SAE, which occupation would give her the highest job satisfaction?
(A): Systems analyst
(B): Veterinarian
(C): Interior decorator
(D): Accountant

Correct Answer: Interior decorator
Explanation: An interior decorator would give the client the highest job satisfaction of the careers listed if her code is SAE (social, artistic, enterprising). John Holland conceptualized six occupational and personality categories: realistic (R), investigative (I), artistic (A), social (S), enterprising (E), and conventional (C), or RIASEC. Holland used a hexagon to illustrate the positioning of each occupational category, with each point representing one of the Holland types. Work environments and personalities that are most similar are adjacent to one another. For example, the client is a teacher, which puts her in the social category. The social category includes career environments and personality types described as humanistic and responsible (eg, teachers, nurses, social workers). Categories adjacent to social (ie, artistic and enterprising) are more likely to include careers that would also be a good fit for the client. For example, interior design is grouped with the artistic category. Accountants are included in the conventional category, which is nonadjacent to social. Another nonadjacent category is the realistic category, which includes careers such as veterinarian. Lastly, systems analyst is included in the investigative category, which is also nonadjacent to the social category. Therefore, the correct answer is (C)
Competency: intake, assessment, and diagnosis