Client 1

Subjective: Client appears today for her regular session. She is expressing anger at her mother as her primary motivator for treatment today.

Objective: Client presents today with euthymic mood and congruent affect. Her posture is relaxed. Her appearance is some what disheveled and she is dressed in mismatched clothing.

Assessment: Client's drawing appears to be an expression of anger. Client identified her mother as the subject of the drawing. Client may feel anger towards her mother. The black coloring may indicate extreme feelings of anger, as well as the marking out of her mother. Although Client's anger appears to indicate extreme feelings of anger, client's decision to express her anger is such a manner appears to be a healthy coping mechanism.

Plan: Encourage client to continue to express anger in healthy and appropriate ways.

Okay...so this is a total joke. The client is Mali and the other day Mali drew this picture of me, then proceeded to "x" me out in black crayon. It made me think, how would I evaluate a client's drawing like this? So that is what I did. However, my real therapy notes are much better than this one and I typically don't have a screaming 13 month old that refuses to take a nap in the background. I thought that one day we will look back and laugh at this. Really, I had her to go to her room for throwing a fit, she ran out of her room, grabbed crayon and paper, ran back to her room, drew this and "x" me out. Eric and I laughed. And although it is sort of humorous, I did explain to her that it wasn't nice. As a therapist though, I do believe that it is a good coping skill and a healthy and appropriate way for her to express her feelings of anger. I'm glad she isn't bottling them up, and unfortunately I probably let her get away with a lot because I value her expressing her emotions rather than keeping them in or being passive aggressive. Oh to be a therapists daughter.