Singapur University of Social Sciences Divorce Counselling Case Study

Question 1 Case Vignette Thomas is 40 years old and Lynette is 36, and they have been married for 15 years. Thomas is a sales director with an MNC, while Lynette is self-employed. They have a 13-year-old daughter and a 7year-old son. Lynette came from wealthy family background and started an online jewellery company with her family support two years ago. She is close to her mother, who divorced her father after Lynette married Thomas. Lynette’s mother re-married, and Lynette is close to her stepfather. After the divorce, Lynette and her brother have no contact with their father again. Thomas came from a middle-class family and worked hard to achieve where he is now. When he married Lynette, she was only 21 years old. He shared that they decided to get married as he needed to relocate to USA for work. Lynette completed her masters degree when they were living in the US. You are assigned to assist the family as a family counsellor in a newly set up FAM@FSC centre. The Family Justice Court (FJC) has given a mandated supervised visitation order to assist Thomas in his access to their two children. The FJC has also given a counselling order for the family. You will be counselling the couple and the two children. Your colleague, David, a social worker, has been assigned to assist the family in the supervised visitation order. David has shared some information with you from the intake assessment he did with the family. Thomas shared with David that the marriage broke down because of Lynette’s extra-marital affair. He shared that he was shocked when he found out about his wife’s affair, and his world crumbled. He thought of committing suicide on the very night he found out. He reached out to his sister in the US, who gave him the support he needed. He has been seeing a therapist to manage his emotions. He shared that Lynette blocks his access to the children, and he could not have a proper conversation with them. He has a good relationship with them, and he shows many family photos he took with the children to David. Lynette shared that Thomas was harsh in his communication and interaction with her and the two children during their married life. Both children were scared of him and did not like him. The family still lives together in a condominium. Thomas and Lynette would take turns sleeping with their younger child, who dislikes the arrangement. Lynette also shared that she had an extra-marital affair because she was lonely, and Thomas had neglected her. She said Thomas often travelled for work and recently picked up a drinking habit. He spent a lot of money on wines and a collection of wines. David shared that their elder daughter, Adeline, was very hostile towards him during the intake session. She told him that she was not interested in spending time with Thomas. She said her father was a liar and the judge should leave her alone. The younger boy, Timothy, was timid and quiet. He appeared to be fearful and only shook or nodded his head to all the questions David asked him. David observed that Timothy clung to Adeline. He would look at her for directions when David asked him questions. David shared that Timothy went to sit with Thomas when he arrived at the centre, then Adeline called him to sit with her and he sadly obliged. Thomas and Lynette both want to be the care and control parents. Lynette wants sole custody, while Thomas is willing to have joint custody. The FJC’s mandated counselling objectives are to help the parents work on co-parenting and help the children cope with their parents’ divorce. The mandated supervised visitation objective is to help Thomas access the children and build relationships with his children. a) Review a minimum of THREE (3) recent well-regarded literature (published no later than 2000) on co-parenting, joint custody and the impact of divorce on children. Summarise the three pieces of literature to include titles, key findings and brief discussions about the findings. (1,000 words) b) Applying what you learnt from the literature review to the case study, assess and discuss the following: i. the needs of the children; ii. the challenges faced in co-parenting by Thomas and Lynette; iii. the intervention areas needed for co-parenting to be successful. (1,000 words) c) Applying Integrative Divorce Therapy in working with Thomas and Lynette, choose THREE (3) core strategies that you assess as essential in working with the couple. Demonstrate your divorce counselling skills by creating verbatim reports that reflect your work with the clients using the chosen strategies. (You can present one composite verbatim report that reflects the work of the three core strategies chosen or a verbatim report for each strategy.) (1,500 words)