Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for a Lady with Personality Disorder and Depression

Case Study Saved On 4:23 on 8th August
Synopsis of the Case Study
The study aimed at focusing on the health concerns of a 35-year-old lady with a 12-year-
old diagnosis of personality disorder. The medical staffs have placed her on the disability support
pension. From further determination, she has been found to have a personality disorder, as well
as severe depression resulting from anxiety. She has a record of child emotional abuse because,
when she was growing up, her parents got involved in domestic violence. The lady lives with her
grandmother since the age of 12 years, the reason being her mother committed suicide due to
divorce. The lady had developed critical symptoms of depression associated with her childhood
traumatic experiences, social discrimination as well as lack of family support. These factors
negated her school performance, social stigma, inadequate support at a little age led to the
development of borderline personality traits.
She was an employee in the customer service sector, but her tolerance in the workplace
was very low. After a verbal altercation with her former employer, she lost her job. Her mental
condition is to a large extent affected by diabetes and unemployment. She lives with a negative
perception of the world. Her life has a history of admissions in mental health hospitals with her
recent entry being in 2017, which was due to mirtazapine overdose. I majorly looked at her past
traumatic experiences, social stigma due to depression and anxiety associated with borderline
personality traits, poor tolerance at work, and wanting to cope to work skills in the job
environment. According to Batten (2011), acceptance and commitment therapy is the best
therapeutic interventions for her, because the treatment is a pioneering behavioral therapy
considered to optimize the stance to value their lives. While using my nursing professionalism,

the best decision was to come up with an idea of establishing a therapeutic relationship by
ensuring the maintenance of professional boundaries.
An ACT is instrumental in controlling anxiety disorder and depression, and it's used it as
the primary factor of consideration. It is evident that most patients with Personality Disorder and
depression are at higher risk of self-harm (Versaevel & Lajugie, 2013). The lady requires much
counseling services which could be the best to help her relax. Group activities and massage
therapies are the most useful options for improving her condition. I made use of the acceptance
model and commitment therapy as per A-tjak et al. (2015), which proved to be positive for her
recovery. It meant that occupational therapists and psychologists needed to be involved in
helping find an alternative solution to her rescue.
Synopsis of evidence base for the use of the intervention:
The acceptance and commitment theory exists towards skills’ development occurs a
multi-step process that creates skilled nurses like I have become having completed the training
into being not only qualified but also competent. My decision to study the ATC model was
motivated by the zeal of having a deeper understanding of the theoretical and practice-based
subject. I had to focus on the poor coping skills of one of the female patients in association with
her erratic manners in a mental. The study focus on coping skills was done in a working
atmosphere characterized by occupational challenges (Maclean, Webber & French, 2015).
Focus on the current happenings is one of the methods applicable to sharpening nurse’s
clinical skills since leadership skills, as well as principles, are required in dealing with medical
clients. Being in a position to understand patients’ expressions in line with the specific context
was the initial but the most important step (Russ, 2009). As a nurse, focusing on the behavioral

issues facing patients in their life was vital for therapeutic processes and working on the specific
client’s needs. In fact, the need to have a deeper understanding of the therapeutic model was
critical in the process. As well, cultivating my compassionate skills was of importance in
building therapeutic relationships with the patient since building rapport and trust remained vital.
As I was taking care of the patient, my therapeutic communication skills were enhanced
by having a sense of humanity characterized by active listening and non-judgemental attitudes in
every professional approach. Managing her stress levels as well as developing compassion and
mindfulness approach in my practice helped me in the process of realizing the behavioral change
in the patient. According to Rubb (2014), the methods I applied were in line with the stress-
reduction efforts as provided through the clinical healthcare sector. Having learned the
mindfulness strategies, I had to use them in line with the acceptance and commitment therapy
including leaves on the stream and breathing exercises. Observe, breath, expand, allow,
objectify, normalize, show self-compassion and expand awareness make up the eight techniques
of the mindfulness exercise (Russ, 2009).
For the acceptance and commitment theory to have its core competencies in place, it
needs specific skills that in turn shape the dependability capacity of a nurse. On my side, I would
look at the patient’s behavior like the cognitive fusion as well as avoidance with the aim of better
discrimination of the therapeutic practices relevant to each patient. According to Jameson (2015),
the Borderline Personality Disorder has unique connections with self-harming behavioral risks.
Having adequate skills on defusion and acceptance is essential in therapeutic practices as helping
others involves the articulation of client’s values in the process of giving solutions.
In the process of handling my clients, it had no option other than demonstrating various
techniques on acceptance and commitment and their relative relationship with each other as well