Assessing Mood Disorders Mood problems often constitute a primary reason why parents seek professional help for their children or adolescents. Most often, mood problems include irritability, sadness, or anger. A certain amount of moodiness and impulsivity is normal during childhood and adolescence; therefore, it makes it exceptionally difficult to diagnose children and adolescents with conditions such as clinical depression or bipolar disorders. One of the most challenging elements in counseling is objectively assessing whether a child or adolescent has a mood disorder. Cultural and family factors are one reason this is challenging. At times, these factors are directly the cause of the mood disorder or contribute to the stress or distress of children and adolescents. Therefore, it is important to use a systematic, objective, and dispassionate procedure for gathering data about children and adolescents when conducting assessments. For this Discussion and subsequent Discussions, consider these questions: a) Where does the child’s or adolescent’s problem originate from, and b) Does the problem stem from the child or adolescent, or is it the family or other factors? By asking these questions, you can more accurately assess a child’s or adolescent’s problems and create evidence-based interventions to address the right problem effectively. Select a case study from the Child and Adolescent Counseling Cases: Mood Disorders and Self-harm document from this week’s resources and consider the child’s or adolescent’s presenting problem and where the presenting problem may originate. Conduct an Internet search or a Walden Library search and select one peer-reviewed article related to the interventions that might be used to address the child or adolescent in your case. With these thoughts in mind: Post a brief description of the presenting symptoms of the child or adolescent in the case study you selected. Then, explain one possible reason the child’s or adolescent’s problem exists and why. Finally, explain one evidence-based intervention you might use to address the child/adolescent in this case study and how it will be used. Be specific and support your response using the week’s resources and your research. These are the Cases below choose one Child and Adolescent Counseling Cases: Mood Disorders and Self-Harm Case 1 Salena is a 16-year-old Native American girl who is a sophomore at a local high school. Her mother, who accompanied her to the initial session, referred her for counseling. During the first session, you spent about 25 minutes with Salena and her mother and then about 25 minutes with Salena alone. While you are interviewing Salena along with her mother, you observe that they appear to have a reasonably good relationship. Her mother is worried about her and primarily attributes Salena’s symptoms to the fact they recently moved from the Indian reservation to a more urban area. She believes Salena is having trouble adjusting to the new sch ...

1. Assessing Mood Disorders
Mood problems often constitute a primary reason why parents
seek professional help for their children or adolescents. Most
often, mood problems include irritability, sadness, or anger. A
certain amount of moodiness and impulsivity is normal during
childhood and adolescence; therefore, it makes it exceptionally
difficult to diagnose children and adolescents with conditions
such as clinical depression or bipolar disorders. One of the most
challenging elements in counseling is objectively assessing
whether a child or adolescent has a mood disorder. Cultural and
family factors are one reason this is challenging. At times, these
factors are directly the cause of the mood disorder or contribute
to the stress or distress of children and adolescents. Therefore,
it is important to use a systematic, objective, and dispassionate
procedure for gathering data about children and adolescents
when conducting assessments.
For this Discussion and subsequent Discussions, consider these
questions: a) Where does the child’s or adolescent’s problem
originate from, and b) Does the problem stem from the child or
adolescent, or is it the family or other factors? By asking these
questions, you can more accurately assess a child’s or
adolescent’s problems and create evidence-based interventions
to address the right problem effectively. Select a case study
from the Child and Adolescent Counseling Cases: Mood
Disorders and Self-harm document from this week’s resources
and consider the child’s or adolescent’s presenting problem and
where the presenting problem may originate. Conduct an
Internet search or a Walden Library search and select one peer-
reviewed article related to the interventions that might be used
to address the child or adolescent in your case.
With these thoughts in mind:

2. Post a brief description of the presenting symptoms of the child
or adolescent in the case study you selected. Then, explain one
possible reason the child’s or adolescent’s problem exists and
why. Finally, explain one evidence-based intervention you
might use to address the child/adolescent in this case study and
how it will be used. Be specific and support your response using
the week’s resources and your research.
These are the Cases below choose one
Child and Adolescent Counseling Cases:
Mood Disorders and Self-Harm
Case 1
Salena is a 16-year-old Native American girl who is a
sophomore at a local high school. Her mother, who
accompanied her to the initial session, referred her for
counseling. During the first session, you spent about 25 minutes
with Salena and her mother and then about 25 minutes with
Salena alone. While you are interviewing Salena along with her
mother, you observe that they appear to have a reasonably good
relationship. Her mother is worried about her and primarily
attributes Salena’s symptoms to the fact they recently moved
from the Indian reservation to a more urban area. She believes
Salena is having trouble adjusting to the new school and
neighborhood. The move was prompted by the fact that Salena’s
mother is in a new romantic relationship; Salena and her mother
moved in with the mother’s boyfriend. Salena’s father has not
been involved in her life since she was about 6 years old.
Salena’s mother reports that Salena is often irritable and
difficult at home. This irritability has increased substantially in
the past 3 months. Salena basically agrees with her mother on
this point. They also both agree that Salena is engaging in fewer
recreational activities and reporting little enjoyment from the
activities in which she participates. During the interview,
Salena’s mother describes one of her major concerns: “Salena

3. keeps talking about not really caring if she’s alive or not
anymore.” Salena interrupts at this point and says, “Mom,
you’re making way too much of that. It’s not that big a deal.”
But her mother goes on and says, “What about the other day
when you said, ‘Maybe if I get hit by a truck I won’t have to
take that algebra test’? What am I supposed to do when you say
things like that?” Salena responded that she was just expressing
her feelings about her upcoming algebra test. Based on your
time with Salena and her mother and with Salena alone, you
discover she has unintentionally lost 14 pounds and reports
little appetite. She also recently quit her part-time job. Her
grades have been going down (from low As to low Bs and high
Cs) and her attendance has been poor recently; otherwise, she
has a relatively positive behavioral record at school. Salena also
reports to you that she is having difficulty concentrating and
that school is “boring and stupid.” Also, Salena denies using
alcohol/drugs, and this seems to be valid information as it is
consistent with what her mother reports. Finally, there is no
evidence that Salena is suffering from any medical disorders.
She has no history of any mental disorders and no trauma
history.
Case 2
Monte is a 9-year-old white male who has been referred to you
by a local school. In the referral, Monte was described as
exhibiting several behaviors that are very difficult to manage in
the classroom. Specifically, he quickly becomes verbally
aggressive toward teachers, regularly accuses them of picking
on him, and he verbally insults most of the other students in his
classroom. The school counselor who has worked with Monte
reports that Monte comes from a very chaotic family. He has
two older sisters who are often left to care for him. He
complains about his sisters being mean, but other than
significant parental absence, there is no evidence of abuse in the
family. The school counselor further notes that she believes
Monte has a tremendously low self-esteem. She says that when
other students are not around, he is clingy with teachers and

4. seems to solicit their approval. She reports that Monte was
doing better in early elementary school, but over the past 2
years, his behavior has generally declined. She further reports
that he has difficulty concentrating and that he states things
like, “School is stupid. I always get bad teachers. Things will
never get better for me.” In the past year, Monte has displayed a
pattern of overeating, and there is some concern about him
developing a weight problem. He also complains of frequent
headaches, and his attendance at school is poor.