Script Example

Field of Intervention: Clinical

Case formulation:
The patient attends therapy because she feels that she is neither loved nor accepted by others for her
skin condition, which is presenting a picture of low self-esteem. The 20-year-old young woman
she feels that she is not attractive, she wishes to look like the 'normal' girls, this has brought
conflicts in their daily life, because they refrain from engaging in activities with family and friends, no
she likes events where she has to wear outfits like dresses or skirts, or activities like
going to aquatic places, this has affected him emotionally.

Intervention techniques:
Mirror technique: This technique aims to make the patient aware in order to improve the
self-esteem using self-contemplation, likewise, fosters the construction of a
healthy self-concept, through introspection and cognitive substitution while executing
some behaviors in front of the mirror to help strengthen self-esteem and self-concept
in a balanced way.
Emotional validation: it is an acceptance strategy that involves communicating to the patient that
her emotional responses make sense and are understandable within her story and/or context
current
Imaginative techniques: strategies that promote imagination in the patient in order to
to modify and manage that negative internal discourse that often facilitates that the
negative emotions soar.

Script
Therapist: - Good afternoon! My name is 'Therapist', I am a clinical psychologist and I will be
Delighted to accompany you during this process. Please, take a seat.
Patient: -Good afternoon! My name is 'Patient', nice to meet you.
Therapist: -The pleasure is all mine... I want to know if I could address you informally?

Patient: -Yes, that's fine with me.

Therapist: -How are you Patient?
Patient: -Am I okay and you?
Terapeuta:- Me alegra saber que este bien yo también me siento muy bien hoy, empecemos
Speaking of you, what do you do, do you study, do you work?
Patient: -My father has a business selling doors and windows, and I help in the business, and
study.
Therapist: -What are you studying?

Patient: -I study marketing at O&M University.

Therapist: -Oh, I see, so you like business just like your father! And what time
How long have you been studying?
Patient: -I am approximately 2 years old.
Therapist: -What do you think of the career in marketing?

Patient: -So far, I like what I study, I have learned the basics, I hope to be able to reach the
final.
Terapeuta: -Seguro que sí puedes lograrlo. Antes de dar inicio quiero comentarte que este es un
safe and confidential space, nothing you say here will leave here. Tell me, what do you need help with?
Can I help?
Patient: -I decided to come because my mother suggested that I come, it's because of the fact that
I feel that I'm not appreciated or loved for being different from other girls, you see I have a problem.
in my skin and for me it's very hard to believe that if I have a partner they will love me for being this way, or if
if my friends knew, they would not accept me and that makes me sad because I wish I could be myself
clothing, or going to places, and I don't do it out of fear of being judged.

Therapist: -Are you telling me that you feel ashamed of your skin condition and feel fear of
What will others think when they see your skin?
Patient: -That's right.

Therapist: -Also, you mentioned that you don’t feel appreciated or loved for being different.
The other girls, what do you mean by that they don't appreciate or love you?

Patient: -I feel that no one loves me because I'm not pretty, I don't look like the girls do.
my age, or that I am not attractive enough. Or that maybe he feels sorry for me.
Therapist: -Has anyone ever told you that they don't love or appreciate you because of your condition?
skin?
Patient: -No.
Therapist: -What makes you think this? Have you noticed any behavior that confirms it?
this?
Patient: -Not really, but I think I don't attract others like the other girls do.
Therapist: -I understand. Let me tell you, people as social animals we have the
the need to belong to a group and to be accepted by others, this is something we learn from
small and we like to be validated by others, to please others, it makes us feel pleasant,
however, tastes are quite subjective, each person has different tastes and that is
well, although there are established stereotypes by our culture, the reality is that very few
people manage to fulfill that stereotype, and trying to do so does not help us.
it doesn't favor our self-esteem either. I want you to get up now and stand in front of this
Mirror, tell me which physical qualities you like about yourself.
Patient: -Well, I like my eyes, both the color and the shape. I also like my hair.
I like my hands and my feet.
Therapist: -Very well, please continue, what else?
Patient: -I would like to have a bigger bust, but it's not something that really bothers me.

Therapist: -Very well, let's sit down again. Now Patient, tell me what qualities
personal qualities you can highlight in yourself.

Patient: -Well, I consider myself a responsible, kind, and affectionate person.

Therapist: -Excellent! I'm very glad that you can highlight such positive qualities in yourself.
Considero que esas cualidades son muy importantes y destacables en una persona. Quiero dejarte
for homework to ask 4 people: 5 physical qualities they like most about you and 5 qualities
personal, who equally like you the most, I would like these two people to be them
family members and two friends, and that you bring it written for the next session, how does that sound?

Patient: -It's fine.

Therapist: -Well, you told me at the beginning that you feel sad because you want to dress a certain way.
clothes and you would like to go to certain places, and you don't do it because you are afraid of what others think.
they think of you.

Patient: -Yes, I really wish I didn't feel this way, but I am very self-conscious about my skin.
Therapist: -Tell me something, what do you consider to be the worst thing someone could think if they see your
skin?
Patient: -That she thinks she is horrible, that she is ugly, that she makes a face of disgust when seeing her and that she
they mock me.
Therapist: -Okay, has any of that happened to you before?

Patient: -Yes, when I was little, two girls laughed at me when I was at the beach.
Therapist: -How old were you?
Patient: -10 years.
Therapist: -How did you feel at that moment?
Patient: -I felt embarrassed and sad, I didn't want to be at the beach anymore, I went under
my towel to cry, I wanted to disappear at that moment.
Therapist: -What you're telling me sounds like a very unpleasant experience, I imagine that
Before that, something similar hadn't happened to you, and at that moment you didn't know how to react.

Patient: -It was horrible.

Therapist: -It must have been difficult for a 10-year-old girl to hear the taunts of some girls who
they were very cruel to you.
Patient: -It really was, every time I think about it I feel just as humiliated.
Therapist: -I understand what you mean, that emotion is still there, it hasn't gone away even though it has
A long time has passed. Did anyone help you at that moment?
Patient: -No, my mother saw me crying and told me not to pay attention to them, that they were just girls.
foolish. But for me, that was something very big.
Therapist: -It was really something very big, I understand that your mother saw it as the adult who
There was, who had resources to face that type of conflicts, but could not see that you had 10.
years and that it was the first time something like this happened to you and that at that moment you needed his
protection.
Patient: -She didn't pay attention and I felt horrible.
-Sometimes it is very hard for us to see and feel the pain of others, to your
Mother cared about them, that's why she told you not to pay attention to them, she didn't want you to cry over
that, but I didn't know how to help you handle that situation, and thought that telling you not to do it would help.
You were going to resolve that conflict, but that was not the case; it mattered a lot to you and it left a mark.

Patient: -It marked me a lot.

Therapist: -Patient, unfortunately we cannot change what happened, but we can still...
do things differently today, to have different results tomorrow.
Patient: -What do you mean by that?
Therapist: -Before I answer you, I want you to try something. I want you to close your eyes and you
imagine that you have a time machine and travel right now to that beach, and you
you meet your 10-year-old self right after the girls made fun of you, can you
visualize it?
Patient: -Yes.
Therapist: -Well, do you remember how that girl feels?
Patient: -Yes.
Therapist: -I want you to tell that girl what you would have liked your mother to tell you in that
moment. You can do it out loud.
-I would tell you…
Therapist: -No, don't tell me what you would say, tell her, call her by her name and say it.
Patient: -Patient, those girls just said very ugly things to you that are not true, what they
they just did it wrong, you are a beautiful girl, you are a good girl who helps others and
very affectionate, your skin is different, but that doesn't give others permission to treat you badly. You are
a valuable girl just as you are.
Therapist: -Those were some beautiful words. How do you think he would have felt
"Patient" of 10 years if they had heard those beautiful and kind words that you just said.
to say?
Patient: -I think she would have felt better, more supported and loved.
Therapist: -How do you feel today after saying those words to yourself?
Patient: -I feel relieved, as if I have taken a weight off my shoulders.
Therapist: -Many times we depend heavily on what others tell us, we allow that to influence us.
others destroy us with their words, and we hope that others heal us with their words.
However, only we ourselves can heal or destroy ourselves. Today with your own
Words have healed something that has been tormenting you since you were 10 years old, today you have been able to.
give relief to that 10-year-old girl inside you because she is part of you, she is your memories, and
lives inside you and still needs you.
Every time your words are meant to criticize parts of yourself, you are destroying yourself.
but today you have started to build something extremely difficult called self-love. All the
The self-love you give yourself today will affect how you feel tomorrow, and that is something you can
start today. What do you think about all this?

Patient: -I had never thought of it that way, it had never occurred to me to talk to my past self or
Imagining something like this, I have focused more on being accepted by others rather than accepting myself.

Terapeuta: -Y eso es algo realmente difícil, pero no imposible, va a ser un camino complicado,
but at the same time pleasurable. Do you want to start exploring it?

Patient: -Yes.
Therapist: -Well, I will accompany you to achieve it, if that is what you want.

Paciente: -Claro que sí, hoy me has ayudado bastante.

Therapist: -What is going to happen now every time your inner child needs some words?
kind?
Patient: -I will tell them.
-And if she heals, what result do you think it will have on you?
Patient: -I will heal too.
Therapist: -I am very glad that you have understood this, and that you take on the commitment to
Healing yourself requires the courage to take responsibility for our emotions and not
to leave that responsibility to others. Today you have taken a very important step and I want
congratulate you for it, just getting here today shows that you care enough to
change what is causing you pain, and that is a great start.
Patient: -Thank you very much, therapist, I feel a little more relieved. I am happy for having
come
Therapist: -You're welcome, you can count on me always. How about we meet in two
weeks?
Patient: -Yes, it's fine, have a happy rest of the afternoon.
Therapist: -Likewise to you. Bye.