ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the client who has adjustment disorder with mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct. Tom was a 24-year-old professional athlete employed as an Australian Rules Football (AFL) player at the height of his career who was referred by the national board of his sporting association for treatment. Tom was not coping well with the sporting injury he incurred. A person-centred approach underpinned the intervention to soften resistance from Tom in his initial indifference to attending treatment by order of his sporting contract. Cognitive therapy was applied in the process of reframing key distortions of meaning around the injury and how Tom perceived it would ultimately impact on his life. A solution focused approach was included at the initial stages of activating change to current behaviours around being bored and indifferent to personal hygiene and other basic daily demands of self-care.
