10. A “selfish” mom and a “difficult” teen:
Eleanor is the divorced parent of a 16-year old son, Jason. She complains that Jason is disrespectful, swears at her, and does not obey her rules. Jason is 5 inches taller than Eleanor, and muscular. She says that she feels intimidated by him, but never felt scared that he would hurt her physically. She recounts daily arguments in which they stood inches apart, yelling at each other. Eleanor describes Jason as “difficult to raise.” She remembers him arguing ever since the divorce 10 years ago. The divorce was angry and bitter. Carl had left the marriage to move in with a woman he met through his work. Carl is still in the life of Jason. They call each other frequently and meet once a month. Carl concedes that Jason has become more irritable, but says that it is not a major problem for him to handle Jason.
So this is an assignment I have coming up for a class. Basically it's a pretty straightforward situation that can happen in a family, and I'm supposed to conceptualize the case using two specific forms of therapy.
If you met with this mom and son, what else would YOU want to know in order to better understand the conflict?
3 comments:
if they had an older daughter in this story, plus some more issues this would be my family.
you might need to know if there are other factors that might also cause stresses in the home aside from the obvious. does the mom suffer from depression, was the marriage abusive, is the son able to lead a normal social life or does he have to work and not have friends, is the house clean, how is the relationship with the rest of the family, etc.
this is such a typical story huh :) I'd want to know how Jason's performance in school was and what positive factors he has going in his life (other adult role models, activities he does outside the home, outlook on his future), as well as look for ways to create a positive relationship with him. i'd also want to assess how Eleanor handles conflict and teach her some ways to interact more positively with Jason--probably even include some behavioral strategies so that she doesn't feel so out of control herself... those are my initial thoughts :)
i'd love to see your conclusions :) good luck!!
I would want to know about Jason's school performance as well. I would want to know how he behaves at school to see if he has problems with authority or just his mom. I would get the mom some separate counseling to improve her positive communication skills. She may need a support group where she can discuss parenting skills or her divorce with other single moms. Sounds like fun, let us know what you come uo with!
Post a Comment