Psychology

The client I present for this case study is the family of my aunt and uncle. As at present, my aunt, Kristina is 45 years old and my uncle, Erick is 52 years old. Their relationship started out during the years that Europeans were trying to escape to America for freedom and success. At this time, my aunt was also interested in moving to America. Thus, an arrangement was made by my mother for my sister to travel in the custody of Erick, who by coincidence, was also preparing to move to America at this time.

Not so much was known about Erick or his background at the time he was moving with Kristina to America. On a quick assessment of his personality, Erick was charming and good looking. He also had a lot of money. Though my aunt had no expectations of staying with this man or going into any relationship with him after their journey to America, Ericks charm swept her off her feet. He would wine and dine with her and take her on visits to different places for recreations before they even arrived at America. With these kind gestures, my aunt eventually fell in love with Erick and so did he though they knew little about each other at this time. However, later on, my mother found out about Ericks background from word of mouth. Information had it that he had been previously married, more than once and had impregnated his current wife at the time he was coming to America. He had succeeded to move out of the country without the woman he impregnated. My aunt had also been married to a man by the name, Arthur prior to meeting Erick. However, she had separated from this man after having a child for him. The child is Arthur by name.

Erick and Kristina eventually got to America with the hope of putting their respective pasts behind and settling down together for a fulfilled life as husband and wife. However, the events evolving in the marriage with time would prove this desire otherwise. 

Description of the Presenting Problem
The problem under consideration had begun a couple of years into being married and living together after the arrival of the couple in America. Erick would not leave his old habit of substance abuse through alcohol for a long time. This habit resurfaced again. The fact that Erick likes partying and social gathering was not in any way helpful. The situation grew worse with every social gathering Erick went. Invariably, the substance abuse degenerated into abuse on my aunt (Ericks wife). Signs of abuse were apparent on my aunt, as she became the object of various forms of verbal, physical and mental abuse. For instance, Erick would get intoxicated get behind the wheel, taking my aunt along with him for a rough ride in the car just to scare her. He would take a wire from a phone line and tie it around her neck in the car while driving at increasingly fast and dangerous speed.

These changes in Ericks attitude had a traumatic influence and transformation on the family as a whole. Kristina was the most affected. She even attempted to commit suicide at a time by hanging herself in the bathroom. She later got a re-think and resolved to divest her energy into finding God. Invariably, she began studying and practicing Judaism at full force. She attended the synagogue almost everyday just to avoid the troubles at the home front.

My cousin, Arthur was also involved in the trauma faced by the family as he was living with his mother Kristina. By witnessing different situations of abuse on his mother and the strict and mean attitude to him all from Erick, he started learning similar habits unconsciously. By observing acts of injustice towards his mother, Arthur expectedly would have revolted. However, considering the attitude of his stepfather towards him, voicing out his feelings becomes impossible. Over time, he too developed aggressive behaviors, which is likely to be partly as an outcome of his reaction towards perceived injustice (Greenberg  Alge, 1998) and partly through modeling by his stepfather (Corporate Leadership Council, 1999). Now, my cousin is 27 years old and it is evident that he behaves in the same manner as his stepfather. He has no problem hitting his girlfriend across the face in a public area for acting out. He cannot manage his anger unless it is through violence. Besides, he has a difficult time staying faithful and honest to his partners.

Some time after the episodes of abuses started, Ericks family lost their house because he was not paying his taxes. They were forced to move into a small apartment as result. This transition had a bad turn out on the entire family. The husband drowned himself in his new restaurant business where there was unlimited amount of alcohol and women. The mother would work and, after work, attend the synagogue until it was time to go home to sleep. Arthur also moved in with his girlfriend into the small apartment along with the rest of the family and developed an obsession for gambling and steroids. Later on, Erick had to sell his restaurant business to his partner because of the downturn in the economy.
Recently, I found out that Erick had impregnated Kristinas close female friend and now lives with her while lying to Kristina and telling her that he is going for fishing for a couple of days. This female friend had later attended Ericks birthday and brought the child with her sometime after she delivered. Kristina was still oblivious to what is going on around her.

The situation did not grow better as Erick shows signs of disengagement towards Kristina, and this has led her to reframe herself from the family. For instance, I found her recently waiting for a friend outside a restaurant on her birthday without the family. She goes to the synagogue to mop the floors but her house is left in unsanitary and unkempt conditions. When around her husband at home, she is very nurturing and attentive, because that is how he has set the boundaries. Erick continues to display acts of narcissism, intimidating and paralyzing the voices of other members of the family. For instance, around the kitchen table, he has a master king chair that no one in the family is allowed to sit on except him.

Intervention
For this family, intervention is needed as a whole as well as for each member. In my opinion, the family has coexisting problems that have stemmed far back as before the family had begun. This is evident by the multiple relationships that the couples have been involved in prior to and at the time they came together as husband and wife. Each of them have had difficulties coexisting with one partner for long. As a result, they have endured many stresses in the past and this has reflected in the way they are handling the present relationship. Besides, I feel there is a gender inequality and this might provide a major explanation for crises. Addictions of with alcohol and infidelity are other factors.

Firstly, I considered using genograms in my sessions with the couple (Nichols  Schwartz, 2008). This way I can go back three generations from Ericks side and Kristinas side to study the history of the families of each. For Erick I came to realize that his biological father was very well off financially and, as a result, has an alpha dog mentality. My aunt Kristina, on the other hand, was raised in a household where she did not witness any type of abuse towards her mother by her father.

Before I would want to try family therapy on this particular family, I would encourage the husband to get some help such as a rehabilitation program for substance and sexual abuse. Once there are notable improvements as a result the rehabilitation program, I believe I can go into behavioral and cognitive therapy (Nichols  Schwartz, 2008). Everyone within this family has experienced trauma and I would hypothesize that a cognitive behavioral approach on each member separately might be necessary for a longer lasting treatment to shape a better future for this family as a whole.

I believe there are no prominent triangles formed in this family as detailed in Nichols  Schwartz (2008). There are only cutoffs and boundaries. The division between the family members is very apparent and I perceive that it was the wifes religious believe that have prevented divorce or separation so far. Kristina shows signs of aversive control because she will often cry and get withdrawn. Obviously, she is unhappy with the state of things in her marriage. To worsen this, Kristinas finances has been made vulnerable. The husband does as he pleases and does not bother himself again with family financial responsibilities since he sold his restaurant. Kristina solely provided financial support for her family and that includes Erick. Erick has been found to indulge himself in taking undue advantage of Kristinas finances.

In my opinion, Erick has rigid boundaries that needs to be addressed as a matter of prime importance. For intervention, a minimum of once a week therapy is recommended for Erick. The therapy would be a session for discussing his goals, his physical and mental state along with some other arising issues that he might be facing. Assigning homework to continue practicing positive behaviors and adjusting to daily triggers would be another approach. Feedbacks are expected about his successes or failures in executing his homework. In addition, ensuring that Erick is not overwhelmed and is prevented from having other relapses would be essential in having an effective outcome.

Kristinas aversion could be handled by asking her to focus on the positive sides of the whole scenario. She finds solace in going to the synagogues and this may not have occurred if there were no problems. In a way, she has had her problems met in that she has a place where she can find solace. I would ask her to focus more on this while displaying her warm attitude at home as well irrespective of what happens at the home front. I hope to make her visualize the possibility of integrating her whole family into the synagogue on the long run. This serves as a therapy for her in that she stands a chance of working agreeing with my recommendations to make this visual projection a reality. Progresses will also be monitored with a minimum of therapy discussions at least once a week. I hope that Arthur will be also positively influenced by the time changes starts occurring in the attitudes of the two leaders in the family.