A Case of Mid-Life Difficulties
Category: Stress Issues
Author: Deirdre Stevenson
Fritz is 42 years of age and has been in Australia for the past 25 years. He migrated from Germany with his immediate family, comprising of his mother, father and two sisters. At the age of 17 Fritz was filled with great dreams and aspirations for his new life in a new country and until recently had been quite happy with the life he had carved out for himself. Fritz has sought counselling largely due to the persistence of his wife. Fritz does not really understand why his wife is so upset with him but states that she thinks he is going through a “mid life crisis”.
A précis of the sessions is as follows. For ease of writing the Professional Counsellor is abbreviated to “C”.
In the first session ‘’C'’ focused on establishing a clear understanding of the presenting concerns before moving any further with the client. Fritz was having difficulty explaining the details of the present situation and why his wife seemed so concerned about him. Basically he didn’t see much of a problem and simply wanted to try something new because he was feeling bored and restless. “It’s not like I’m having an affair” he asserts.
From this first session “C” was able to elicit useful background information and began to build much needed trust and rapport with Fritz as he was quite skeptical towards the benefits of counselling.
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