Assignment task:
A young woman comes to therapy after lashing out at her husband of four years and throwing a soda can at him. He threatened to leave if she did not seek help, as she has "gone crazy." The woman describes to the therapist that even she is shocked at her behavior. She describes her job as a secretary where she is very polite and never loses her temper with anyone. When you ask about her family, she says that in her family she was to do just that. . . hold everything in and always take care of others. Her recent outbursts are very contrary, she explains, to what she was taught. Now that her husband is threatening to leave her, she is further convinced that her family was right to never express herself or be assertive.
Discuss how a symbolic-experiential therapist might work with the young woman. Would the therapist bring in the husband? What questions would the symbolic-experiential therapist construct to address the woman's belief that assertiveness and expression are to be feared?
How can the symbolic-experiential therapist create an environment in the session so that the woman "experiences" herself differently? Will the therapist confront her?
Provide a list of at least five questions that could be asked of the woman.