Hi everyone!

   I wanted to take the time to comment on a “mock session” that I had this morning- which was the first of its kind that I have ever experienced. The following case was presented to me: I have been working with a couple for 3-4 months. The boy is Jewish and the girl is from a Muslim family but she herself is an atheist. I already know everything about them and all assessments have been completed. The girl is now meeting you individually in order to discuss an issue- namely, that her parents only want her to marry a muslim. I was told that I had 15 minutes to work with this woman.

   Because I did not receive these details before the interview, I was unable to give it much though beforehand. Not expecting this sort of scenario, I pulled up a few ideas (specifically- empathizing with her issue, using the miracle question to identify her goals, and identifying cognitive distortions) in order to work with her, and ultimately concluded that she should communicate with her parents about what they really feel and let me know in the next session. I personally feel that the session went rather poorly and that I could have performed a lot better had I been given the case scenario a bit earlier. (I am still waiting to hear from them but I am not that hopeful, especially considering there are several other candidates for the job- but still keeping my fingers crossed.)

   I do want to want to outline a serious flaw in this scenario. To be very blunt- this is an impossible situation! Without having the knowledge of an assessment, it is impossible to even begin helping her. Everything I could possibly suggest would be making assumptions about the couple and about her parents, without any specific knowledge about them and the details of their relationship. How does she feel about this conflict? How does he feel? Maybe he is willing to convert to Islam? How do her parents feel about her being an atheist? Are they even aware of this? What is the current state of their relationship with her parents? What is the current state of the relationship with her boyfriend? How long have they been together? Perhaps most importantly, what in the world did we do together over the last 3-4 months in therapy? These, and others, are important questions that are vital for working with this scenario, and without the information provided by the assessment makes this an impossible situation. 

    Just some ranting on an Erev Shabbos. If anyone feels differently, please share in the comments :)