Wilma, Essay Example

While I was waiting for Wilma to arrive for our first meeting, I quickly reviewed the notes from the guidance counselor who had referred her to me.  When I heard the door open and close, and went out to meet her, I found a young woman who fit exactly the impression I had of her from the description: a depressed, defeated young woman who could not initially make eye contact with me.  She was sitting in the seat farthest from my door, although there were much more comfortable chairs and a couch that were further inside the office, and her eyes were downcast, she was biting her nails, did not look around the room, as most people do, when they enter for the first time.  When I softly said her name aloud, “Wilma?” she was visibly startled and when I extended my hand to her, she gingerly took it and shook it, and followed me into my office.

After introducing myself, and explaining that my role was to be of help to students in the school when they were having some difficulties, I asked, “Can you tell me what’s happening with you these days and how I might be able to be of some help?” My focus was on the here-and-now, since as an existentialist therapist, my work with Wilma would involve what was occurring for her currently. “People say I’m depressed,” she answered.

“What do you say?  Do you think you are depressed?” I probed.

“I don’t know. I always feel angry,” was her response.  My next interventions in keeping with the existentialist method involved understanding, and helping Wilma understand, what is bothering her or making her angry.  In addition, my purpose will be to help her examine the ways in which she can act on her own behalf, rather than depending on the other people in her life, to help herself become more in control of her own narrative.  For instance, if she feels angry about the absence of having a father in her life, we might concentrate on seeking out ways for her to interact with male role models, such as teachers, other male relatives, or whether I as a male therapist might help to compensate to some degree for that absence in her life.