Client Statements
Respond to the
client statements
found in Engage. Construct responses to these statements using the paradigm for empathetic responses (pp. 110-111). book Direct social work practice
Client Statements
● I think I might be depressed. I can’t get out of bed and spend all day crying and I hate my life. My friends told me to go to the doctor, and I did, but he said he thought I wasn’t seriously depressed and I just had to pull myself together. So I guess I’m just being a big baby, but I don’t know what to do anymore and I’m about to lose my job for absenteeism.
● My wife is suing me for full custody of my kids, and I can’t stand the thought of her taking them. I would go crazy without the kids. They are my life. I’m thinking of taking them back to my home country secretly so that she can’t get to them.
● I’m gay and 15 years old and my parents will totally disown me if they find out. I don’t have any friends, anyone I could live with, and no way to support myself. I’m still in high school. I’m being bullied. My only friend is another gay kid, but he’s out, and my parents have told me I have to stop seeing him.
● I’m broke and have no medical insurance and can’t afford antidepressants or therapy, and if I get treatment it’ll show up on insurance as a preexisting condition!”
● “I just had a baby a few weeks ago. The baby cries and I dread having to change his diaper or feed him. Sometimes I can’t stop crying. My husband just makes it worse. I get so angry at him and say horrible things to him. I look like hell. I’m really ugly and I’m incontinent. My body is wrecked forever. I don’t know what to do…I wish I never had a baby. “
● I just got to college and I do not know if I can make it. I always get it wrong in social situations and I have no friends that care about me. I think I want to go home.
● I am 38 years old and my careers counseling group graded me as a “B” for job prospects. This has brought up all my old demons, especially suicidal thoughts.
● My kids just left for college and my greatest role as mother has ended, I feel. To make things worse my husband will not talk about how depressed I am or about the kids leaving home.
● I am 38 years old and pregnant for the first time. At this point I did not want to have children but my husband put so much pressure on me. I am sad all the time and have lost interest in my friends and any social activities.
● I cannot believe I threw a drink in my colleagues face at the holiday party at 45 years old. I think I might lose my job and people are starting to say I have a drinking problem.