A few examples of situations causing people to connect with me
A very busy small business owner wants to discuss parenting his two adolescent daughters, while the entire family desperately struggles to cope with the mother’s increasingly uncontrolled drinking.
A mother, grappling with whether her sixth-grader son should be put into Special Education, reluctantly realizes her estranged ex ought to be, and (practically speaking) needs to be, included in the process. She “needs” to consult about that.
A female shift supervisor in the mostly male Facilities Management department seeks to talk about, and work through, the pros and cons of accepting a higher managerial position in a mostly male environment.
When their daughter moved home on the heels of her breakup with the father of her most recent child, her parents are disappointed in how much their daughter is taking for granted and is apparently not that interested in the disruption – and how they truly feel. They asked to discuss it with me.
A married couple hoping to help their young adult son struggle with the possible onset of schizophrenia. But strong differences between them, about how to handle it, are getting in the way.
A teacher who, after finally resolving a “very dicey” situation involving her, her Ed Tech, the assistant principal, and the parents of a “difficult” student – and feeling “drained” now that the dust has settled – wants to think out loud with me about questions and reservations she has about her commitment to her educational career.
A single mom needing to talk about her “very smart” 14-year-old daughter suddenly getting F’s at school – an obviously clear indication that she’s been deeply affected by her mother’s recent divorce from her second husband. On top of the guilt, Mom now described herself as “pretty thrown” by how hard it’s become to have any form of civilized communication with her daughter.
A man, wanting to talk about a regrettable problem at work, says he always thought of himself as a good supervisor, with “good instincts,” but now worries he may be fatally compromised by the way he handled a “nepotism situation.” “I let some little things go, which of course came back to bite me.”
A married couple “hoping against hope” that their 26-year-old son doesn’t fit the “failure to launch” scenario. He keeps promising he’ll try harder to find work, but he spends most of his days playing video games and smoking weed. They’d been triggered to consult with me because they’d seen an expert guest on Oprah talking about parents needing to become “case managers.”
