Family Counseling Success Story

 

Magdalena (name changed to protect confidentiality) came to counseling last year presenting with depression/anxiety, past childhood abuse, and the desire to improve her relationship with her daughter. She was a generous person and a constant people pleaser, and unfortunately others in her life often took advantage of this. Magdalena lacked good boundaries and limits, which often caused her unnecessary anxiety. She was also concerned that she was too controlling over her young daughter.

A few years ago, Magdalena immigrated to the US from Mexico.  As a young child in Mexico, she experienced traumatic abuse which had gone unresolved for years. Due to these tough issues, it was very important that the therapist was able to communicate in Spanish, the client's primary language, in order to help her reach her goals.

Through therapy, the therapist and client were able to process these complex feelings, which helped Magdalena reconcile her past abuse, and be able to live her life without being weighed down by her emotional pain. As a child, Magdalena's personal power and control were stolen from her by her abuser. However, through treatment, she was able to make the connections between her past and her present actions, and therefore was able to change her behaviors with her daughter and become more flexible and nurturing.  Through this new insight, she was also able to practice better personal boundaries with others and new strategies to manage and decrease her anxiety and depression.

When the client and therapist came to the end of her treatment, Magdalena told the therapist that she felt an "inner peace... like a weight had been lifted off of her chest."  Without the bilingual counseling services that were made available to her, Magdalena would not have been able to resolve these issues.

                                                                  - by Ashley Sayer