Managing Your Career with Estelle H. Rauch, LSCW, CGP
Extended unemployment for the primary breadwinner can be accompanied by lowered self-esteem, loss of position within the family, and in the most severe instances, of mental health. Psychotherapists working with couples overwhelmed with the problems associated with this crisis at times neglect the potentially serious impact on the lives of their dependent children.'Jamie,' 14, whispered to me, "Can I talk to you," when I emerged with her parents following their session. After receiving her parents' permission, I listened as Jaime guiltily reported her father's nightly drinking, parents' loud fighting, and her own beginning bulimia and self-cutting behavior - all to reduce her unmanageable tension.
Matthew, 9, in another family, drew such disturbing pictures in his 3rd grade class that his teacher referred the family to the community's mental health clinic. Parents were both out of work, their home in foreclosure. His father had left the family to return to his parents' home in Georgia, where the man had found some off-the-books work with relatives. No one had helped either Matthew or his 4 year old sister comprehend the rapidly deteriorating family situation.
During the recent severe economic downturn, I have worked with several families struggling with consequences following extended unemployment. I try to help each person appreciate the pain, fear and often displaced frustration and anger undermining self-esteem and ultimately poisoning the family environment. Therapy's objective: to reduce fear and dangerous behaviors while activating each individual's healthy energy for problem-solving, while paying serious attention to the children, who, in my opinion, should always be a part of therapeutic thinking, and at times, of intervention.
For more information, please visit Estelle's TNNW Bio.
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