Social Phenomena Essay

Home for the Holidays case

In this case Anna and Jackie are a lesbian couple who face a communication problem. They have come in because they do not know what to do for the holidays.

Jackie has recently come out to her parents about her sexual orientation a few months before her and anna moved in. Her parents nodded and said okay. After that her dad walked out and mom immediately changed the subject. Jackie and her family do not talk much about complicated issues and prefer to stay conflict free. Jackie wants her and Anna to visit her family for the holidays and does not want to spend them separate again.

Anna feel very uncomfortable around Jackie’s family because they do not make her feel welcomed nor do they talk much to her and look at her in a way that makes her feel unwelcomed. She wants Jackie to open up more to her family to be more accepting instead of just saying they accept. Anna feels that Jackie is too afraid to talk with her parents and feels like it can eventually end their relationship because of the way Jackie communicates.

At this point Jackie now feels like Anna is giving her an ultimatum between talking to her parents more about their relationship or losing her.

Jackie feels that she needs to take her parents led on if they ever want to talk about her relationship or not. She feels that if she talks to much about it that she could loose her family and be left with nothing.

Jackie feels stressed out and Anna feels left out.

Their communication has resolved down to where Anna trys to get conversations out of Jackie but Jackie wont talk much unless its something they agree on.

Jackie has a type b personality while Anna has a type A personality.

Anna’s family is very welcoming and talks about everything. This is the difference between the two. They were rasied in different ways.

Jackie state that the issues of trust and confidence in the relationship makes it harder to talk to her parents as well.

The goals for this case is

Working on openness

How to determine when is the right time to discuss things with Jackies parents

Fair mutarual expectations

And ways to bring outside into the conversations needed rather than to force that conversation.

In the end of the session the counselor expressed that she can help and would love to help, discussed the goals, and determine that communication is the biggest problem that needs to be addressed and both parties agreed.