EDCO 815 Reading Report
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Name: Lynda Burke
Date: March 2228, 2020
Week #: Two
Place a mark beside the percentage that most accurately represents the amount of reading from
your textbook(s) and additional materials you completed for this week’s module. Then generate a
paragraph of reflection from the reading and type them on this form below. Save the reading re-
port and submit it through the assignment link on Blackboard. Submitting the weekly reading re-
port is a requirement for the course.
Critical thinking involves asking questions about clarification of key issues, worldview assump-
tions, reasons/evidence, perspectives, and implications. Reflections develop critical thinking
from the required reading. Reading reports will be conducted at 4 times during the course and
will account for a total of 200 points.
Completed Reading
I have completed the following percentage of required reading for this weekly module:
0%____ 20%____ 40% ____ 60% ____ 80% ____ 100% _ X_
Textbook Readings
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Balswick: chs. 2, 8, 19 ISBN - 9780801049347
Carter & McGoldrick: ch. 8 ISBN - 9780205968060
Garland: ch. 4 ISBN - 9780830839711
Kostenberger: ch. 6 ISBN - 9781433503641
Yarhouse & Sells: chs. 3–4 ISBN - 9780830828548
Note: Please keep in mind the academic honesty policy of Liberty University as you complete
and submit your reading report. A clear conscience is worth more than a few points!
FAMILY DEVELOPMENT SCENARIO FORUMS INSTRUCTIONS
Purpose:
The Family Development Scenario Forums are designed to give you the opportunity to interact
with real-life examples/scenarios affecting the family and its development. You will read and in-
teract with course texts and articles supplied with the course materials using the Discussion
Board Forum tool and addressing the prescribed questions associated with each scenario.
You will create a thread in response to the provided prompt for each forum. Each thread must be
at least 400 words, demonstrate course-related knowledge, and include at least 2 scholarly refer-
ences. In addition to the thread, you are required to reply to a minimum of 2 other classmates’
threads. Each reply must be at least 250 words and include at least 1 scholarly reference in cur-
rent APA format.
Family Development Scenario Forum 1
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Garland states that the family is a powerful political concept in today’s culture. Everyone is “pro-
family,” even though there is a sharp disagreement over what the family is and what being for it
means. What one group believes will strengthen and help families is seen by another group as a
frontal attack on family values. The family has such enormous symbolic potential because Amer-
ican culture views family as the basic unit of civil society. Virtually everyone has been shaped in
profound ways by their own personal experiences in one or more families. In addition, beliefs
about gender roles in the place of children and aging in society are intertwined with our religious
beliefs and personal experiences of family. Much of the conversation about family centers
around an underlying lack of consensus on the definition of family (Garland, 24).
Using the information from Garland, Chapter 2, propose a working definition of family. Describe
the essential elements of a family as you interpret them at this stage in the course that you will
follow and build upon in the course of the study. Be comprehensive but concise in supporting
your proposal with source material from the course.
Instructions:
Respond to the following for each family development scenario:
Present your initial impressions.
What are the concerns in this scenario?
What are the tensions in this scenario?
What are the implications for family development?
What is your response in this scenario?
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EDCO 815 Reading Report
What is the most important take-away?
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Reference
Balswick, J. O. (2014). The family: A Christian perspective on the contemporary home, 4th ed.
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. ISBN: 9780801049347.
Carter & McGoldrick. (2016). The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family, and social per-
spectives, 5th ed. Columbus, OH: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN: 9780205968060.
Garland, D. (2012). Family ministry: A comprehensive guide, 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: IVP
Academic. ISBN: 9780830839711.
Kostenberger, A. J. (2010). God, marriage, and family: Rebuilding the biblical foundation, 2nd
ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. ISBN: 9781433503641.
Yarhouse, M. A. & Sells. (2017). Family therapies: A comprehensive Christian appraisal. Down-
ers Grove, IL: IVP Academic. ISBN: 9780830828548.
Submit your thread by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday of Modules/Weeks 2, 4, and 7.
Submit your replies by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Sunday of Modules/Weeks 3 and 5 and by 11:59 p.m.
(ET) on Friday of Module/Week 8.
Paragraph Reflection
Present your initial impressions.
There have been times in everyone’s life when they have had more stressors than they
feel they can take. I remember hearing from a client who was going through one such sit-
uation. I will call her Boston, she was a mother of twins and one evening when her hus-
band came home from work, her twin daughter ran out to his car to greet him, however,
EDCO 815 Reading Report
her husband did not see the sweet little girl and backed up and drove over the little girl,
killing her.
Even though these two were very religious, being raised in the Catholic church for all
their lives and having a strong belief that everything God has a plan for everything in
their lives. Garland states “Their faith has not protected them from troubles and disap-
pointments but has given them a framework for coping and even thriving in adverse cir-
cumstances” (ch. 4, pg. 1, 2012).
In the cast of Boston and her family, she felt like God had let her family down. She was
angry with God and kept telling me over and over “If God exists how could he have al-
lowed this to happen? My daughter never did anything wrong; how could God take her?”
I felt so much for her and I just did not have the words to help her. I felt like I was failing
as a therapist. I did not have any words to give her the reassurance that God had a reason
for taking her sweet daughter. Over the months that we continued seeing each other, the
loss of her daughter seemed to become a bit easier but her faith in God seemed to be fad-
ing more and more with every passing day.
“Family members need to be sure of one another or to be confidently attached. When that
security is destabilized or becomes detached by environment, circumstances, or behavior,
the figurative glue that permits people to ‘keep their lives together’ breaks down”
(Yarhouse & Sells, pg. 36, 2017). That is what was happening with Boston and her hus-
band. She knew they loved each other but somehow it did not feel like they did any
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longer. She felt like it was a stranger who shared her bed, who came home to their house,
who kissed their son goodnight.
What are the concerns in this scenario?
Ultimately, she moved out, she took her son from their house and moved into a little
apartment. From what Boston told me she believed that no longer being in their house, no
longer waking up next to the stranger she once thought of as the love of her life would
make things better. But the move simply made her feel even more alone. She began to not
even recognize herself in the mirror.
Boston told me she had stopped going to church, stopped talking to her husband and
when her son brought up his sister, she just shot the conversation down. During our ses-
sions I would try to discuss how things were going on with her husband and son. Boston
shut it down as soon as I brought it up.
My biggest concern was for Boston’s safety, her mental safety as well as her physical
safety. During our initial session Boston had told me she was raised by her grandparents
that her mom and her had an extremely estranged relationship and often went years with-
out talking. Thus, between the fact that she had moved out of her home and was no longer
talking to her husband, her grandparents had passed about 4 years prior and she did not
want to talk to any of her friends as she felt none of them understood what she was going
EDCO 815 Reading Report
through. She went on to tell me she does not talk to most of her friends anymore as they
are “happy” and just do not get her.
Instead of getting better she seemed to be distancing herself from everyone more and
more. I reached out to my supervisor for some help, letting him know I felt as though I
was failing her. My supervisor told me everyone deals with situations differently and to
just continue to support my client. Stavinoha stated “Two people experiencing the same
situation may cope very differently. One may feel intense mental or emotional tension
while the other experiences only a slight bump in the road” (2018).
What are the tensions in this scenario?
Boston, her husband and even her young son felt the tensions that were not being spoke
of in their households. Neither Boston nor her husband were willing to discuss the loss of
their daughter. During one session where Boston’s husband attended, I ask him how he is
feeling and coping with the loss of their daughter. He told me things are ok but refused to
elaborate. The couple set very separate even though their chairs were only inches apart. I
could feel the tension and despite my every effort to engage the husband, the couple sat
refusing to discuss the tensions or emotions they each were feeling.
I tried to reach them by explaining that even though they both lost their sweet daughter; it
was obvious that they are dealing with this loss very different. The husband, Jimmy
(name changed for privacy) not only was dealing with the loss of their daughter, he was
EDCO 815 Reading Report
also dealing with the guilt of having been the driver of the car and the anger over why
someone let his daughter out of the house while he was driving still.
What are the implications for family development?
In this situation and family, the family cycle got broken or stuck after they lost their
daughter. The family split up, the marriage dissolved and ultimately neither parent had
the skills to deal with their loss, anger and guilt over this loss. This “’stuckness’ is the re-
sult of the system’s inability to sustain continual adjustment to changing demands from
the normal life cycle experienced by all families” (Yarhouse & Sells, pg. 98, 2017).
What is your response in this scenario?
As a mother of four, my heart broke over their loss. I felt so incompetent and unable to
help them. Prior to meeting with Boston, I felt I was an empathetic therapist who knew
what I was doing. I had been doing therapy for years, yet in this situation all I could think
was how do I fix this? I know as a therapist it is not my job to fix my clients rather to
help them along their path, to help educate them with a toolbox that they can turn to when
they are in need. But for the first time ever I absolutely could not get myself out of my
mom mind and heart.
What is the most important take-away?
I know that boundaries are extremely important in all therapeutic relationships. And as a
therapist I was failing my client. I needed to discuss the situation with my supervisor at
work and figure out how to set the boundaries my client deserved. This was an extremely
EDCO 815 Reading Report
hard concept for me to implement in my sessions with her. I had not had an issue main-
taining my professional distance with any other clients, but I did in this situation.
References
Garland, D. (2012). Family Ministry: a comprehensive guide. Downer Grove, IL: Intervarsity
Press
Stavinoha, P. (2018). 5 High-Stress family situations & how to deal with them. Psych Central.
Retrieved on March 25, 2020, from https://psychcentral.com/lib/5-high-stress-family-
situations-how-to-deal-with-them/
Yarhouse, M. & Seals, J. (2017). Family Therapies: a comprehensive christian appraisal.
Downer Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press
EDCO 815 Reading Report
Balswick, J. O. (2014). The family: A Christian perspective on the contemporary home, 4th ed.
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. ISBN: 9780801049347.
Carter & McGoldrick. (2016). The expanded family life cycle: Individual, family, and social per-
spectives, 5th ed. Columbus, OH: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN: 9780205968060.
Garland, D. (2012). Family ministry: A comprehensive guide, 2nd ed. Downers Grove, IL: IVP
Academic. ISBN: 9780830839711.
Kostenberger, A. J. (2010). God, marriage, and family: Rebuilding the biblical foundation, 2nd
ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway. ISBN: 9781433503641.
Yarhouse, M. A. & Sells. (2017). Family therapies: A comprehensive Christian appraisal. Down-
ers Grove, IL: IVP Academic. ISBN: 9780830828548.
