Читать книгу Counseling and Psychotherapy - Группа авторов - Страница 17

It was 3 years after the divorce that Clarita was finally able to discuss the physical and psychological abuse that she received from Mark. During their marriage, he became physically abusive whenever he drank and constantly demeaned her profession, culture, and religion. This was particularly true when he was not adjusting and felt isolated in Puerto Rico. He withdrew from both Clarita and the children and spent more and more time away “on business trips.” When Clarita turned to her family for support, she was confronted with indifference and reminders of their opposition to the marriage. Her sister, once supportive, now blames Clarita for a great deal of the disunity within the family. They all grieve the challenges facing their community ever since the hurricane. The children’s paternal grandparents refuse to believe that their son was abusive and are very critical of the way in which Clarita is raising their grandchildren and of how she does not visit enough.

With the lack of support from family, Clarita turned to newly made friends in Florida for help and one Puerto Rican friend who had also moved nearby. A friend suggested that Clarita needed to meet and start dating other men. She found that she had difficulty relating to men, was afraid to trust, and felt that all they wanted was sex. She felt that the relationships cooled rapidly when they found out she had two children.

Clarita turned to her work and poured all her energy into her students. This resulted in very little energy left for her own children, and their relationship grew very strained. It was at this time that she began to have disturbing dreams that kept her from sleeping. The dreams, according to Clarita, generally entailed the following:

I am always running, and there are shadowy figures behind me. I am in a large warehouse-type structure with lots of boxes and crates. The boxes and crates are all marked with arrows reading “Exit.” The only problem is that the arrows are all going in different directions. Therefore, I never find the exit, and the figures keep getting closer and closer. I wake up in a cold sweat, breathing rapidly, heart pounding, and a scream stuck in my throat. I lie there trying to calm down, knowing that I am too afraid to go back to sleep. In a little while, I get up and spend the rest of the long night sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee.

The more often the dreams occurred, the more depressed Clarita became. She fought sleep because of her fear of dreaming, and at times she found herself crying uncontrollably. Her eating habits have also changed drastically, and she finds herself buying fast food for the children so that she does not have to cook. She seldom eats and has lost 15 pounds, weight she really cannot afford to lose.

Her depression has kept her away from work and away from people. She has been spending more and more time alone ruminating. In Clarita’s words, “I have nothing to live for. No one cares about me. I have ruined my life and the lives of two families, and I am currently hurting my children.” On the advice of her priest, she sought the help of her physician, who recommended that she seek psychological help.