The cycle starts with a message from the client's mother claiming of being a bad parent when in reality, she is hurt by an underlying issue that has not been made known until the phone call from the client takes place. The client then enters the chase with guilt and frustration to sooth her mother. The messaging continues until the client makes a phone call to her mother when in return the mother does not answer at first but is forced by her husband to pick up the phone and talk. This ends the cycle with a silent treatment and anxiety and guilt for the client.
Needs Being Met/Denied.
The needs the client is expecting from her mother are not being met. The client expects to be detached from her mother to thrive as her own adult and raise her children how she sees fit. The needs (boundaries) are being crossed and denied when in place to grow and continue to develop as an adult. .
Theory-Based Clinical Hypothesis.
The client experiences anger, frustration, and anxiety from an unspecified anxiety disorder due to the borderline Bipolar disorder the client's mother is expressing through the roller coaster of narcissistic cycles with the client. Family members so profoundly affect each other's thoughts, feelings, and actions that it often seems as if people are living under the same "emotional skin." People solicit each other's attention, approval, and support and react to each other's needs, expectations, and distress (Kerr).
Issues to Explore.
In the next sessions, issues to explore is the role-play "empty chair" the client would be able to say or act toward another person, being her mother, as she wants. Implement journaling for the client to be shared with the counselor to help with discussion of thoughts and to remember important and critical events about the issue the client is experiencing. Practice some deep breathing techniques when the anxiety is escalating. Set one boundary the client can put in place and can be consistent with the boundary no matter the outcome and to stop the escalation of the Mother's behavior.
