Susan contacted our counselling service asking for support to deal with anxiety and depression. She had been experiencing this problem for 10 months and felt its impact on her life was becoming ‘severe’.
Susan is a 35-year-old mother of three young children (aged 10, 8 and 4). She lives with her children and her partner in what she describes as a ‘good and supportive’ relationship. Prior to the birth of her youngest child Susan worked as a payroll officer for a charity. She had liked her work because she felt she was helping people, but she stopped working when she found herself too busy with the demands of three young children. She hopes to return to work when they are a little older. Susan’s mother died last year. Her father is in poor health but lives nearby and visits her often.
Susan contacted our service in April 2015 seeking support to deal with anxiety and depression which she described as ‘severe’. This problem had begun 12 months earlier after the death of her mother, whom she loved very much.
Since her mother died Susan says she has felt sad all the time, and has difficulty sleeping, no energy and no interest in the activities that normally give her pleasure, such as volunteering at her children’s school, shopping and spending time with her family and friends.
Susan is also experiencing anxiety. In November 2013 she realised that she was too anxious to leave the house and was increasingly fearful for the children’s safety when they were not at home. Susan says that this fear kept growing until by February she was ringing the children’s school three or four times a day to check they were safe.
Susan was offered six counselling sessions. The counsellor worked with her using cognitive behavioural therapy, through which they explored the thinking patterns which were underlying the emotions Susan was experiencing. Working with the counsellor Susan set goals for her sessions and for herself. Susan’s short term goals were to overcome her fear of leaving the house and get to the counselling service, and to be able to build on this with some small excursions into the community. Her long term goal was to experience a reduction in her sense of helplessness around the anxiety she was experiencing.
In her final session Susan completed an assessment. It showed that she was feeling less anxious about her own and her children’s safety and more hopeful about her future. Susan also shared that she had successfully attended a number of social events away from her home. She was planning to volunteer to help at her children’s school to ‘get that back on its old footing’.
Susan said she felt the counselling service had been helpful in dealing with anxiety and depression which she had felt was ‘severe’ and which was having a very negative affect on her life. Since overcoming these problems Susan said she felt able to ‘go back to her old life’.