You are meeting a 20-year-old Caucasian female today for thefirst time. When you ask what brings her in today, she states hermother and college advisor believe she has depression. She reportsthat she has been depressed on and off since the age of 15. Sheindicates that she has trouble getting along with both of herparents but mostly her mother. She has considered dropping out ofschool while she sorts everything out, but her advisor talked herout of it. She did have to drop one class and states she shouldhave dropped all of them. She reports that she feels overwhelmedwith school and that she has cried for hours about it. She statesshe cannot catch up on her assignments and that she doesn’t careabout anything anymore. She reports that she stays in bed most ofthe day because she always feels exhausted. She states that she iseither angry or sad most of the time. She reports that her mothertold her that her personality has changed. She indicated that shedoes not think that it has changed but admits that she is moreirritable around her boyfriend lately. She does admit thateverything seems to irritate her now. After further discussion shereports that a few days ago suicide crossed her mind. She statesthat she does not really want to die. She just wants her problemsto end.
How would you respond to this patient? Consider the differenttherapeutic communication techniques described in the previoussection. Identify which technique(s) you utilized in formulatingyour response.
