Bonnie is a 16-year-old sophomore in high school who lives with her parents and 12-year-old brother. Bonnie’s mother is concerned about her daughter’s recent 25-pound weight loss. Bonnie is proud of this weight loss and has bragged about it. Bonnie counts calories and exercises every morning before school and at night before she goes to bed. She has also started running after she gets home from school. Even though she has lost the weight and is of average size, Bonnie describes herself as “fat and big-boned”.
When she was in second and third grade her father called her his “little Miss Piggy”. Bonnie becomes very animated when describing this time in her life. Her brother also teased her about her weight and referred to her as his “fat sister” in front of his friends. Her mother intervened after Bonnie told her how much this bothered her and the name calling stopped. Bonnie states that she and her mother are very close, but that her father favors her brother. Bonnie gets defensive when her mother calls her too thin and she states, “I still need to lose some more weight”. Bonnie’s father encourages her to eat at supper and this leads to fights at the supper table until Bonnie storms off. Bonnie is an above average student who is a cheerleader and musically gifted student.
Bonnie’s parents are unsure if she just going through a normal teenage rebellion or if she is developing an eating disorder.
Answer the following questions:
What are the positives in this scenario? What are the negatives? Discuss.
What are your first concerns? In what order would you address these concerns? How would you begin to address these concerns?
Are there services or community resources that would be supportive of this situation where you live?
Are there any ethnic/cultural/ethical considerations that seem relevant? Discuss why or why not.
Write 5 open-ended questions that you would ask in this situation. Who would you address these questions to? (You can address these questions to more than one person in the scenario if applicable.)
Identify any possible transference/countertransference issues that you might deal with in this situation.
Needs to have at least 5 open-ended questions and I usually copy the questions they want me to answer on the paper and answer them.
