Case_Study

Case Summary Linda is a 46-year-old African American woman who came to counseling due to her struggles with depression and marital issues. Linda has an Associate’s degree in Business from the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Baltimore. Linda took on a job as a paralegal at a local law firm for a few years until she quit her job. Currently, she is self-employed as an Abstractor in the Housing Industry Training Program in Baltimore. She is married to her husband Abiola. Linda and Abiola have no children together, however Abiola have two children from a previous marriage. Abiola’s children currently live in Nigeria with his family and his ex-wife. She met Abiola on an online dating social media website and they were married six months after they met. Abiola is from Lagos, Nigeria. He is 38 years old. Abiola works two jobs. He works as a store manager at a local African grocery market, and janitor at a local outlet mall. Linda grew up in the inner city of Baltimore, Maryland. She had been a foster child when she was younger. It is known that her biological mother name is Annie Mae Ragin, but her biological father’s name is unknown. It is also known that her birth parents were teenagers when she was born. Her biological mother was 14 years old and her biological father was 16 years old at the time of Linda’s birth. During her time in foster care, a married couple finally gave her a good home so it had seemed. For the rest of her childhood, Richard and Ella Lomax became her foster parents. Richard and Ella met in the military and they both served time in the military as an officer and a civilian worker. Linda became their foster child among other foster children within their household. Linda has two foster sisters, Barbara and Veronica. Barbara is the eldest daughter and she is 50 years old. Veronica is the youngest daughter which is 43 years old. Richard passed away when Linda was only 12 years old. After Linda’s foster father passed away, she missed him very much. Ella, her foster mother is now 97 years old. Linda is now her foster mother’s primary caregiver. It appeared that Linda had a delightful childhood. Her family was full of children in which she built a close relationship with. She had loving parents and siblings. Even though she lived with her foster family, her foster parents did not take the initiative to go through the adoption process to adopt Linda. Her foster parents decided to adopt her foster sister Barbara. Along with her sadness of not being adopted by her foster parents, her life was changed due to her foster father’s death. His death affected her life in a variety of ways. Linda had a very special relationship with her father because he was seen as a strong father figure that she never had in her life. Her foster father gave her the love and attention that she had craved. Linda’s foster father passed away at a critical point in Linda’s development. She was entering the stage of adolescence when her foster father fell ill due to cancer. When her father was in his sickness, he told Linda to take care of her mother. After her foster father’s death, Linda was beginning to see some behavioral changes in her foster mother’s personality. Linda’s foster mother was not as affectionate as her foster father was. As time went by, Linda’s foster mother was starting to show favoritism towards her other daughters. Linda’s foster mother did not acknowledge her as her own daughter, but acknowledged her as a foster child. During her teenage years, she met and later married her first husband Anthony. She found out that Anthony came from a single family household. She connected with him because they both had similarities in how they were raised in their family backgrounds. Linda and Anthony were married in their middle 20’s. In the beginning of their marriage, they lived happily together and then Linda became pregnant with a daughter. About half way through her pregnancy, her daughter was delivered prematurely and was stillborn. Linda and Anthony were devastated at the baby’s passing. A couple of years had passed before they tried again to have another child. Despite their efforts, Linda could not produce a baby of her own. Because of her infertility, she had come to the conclusion that she could not be a mother. She was satisfied with that fact so she continued to fulfill her life in other ways by spending quality time with her husband, friends, and family. Linda and Anthony’s marriage seemed perfect. In the beginning of their marriage, they had a true romantic and passionate loving relationship. After a few years later, they began to have marital issues along with financial difficulties. Anthony had a job as a construction worker. At some point of time, Anthony was laid off on his job. They had a difficult time maintain their household expenses. Anthony became severely depressed because of his job loss and the low income status that they had. Due to their low income status, their lifestyle changed in which they could not enjoy some of their leisure activities that they enjoyed before such as going to the movies and having a nice night out dancing at their local club lounge. Their financial problems created conflicts in their communication within their marriage. Anthony was so depressed that he did not want to participate in any family outings that he and Linda had. His behaviors and emotions changed towards Linda. He became very argumentative with her. Linda was beginning to feel isolated and unwanted within their marriage. Anthony became emotional abusive and Linda’s self-esteem suffered greatly. The breaking point of their conflicts was when Anthony broke his marriage vows by going outside their marriage to have affairs with different women. After discovering his infidelity, Linda also became distraught at her broken marriage and the lack of love and affectionate that she had received. Because of her loveless marriage, Linda became desperate to have the love that she needed in her life. She started to seek revenge towards Anthony for his transgressions. Linda began to create online personal accounts to online dating websites. Linda was swept away by the attention that she was getting by unknown men online that wanted to meet her in person. Shortly after having conversations with men online, she met them and started to have affairs with them. She was emotional drawn to them because they offered her financial stability and emotional support. Her marriage to Anthony ended by her omission to her unhappiness with her marriage. After her marriage ended, Linda went on to find the perfect man to supply her with all her needs, but every relationship that Linda had after her marriage ended was below her expectations. She felt used and abused. One faithful day, Linda met Abiola, a man that eventually became her second husband. Linda was attracted to Abiola because she thought he was exotic and charming due to his cultural background. Linda thought she was in love with Abiola and Abiola was in love with her. After a short courtship, Abiola and Linda was married. Unfortunately, Abiola changed after marrying Linda. Linda is having the same exact problems within her second marriage that she had in her first marriage. Linda’s depression had deepened. She still is having financial issues and worrying about her rent payments. She is having second thoughts about her marriage. She love Abiola, but have doubts about his intentions towards her. Sometimes, she thinks that Abiola married her to receive his American citizenship. She wants to end her marriage, but she insists that Abiola can be a good husband but he is just immature. Linda is a loving and kind woman and a good wife. However, she is deeply troubled by her feelings right now. Her fear is that her marriage will continue to be barren without love. She also has a fear of being financially unstable. Recently, her former husband has reached out to her and they became friends again She now feels conflicted about how she feels towards Abiola. There are times when she misses her former husband and wish that she can be with him again. These conflicted emotions have brought her to the conclusion that she needs help from a professional counselor.