TRANSCRIPT OF AUDIO FILE:

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT:

THERAPIST: Hi. Come on in. (pause)

CLIENT: I'm a little late today. I thought I was actually going to be later, but I made it just in time. Okay, what's today, Monday? Generally I go over in my head what happened since Thursday, beside the fact that we have 3 ft. of snow. So Thursday night I got a text message from Kevin saying that he was going to be in Connecticut this past weekend and he was wondering if I wanted to see him. [00:01:13] He said he didn't want me to feel like he was leading me on, so I could say whatever I wanted. I gave it a little bit of time and I didn't answer right away. I was thinking that I didn't know if that was really a good idea, so I texted him back and said I wasn't sure if it's the greatest idea. He said he wasn't sure, either, and that he would call me. I said I didn't want to have any discussions with him via text message because of the way text messaging comes across. [00:02:02] There are no inflections. Everyone just takes everything out of context, generally. In the past it has caused tension between us, so I said, "If you wanted, I'm happy to chat with you on the phone about it, but I'm not going to say anything via text message." So he said okay and that he was in Maine. He had to go and he would call me Friday night this was Friday morning. So he didn't call or text on Friday, which I thought was kind of weird; so I sent him a text asking if everything was okay. He said, "Yeah, sorry I didn't call. I'll call you later. I'm going to try and work again," because with the weather he didn't get a chance to. So he ended up calling Saturday afternoon and we sort of talked on the phone for two hours, but it wasn't like we really talked about anything. [00:03:01] In the beginning it was sort of just a little bit of "how are you?" and then it was sort of about the weather and then catching up on what's happened in the last week or whatever. Of course, he said, "I really miss you. I really love you and I miss being able to share my day with you and talk to you." Blah, blah, blah. So okay. That was sort of just a talk about nothing. He said he was coming to Connecticut and I said, "I'm not really sure if it's a good idea if we see each other, given the situation. Obviously I want to see you, but with everything happening, I don't know." So he said okay and he was going to his friend's and then he was visiting his mom, she had surgery, and so on Sunday he would call or text me. [00:03:59] He sent it to me on Sunday and said, "What do you think?" I was like, "I don't know. I have reservations about it." I ended up meeting him for lunch and it was an hour long. We sort of talked, but we were in public so I said I didn't really want to have a deep conversation about anything. I really didn't even want to rehash the whole situation; so we just talked about whatever. We ended up talking on the phone for a while. It's just weird because he says one thing and then he says another and he acts in a certain way, so he's all over the place and he keeps saying that he's really confused and he doesn't know what to do. [00:04:58] He does want to go see a therapist now. Before, he was going to go to talk about things that happened with his past and he was going to figure out the present on his own and what's happening; but now I think he's come to the realization that maybe he needs someone else to sort of at least talk to or figure stuff out with. So I said that was good and he probably should because he's so conflicted about stuff and he keeps saying stuff like, "We can't have a relationship. I can't be in a relationship where I'm afraid that what happened on December 30th will ever happen again." He's sticking to the fact that we'll never have a relationship again, but then almost in the same breath, he's like, "I miss you and I want to spend time with you." I mentioned, "You're the one that said that you wanted space," and everything like that. [00:06:01] Then he said yesterday, "You can call me or you can text me if you want to and we can still talk. I still want to see you." So he's all over the place and he was like, "I don't want to confuse you anymore. I don't want to seem like I'm leading you on because I'm trying not to." I'm just like "okay", but I'm trying to say okay and stay in the same mindset. Like if I do talk to him, for whatever reason, and not because we are going to get back together because then he said something to me like, "In one breath you say something about our relationship and then in the next breath you say something about it being over." [00:06:59] I'm like, "Yes, I might say something about our relationship out of slipping and saying whatever, but you're the one that keeps saying that I have to let go. I've come to the realization that we're not going to be together, so that's what I'm trying to do." Being friends with somebody after you break up with them doesn't always work. If you don't want to have a relationship with me but you just want to be friends, for me that doesn't really seem to work. If you still have feelings for someone, which he clearly does, and he keeps saying "I don't want to be with you." I asked him when he broke up with his fianc� so many years ago, "Did you still miss her when you kicked her out? [00:08:02] You keep saying how terrible this situation is and you've never been in this type of situation and you've never felt this way before. Did you still miss her? Were you still I love with her?" He keeps saying, "No, I only feel that way about you." It's just very confusing and he's all over the place. I don't really know what's going to happen. (chuckles) I didn't tell anybody that I'd seen him, mostly out of feeling judged for it. I don't know.

THERAPIST: Judged for what?

CLIENT: I told everyone that he had texted me and I had told my best friend. She was like, "Do not see him. It's not good for you. You need to tell him to stop texting you and to stop calling you." I just kind of felt like if I'd said that I had seen him or talked to him on the phone that everyone would almost be angry with me for doing that. [00:09:13] They keep saying, "You have to be strong and you have to do this and you have to do that and you have to cut all ties with him." I know what I should be doing. I know that I probably should be doing that, but there's also a point where there's still that emotional connection or attachment there; so maybe I'm not always going to do exactly what I should be doing. Maybe it makes it more complicated later on. I don't even know. I probably shouldn't worry about what everyone else thinks because it's what I want to do and my relationship with him in any way shape or form. [00:10:04] But part of me doesn't want people to think I'm weak or I'm not strong enough to sort of let it go. It's easier said than done. I feel like my best friend continues to date the same person that she continues to say how much she hates him for the last five years and refuses to break up with him. He has no job and sits at home all day and does nothing. She yells at me for being with Kevin. I never say anything to her about her boyfriend. I just listen. I've stopped saying that he's whatever. She does whatever she wants to do. I guess she probably wouldn't car that much. It just seems complicated. [00:11:03]

So on Friday the kids didn't have school because all the schools were canceled because of the snowstorm and their parents worked from home. They had sent the kids on play dates or something. I came downstairs and they were in the kitchen and they said to me, "We need to talk to you." They told me that after March they wouldn't be needing me anymore. On Thursday I was feeling so conflicted about telling them and what I wanted to do and all this other stuff; and I was like oh, all right. You guys did the job for me. I didn't have to say anything to you because even in my head I was thinking I'd stay until the end of March until we go to court and then I could move back home. [00:11:59] So, basically, that's what is sort of happening right now and they took all the pressure off of me having to say anything. The weird thing is they said it's because they're doing renovations on the first floor. The house is three stories and they already renovated the second and the third floor. I live on the third floor. I have my own bedroom and my own bathroom and sitting area, closets and stuff like that. All their stuff is on the second floor and then the first floor is just the main floor. They're starting renovations and they said that they, themselves, wanted to move to the third floor so that the kids didn't have to get disrupted and the kids could still be in their rooms because they're doing stuff with their master suite. So they told me, basically, it's a space situation. But you know how sometimes you just get that feeling that it's probably not really the case? (chuckles) [00:13:02] When they said it I was like, "All right." But they've been sort of in the works of doing this renovation probably since I got here, and it's just like last year at this time they were thinking that it was going to start happening last summer and, unrealistically, their timeline hasn't gone the way that they wanted it to go. They're supposed to start demolishing the first floor in the beginning of April, according to the contractor. I was just like "okay." Saying it's the space thing seems like a good reason, but I sort of sometimes feel like what's happening in the situation that's happening like last month everything like that is more part of it. I don't know. I just sort of got that feeling. I tried to say to her that I was going to talk to her anyway about leaving because I feel like I need to go back to work. [00:14:02] She said, "I feel really bad and we didn't want to tell you." They were going to try and tell me last week, but then I said Kevin and I broke up. I've been leaving a lot more lately, so they've noticed that I've been really distant. She's like, "We understand that you're going through a tough time, but there's only a certain amount of time and then you have to get right back into life and stop being depressed." Okay. (sniggers) I'm not sure that's really for you to decide when that happens. If I was not living her you would never really notice because all I would be doing is coming to watch the kids and then going home. It just happens that when they get home I don't really want to talk to them. I just want to go upstairs or I leave and I go over to the house of the other people that I babysit for for dinner. I've become friends with the girl that watched Duffy when I went on vacation, so I go over there for dinner and, I guess, they're probably just not used to me not being around. [00:15:09] And I'm trying to not be around so they don't really have much choice but to figure out what they're doing with their kids. I kind of asked her, "Do you guys have plans on what you're doing after I leave?" and she basically said, "No, we don't really know what we're doing." She's going to work from home on Wednesday because the kids have half-day and then they have music. She's decided that that's what she's going to do, but they really have no idea. I'm not really worried about it. It just seems weird.

Then Saturday I was home and I was upstairs cleaning my bathroom and going through my stuff because I'm going to Pennsylvania this week. I'm actually going to try and bring a large amount of my stuff home, so that when I move again in March it's just one car load now and one carload then. [00:16:07] She came upstairs and asked me if, during the situation on December 30th, if we had broken one of her dining room chairs and if we had glued it back together. I was like, "No. If I did, I would have told you that and we would have replaced your chair for you. We wouldn't have tried to do a crappy glue job." My mom and I glued the kitchen table because it was a little piece and that's it. She was like, "Okay. Well I'm just looking and was sitting in the dining room. I did notice it and it was a really crappy glue job. I wasn't sure." It just seemed like a really awkward not an awkward question, but just the way she went about it, it didn't seem like she believed me. [00:17:05] I was like, "No, I really would have told you if we had broken your chair." We didn't even sit in the dining room. They spent like $15,000 on a dining room table, but we don't sit out there because she doesn't want to mess it up. I'm like, "All right." They have very light-colored fabric and they're afraid the kids are going to mess it up, so it just sits there. No one really uses it, but it's out there. I'm like okay. We weren't in the dining room. At dinner time we all huddle around this tiny little table that they've had for 30 years that did break and glued back. All these funky awkward chairs that they've picked up from yard sales are where we actually do sit, rather than this very nice dining room table. Whatever it's not my house. [00:17:57] I'm like okay. Then she was just like, "Oh, all right. Some of them were floor models, I think, so maybe that was it." I don't know. Just the way things have been is what made me feel like the renovation thing was sort of just their excuse. And frankly, at this point, I was so conflicted about what to do about telling them. I don't even care what the reasoning is behind it, they could just say, "We don't like you anymore. You have to leave," and I would be like "okay." To me it just seemed odd. I'm going to be moving, I guess, Easter weekend. I guess that's what that is; the 31st is Easter Sunday.

THERAPIST: In March?

CLIENT: Yes, I think that's the very last weekend in March. I've started to look for a job down in Pennsylvania and my best friend said that she's been looking at places for us to move into. [00:19:08] Actually, where she works there are a couple of job openings that fit what I do, so she was getting my resume to them and hoping that on Friday, when I'm down there, maybe I could go in for an interview or something like that. So hopefully, it all works out and I'm just sort of trying to figure all that stuff out and not have to move home and live with my mom. The other people that I work for, I stayed at their house last Saturday just because they lifted the travel ban and I did not want to stay in the house any longer; so I went around the corner. I told her that I was going to leave and she said, "You can come live with us if you want to." [00:20:08] I guess if I don't have a job, the plan would be that I would move out and just live with them until I found a new job in Pennsylvania and I can move back. I can't just move there and not really work and not have a place to stay because I could never live with my mom. I'm already sort of dreading going home this coming weekend and bringing all my stuff because then I have to move it back again, which is a pain. (chuckles) My mom has been texting me ever since I told her that Kevin and I broke up. I think that was a week ago that I told her, but she hasn't actually called and I haven't called her. I've just been answering her when I want to or giving her whatever. [00:20:59] She hasn't been too terribly dramatic, but today (chuckles) she says, which is so awkward, she said something about me moving back and have I been looking for apartments or I could look for apartments when I come home this weekend. I said that, actually, my best friend has been looking at places and she sends them to me via e-mail to look at them and get my opinion; and we found a place. It's a condo, two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and it's in the same complex where my aunt, who I had moved in with when my mom kicked me out, lives. It's in the same area, which happens to be around the corner and down the street from where I lived when I was in Pennsylvania before I moved here with my ex. [00:22:03] We had the dog together, so we lived in a townhouse around the corner and up the street a little bit. I said to my mom, "We found this place and it's very affordable for Hillary and me to split two bedrooms, two bathrooms. It has a fireplace; it's very nice. It's in the same complex that Aunt Kim lives in, which is around the corner from work." My mom said, "You probably shouldn't live there because Duffy will remember and she will be upset if you move in that area." Duffy is my dog. I'm like is she really that out of touch with the world that she thinks my dog will remember living in the same area and put two and two together that we used to live around the corner and down the street and she's going to be upset about it? I'm just like this is kind of off-the-wall stuff that she comes up with. [00:22:59] My reply to her was, "I'm not sure if the place even takes pets, so we have to find out more information," and then she just said "okay." It was just so strange. Why would she say that? It was just more of how she has to identify with the dog or how she just sort of perceives things. It's just weird. She's already asked me if I get a job, what am I going to do with Duffy all day? It's like those kinds of things that I'm starting to ignore or really not telling her so much just for the mere fact that, if she's going to say things like my dog is going to remember the neighborhood that we used to live in and is going to be upset, I can't handle that kind of stuff. It's just an awkward thing to say. I'm trying really hard to kind of be aware of what she says and what to respond to and how much information I should be giving her because I don't want to have her saying things about that. [00:24:19] She's too concerned about the dog. When I'm going home this weekend I had said to her that I would be home on Thursday. Friday I have to get my car inspected and do whatever I need to do there, possibly go on job interview and go and look at some apartments. Saturday I am going to Ohio, but not to hang out with Kevin, to hang out with the couple that we already had plans with. I was talking to her and she said, "We would love if you could come down and hang out," so I said I was going to go Saturday to Sunday and come back. Then I have to drive back here sometime on Monday. [00:24:59] Already my mom said, "What are you going to do with Duffy?" I said, "I was just going to leave her. If you're going to be home that would be fine." She said, "We're going out on Saturday night and then we have an appointment on Sunday." They're building a house or something. I sad, "All right. She can stay home by herself on Saturday night if you're just going out for dinner, Valentine's day, or something." I can't imagine your appointment for your house is going to be terribly long. Even still, she could stay home by herself." Already my mom starts with, "I don't want her to be on the furniture because we got new furniture. Are you sure she should be okay by herself?" I'm like, "She's not an infant or an actual child that I'm just going to leave. You can leave her home. She's a dog. If she was a child, then I would just take her with me. I can't take her to the restaurants and that kind of stuff. She'll be fine if you just went to dinner and came home. She stays home alone by herself all the time. "[00:26:02] I don't even want to go home to deal with the silly drama like that. That's what she sort of creates, is silly things about the dog staying home.

THERAPIST: It sounds like you don't understand why she doesn't understand.

CLIENT: Yeah. I don't understand why it's so hard for her to understand that the dog is a dog and not an actual person. It just confuses me as to where she comes up with like the dog remembering where we used to live and is going to be sad. I don't know. I'm just baffled by her thought process when it comes to the dog and the way she sort of treats the dog as being a person and not a dog. I love my dog and she's mine. She's like my baby, my child, but I still treat her like a dog. She stays home; she eats dog food; she does stuff like that. [00:27:05] I love her to death, but she's still a dog. (sniggers) She's in no way shape or form mistreated. She's very spoiled. I'm just trying to figure out where my mom comes from. It's not even just with the dog. It's with everything. She comes out of left field with things so I think maybe I'm just going to give up trying to understand where she comes from and just do whatever. The dog will live with me, obviously. She stays home all day when I'm at work. She stays home all day long and my mom doesn't really have anything to say about it. If she does, then [ ] (inaudible at 00:27:46), that kind of stuff, because that's what brings the extra drama in that doesn't need to happen. Most of the time it will be about the dog or what I'm doing. I think the less I tell my mom, the better it is. [00:28:01] As much as I don't want to stay with her, I don't have a choice right now. I feel like I'm okay just talking to her, but giving her very little information and it being more about the weather or whatever. That's kind of how the relationship is going to have to work from now on. Just given her past and how she reacts to stuff, I sort of feel like right now that's how it has to be. I don't know if that will change. It may; it may not. But the less she knows, I think the better it is for everyone involved. We'll see how everything goes.

THERAPIST: How do you feel about now knowing the date you're going to be moving back to Jersey? [00:28:59]

CLIENT: I guess I feel a little bit relieved because I was so terribly confused and torn about what to do. I kind of feel like they made the decision for me and I didn't have to. I was trying to make more decisions on my own and be less dependent on other people to make the decision, but it just happened that way. I feel a little panicked about what if I don't find a job? Staying here it's not like it would be terrible and I would have to move out of living there, so it might work out a little bit better. I don't necessarily have to live there anymore, but If I can say to them, "I'll be more than happy to come and take care of the kids during the afternoon until I find something . . ." [00:30:02] With Miranda saying that I could move in there because she selfishly doesn't want me to leave and she wants me to stay because I watch the baby so much during the week, I said, "I'm going to actively look for a job between now and when I leave. If it just happens that I haven't found a job yet, when it's time for me to move out of the house I'm in now then, yes, I will move in with you guys. I will still help you out. I will give them the option of allowing me to still help out if they still want to because they have, as of now, no idea what they're going to do. But I'm not going to plan to stay here. I'm going to plan to leave and if it, unfortunately, works out that there's no job, then I can't just leave and not have a job. She sort of was fine with that. [00:30:58]

Then she asked if she should send Amy an e-mail saying that she would be happy to let me live with them and still help Amy and Carlton out with the kids for whatever the time being. It sort of ended up last night in talking to her and her husband when I was there for dinner that she doesn't really even need to say anything or get involved because I can just simply tell them, "It's March. I don't have a job. I'm going to live with Rob and Miranda until I find a job," and then give Amy and Carlton the option of me still helping them out after. I think everyone was worried about one family stepping on the other family's toes or Amy and Carlton feeling awkward or upset that I would be leaving. [00:32:04] I said that frankly, I would be happy to move in with Rob and Miranda today rather than staying. They said that they needed me until then. I guess, too, about finding a job, actually had said to me, "When can you start?" because a month-and-a-half is kind of far sometimes when you're applying for jobs and you say "I can't start in two weeks. It has to be more like a month." If I can leave earlier but it just sort of seems like they're going away March 8th to the 10th to Nashville because I had given them a weekend away for Christmas. They're taking advantage of that. I would have to request off on the 22nd and the 21st or something because I would have to fly back up here for court. [00:33:00]

It just seems like it would be more of a pain to start at any other time. It could work out in one way or it could work out in another. I don't know. I kind of feel like I'm feeling a little bit better in that, yes, I'm leaving. I'm sort of looking forward to living with Hillary, sort of living on my own, not necessarily depending on someone else, and getting a job and going back to work. Sort of doing my own thing and being more independent and less miserable living where I'm living now. It's not going to work out with Kevin and, over time, it will just get a little bit easier and figure out, I guess, who I am and what I want to do and all that stuff. [00:34:01] Other than that, I don't know. (sniggers) I think the end of March seems far away, but its' going to come really quickly.

THERAPIST: Yes. It's already mid-February.

CLIENT: Yeah, so it's going to be here before I know it and then be packing up and going. I talked to my aunt on Friday night and she had called this is the one that I had moved in with. She, of course, was asking me about Kevin and all that stuff and I didn't really tell her that we broke up because I just don't feel like going through the whole situation, but I did tell her that I'm not going to move there in June. I'm going to probably move home and sort of do my own thing and just not necessarily move to another state for somebody else, like I already did yet again. [00:35:12] She said, "Oh, that's good." I told her I was coming here to sort of figure out my own stuff and then she offered that if I needed to stay with her for a little while, I could. But then if I said that to my mom, is she going to freak out again? Is that going to cause more drama that I really don't need? If Hillary and I don't find a place and I have to move home because I have a job and I have nowhere to go and she's offering me to stay there, I will take her up on it. She said, "I'll help you out. You can save some money." Then there's the whole thing with my mom and her being mad that I'm living with my aunt again. [00:36:04] It just always feels like there's some sort of drama. I guess if it came down to that I would have to say to my mom, "Look, I can't live with you. I'm not going to deal with that. I don't have any other options right now because Hillary lives with her mom and their house is very tiny, so I can't stay there. It will just work out better that way. Hopefully, I'll have a place to live before.

THERAPIST: One thing I was thinking, especially recently maybe not. You're very good at describing what goes on in your life and trying to think about things and talk about things that confuse you, but you do seem to have a more difficult time talking about how you're feeling about things. Maybe it's not as forefront on your mind. [00:37:05]

CLIENT: (pause) Um, I guess. I don't know. (pause) I guess as far as leaving and how I feel about moving and all that kind of stuff, or just in general . . .

THERAPIST: Maybe that, in particular, but I notice that a lot of the questions that I ask you are, "How do you feel?" "How do you feel?" "How do you feel?" By doing that I'm noticing, "Why am I doing that so much?" I think it's in part because I want to know how you feel and I'm not always sure. I know you feel confused. I know you feel frustrated.

CLIENT: Yes, I feel relief that I do know when I'm leaving and I don't have to stay there any longer because I was feeling so anxious and miserable and unhappy being there. [00:38:10] Now that this has an end date and it's not June anymore, I do feel a sense of relief. Maybe I can be a little less resentful and less bitter while I'm living there for the next month and a half or six weeks or however long it is. I feel almost a little excitement to move back and be on my own and just not be here anymore. It's terrible, because the place itself is great and Providence is a really great area. It's a nice city and I love going into it and stuff, but I think because I'm in Wallingford all the time and being so unhappy there that it sort of ruins the whole experience for me. [00:39:10] A lot of me feels like if I didn't live in that house and I wasn't there and I had my own space here, I would be better off and I would be a little bit less anxious about being there. I'd be a little bit more relaxed and I would feel like I could do whatever I wanted to. I was describing it to Rob and Miranda last night. They were asking me about living there and the situation and why I feel the way I do. I just said, "Sometimes I want to have ice cream and cookies for dinner and maybe that's just what I feel like eating; but I don't feel like I could do that where I'm living. I feel judged by her and the comments that she makes and the things that she says. [00:40:06] It's little stuff like that. What I eat and what I do has no effect on her or the kids or whatever. If I want to have cookies and ice cream or if I don't want to eat dinner, that's my decision." There have been times when, if I bought ice cream or if I didn't eat something that was completely organically healthy, she sort of turns her nose up and is like, "Why are you eating that? It's too rich." She's very judgmental when it comes to what you're eating. At the same time, she goes to work and she doesn't pack her own lunch. She eats in the cafeteria. She'll come home and say she had a lobster roll because they were having some sort of thing at work and she ate cookies and candy and all this other stuff. [00:41:02] But when it comes to what other people are eating, she's sort of judgmental about it. It's just silly little stuff like that. I want to have my own space because I want to be able to go downstairs or into my kitchen and eat ice cream for dinner if I want to.

THERAPIST: You don't want to be watched and have a commentary on your experience.

CLIENT: Exactly. I want to feel like I can go home and do whatever I want to and walk around in my pajamas have my own space and, if I want to have a glass of wine at night, not feel judged. Carlton drinks and he'll have a beer. He buys wine and stuff like that. He says, "Do you want a glass of wine for dinner?" He would drink the whole bottle in a night if he could, but she is very . . . If he has a glass, I'll have a glass and I usually only have one, two at the very most, with them. [00:42:06] He'll pour himself another glass and she gives him the evil eye. She's like, "You shouldn't drink anymore. You don't need to have that." One time he had been sick for a week and then he was feeling fine and he wanted to have a beer or something. She was like, "You can't have that. You've been sick. That's ridiculous." She was angry and mad about it. I don't know why. It's just like little stuff like that where she yells at her own husband about it. He's a grown man and he's kind of like, "I want to have a glass of wine. I've worked all day. I feel like I'm sort of entitled to do that if I want to."

I was trying to describe to them what it's like but, at the same time, she's just very different. She's one of those women who is very plain and she's doesn't need to dress up for work. She does, but she doesn't. I had said she wants to keep up the "I live in Wallingford" fa�ade. Rob was like, "She doesn't seem like she does." She tries and she talks a lot about stuff at home and what she wants to buy and how she wants to dress and what she wants to look like. She doesn't exactly execute it so she's sort of trying, but she's failing in a certain way. No one sees that because they don't live there. With me living there, she says stuff and trying to describe her personality and why she's so irritating sometimes, no one gets it. I'm just like, "Well, you just don't really live there so it's kind of hard to see." [00:43:59] She's so frugal on one end to where she brings napkins home from work and she uses half of the paper towel to give to the kids. She will reuse the paper towel if it's wet. She'll dry it. She uses this much soap in the dishwasher so none of the dishes actually get clean. I'm dumping more soap in when she's not looking. The kids only take a bath once a week, which is gross; weird stuff like that. But then she went and bought a $2,000 Burberry raincoat. I'm just like I don't understand.

THERAPIST: It feels inconsistent.

CLIENT: It's very inconsistent. To me, it's your money. It's your house. You can do whatever you want. I'm trying not to judge you for it, but she's judging me because I eat something or if I go to the store she asks what I bought if I'm out shopping. [00:45:08] She definitely must have some sort of body image problem, as well, because she said the other day on Thursday that she ate a cookie on Wednesday so she really needed to get out there and start shoveling on Friday so that she could burn off her cookie. She's not a fat woman. She's a fairly thin woman. She's like a size 4 or something like that. Okay. It's the little things. I don't know if it's bothering me I think it's always bothering me, but now since I feel a certain way about being there, it bothers me even more. It just doesn't make sense.

THERAPIST: I'm wondering now that also you're feeling less beholden to them, that you feel freer to express these things because there's an end date to when you'll be there. [00:46:00]

CLIENT: Kevin and I used to talk about that or with Hillary or something, and he doesn't like them and he thinks they're very different people. I would express that with him but I would just not say anything to anybody else and I would pretend everything was fine. Now Rob and Miranda are like, "We can't believe that you feel this way. Have you always felt that way?" Yeah, I just never really felt comfortable to express that and now I don't really care. (laughs)

THERAPIST: We're going to need to stop for today. Good luck on your trip back to Pennsylvania and I will see you a week from Thursday.

CLIENT: Yes, and that's, I think, the 21st?

THERAPIST: That sounds right.

CLIENT: Do you have a different time. I meant to ask you; only because the kids have February vacation.

THERAPIST: Just for that week?

CLIENT: Yes. Do you have an earlier time or any other time next week? [00:48:06]

THERAPIST: Let me take a look.

CLIENT: They're going to be in camp.

THERAPIST: They get out earlier or something?

CLIENT: Yeah, I have to pick one up at 2:00 and the other one up at 3:00.

THERAPIST: On Wednesday, I could meet at 11:30. Would that work for you?

CLIENT: Yes.

THERAPIST: Okay. Let's do that. Great.

CLIENT: That's just for next week and then it goes back. [00:48:06] The kids will have school and they'll be back, so that will be fine.

THERAPIST: Okay, great. Good luck with everything in Pennsyvlania and with your mom and I'll see you that Wednesday. Okay, take care. Bye.

CLIENT: Bye.

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