ABSTRACT
This session involves a husband (H) who raises pigs and hires himself out for general carpentry and his office-working wife (W). They came for therapy because of constant quarreling. The co-therapy team consists of male and female student therapists (TM and TF, respectively). As I observe from behind the mirror, the husband talks about how he has been helping his neighbor build a barn and how he’s tired when he comes home. He mentions that he works all day and doesn’t have anyone to talk to until he comes home, but his wife gets home too tired to talk. She needs her “down time” after work, but her husband counters with, “She acts like she’s the only one that works. You come out there and handle that lumber all day. … She used to come down there and work with me.” Looking directly at his wife, he goes on, “That lumber’s hard, ain’t it?”
