ABSTRACT
In this VBTC lasting 14 minutes 51 seconds, Whisky discusses her anxiety that her son may not reach his goal, which is to get into the Army, because he is not doing all the things that he needs to do to achieve it. She recognises that she does have a protective function as a mother, but she has a rigid attitude towards discharging this function. The result is that she and her son have developed an unhealthy relationship where she nags him and he does not listen to her. During our conversation, I help her to see that she can flexibly discharge her maternal responsibility, but that she can’t make her son do what she considers to be the right thing. Rather, she can encourage him to take responsibility for his decisions. I put to her that in the final analysis life may be more successful than her in teaching him the consequences of his actions. We then discuss what she can say to her son to indicate that while she has preferences for his behaviour, she is no longer going to insist that he follows this path. If she does this and she stops nagging her son this will probably lead to them having an improved relationship which both seem to want.
