Exploring Cheryl's Trapped In The Wrong Family

792 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Methods of stress management essay free

Samantha Stiernagle Chapter 11 Case Study: Charles Cheryl is a 15-year-old, born to the name of Charles, who feels trapped in the wrong body. Ever since Cheryl understood the difference between boys and girls, she has felt trapped in the wrong body. She was born as a male; however, she identifies as a female. Her doctor referred her to a psychologist because they are looking to go forward with her treatment. Therapy is to make sure that Cheryl is psychologically healthy as she undergoes her adjustment to the opposite gender. Cheryl has been getting conflicting messages from her family—she has complete support from her sister, ambivalence from her mother, and confusion/anger from her father. Her father doesn’t seem to understand why she is doing what she is doing. He doesn’t know why she …show more content…

As her therapist, I could suggest a peer support group with other transgender youth that would help Cheryl overcome some of the difficulties that she has already or will face in the future. I think family counseling and psychotherapy would help assist Cheryl throughout this process. I think focusing the psychotherapy on reducing Cheryl and her distress related to the transition, as well as any other psychosocial difficulties, would be most effective because at a young age, it is extremely difficult to feel accepted by peer groups, which makes dealing with social situations a difficult task. I definitely feel that it is important that Cheryl have a lot of individual therapy because although she needs her family’s support, this is about her; it is important to make sure that she has the right mindset, minimal anxiety or stress about the situation, and a plan to move forward most effectively. During individual therapy, she will be able to focus on her own self, thoughts, and feelings without the input of her family members. These are just a few of the many possible techniques that could be used for Cheryl’s

Show More
Related

  • Compare And Contrast Cheryl Strayed And Chris Mccandless

    1196 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both of Cheryl and Chris grew up in a similar conditions. Cheryl have had some issues when she was young specifically from her father’s side. Her father was a heavy drinker; and he had been in many arguments with her mother. In some occasions, her mother was being hit and they had to leave the house for sometime before coming

    Read More

  • Frontline Documentary: Two American Families

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    The father, Claude, was a pastor (Frontline Video, 2013). The mother, Jacki, made efforts to find work (Frontline Video, 2013). She spent most of her time helping her husband run the church (Frontline Video, 2013). She seemed confident and strong (Frontline Video, 2013). She inspired people to live to their full potential and enjoy life (Frontline Video, 2013). However, this was just an act (Frontline Video, 2013). Jackie didn’t want anyone to be worried about her or have a negative outlook based on her experience (Frontline Video, 2013). It upset her deeply when she would have to turn for help from others just to get some food to feed her family (Frontline Video,

    Read More

  • Sanchez Family Case Study

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    The second stage she is struggling in is Stage 6 Intimacy vs Isolation in young adulthood (Rogers, 2013). She is 28 years old, and is isolated from her family and her son, Joey, who her parents now have custody due to her drug abuse. The other reason she is isolated from her family is due to her having an abortion, and her parents feel she has committed a mortal sin and they do not want her in their home. She has the lost the intimacy of being with her son and her

    Read More

  • Chris Stuckey's Letter To His Father

    364 Words  | 1 Pages

    Not only did Chris not want to call his parents, he did not want to see, speak or even come in contact with them. After Chris discovered his father’s affair he had no desire to even have parents at all. He was so angry at everything they have done. In a letter to his sister, Chris explained that their parents were being irrational and he had passed his breaking point: ‘“’I’m going to divorce them as my parents once and for all and never speak to either of those idiots again as long as I live’” (64). Chris believes his parents have caused so many thing to go wrong in his life that they do not even deserve to have him anymore. To come to this statement and the conclusion of divorcing his parents, Chris had to have been emotionally hurt to a crippling point. He cannot see that they are only trying to protect him and give him a happy, secure future. Chris lived thinking that his parents were horrible people and did not feel loved or cared for, and that led him to rebel. Not caring about what his parents’ feelings crippled Chris with anger and led him to, ultimately, his

    Read More

  • She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

    1748 Words  | 4 Pages

    The information acquired over the semester, whether through text or visual media, vividly brought the importance of knowing how one’s gender is identified and developed.

    Read More

  • Mothers and Daughters in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club

    1798 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, the reader can see the difficulites in the mother-daughter relationships.  The mothers came to America from China hoping to give their daughters better lives than what they had.  In China, women were “to be obedient, to honor one’s parents, one’s husband, and to try to please him and his family,” (Chinese-American Women in American Culture).  They were not expected to have their own will and to make their own way through life.  These mothers did not want this for their children so they thought that in America “nobody [would] say her worth [was] measured by the loudness of her husband’s belch…nobody [would] look down on her…” (3).  To represent everything that was hoped for in their daughters, the mothers wanted them to have a “swan- a creature that became more than what was hoped for,” (3).  This swan was all of the mothers’ good intentions.  However, when they got to America, the swan was taken away and all she had left was one feather.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, she uses particular objects to relate themes to characters. For instance, Sunbeam bread is the most common placed object throughout the entirety of the novel. Sunbeam bread makes an appearance in the majority of scenes, otherwise known as panels, in Bechdel’s novel to symbolize a loss. The bread is present in many panels concerning the loss of her father, the loss of her childhood, and the loss of innocence.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Redefining Realness By Janet Mock

    1509 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many transgender people lived in dysfunctional families when they were young. The support becomes vital for the wellbeing of kids. In her book Redefining Realness by Janet Mock, recaps the importance of support from Michelle his cousin, who kept in secrets of gender dysphoria of Charles (Keisha) by saying “‘Pinkie –swear you won’t tell your mom’… She’d keep the secret my secret because I was her favorite cousin” (Mook 76). Michelle, kept Keisha’s secret by allowing her to use her swimming clothes.

    Read More

  • Personal Issues In Intersexion: A Documentary About Being Intersex

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sex exists in a binary system of male and female, and people can be forced into this binary. A mother of an intersex child states that the surgery comes from “the message that a child’s body is not acceptable as-is and should conform to what the state thinks it should be” (“Their Baby Was Born”). Sex, just like gender, exists in a binary, and when individuals do not fall into the two categories, society becomes uncomfortable. Sex, like gender, is socially constructed (Fausto-Sterling). This means that sex is a spectrum and not the binary it has been made to be. However, society continues to see the binary as normal and will attempt to force individuals to fit the already established system. Because they are in the middle of the sex spectrum rather than at the ends, most intersex individuals in the documentary experienced and continue to experience the same pressures to conform described by the mother and Fausto-Sterling. One person identified with the female gender, but her mother raised her as male. Despite her gender identification, she was continually told to be more masculine and to conform to her assigned male sex and gender. Others also had their appearance shaped through surgery and other means to fit into the sex-gender binary but now choose to identify as neither male nor female. However, this lack of gender-sex identification can leave them socially isolated since

    Read More

  • Unseen Struggles: Abby's Tragic Tale

    513 Words  | 2 Pages

    Her eyes were heavy, her body weak. As she crawled into the bathroom two feet away, Abby felt her body slowly succumbing to the numbness. All of her pain would be gone in less than 10 minutes, so why would she want to turn back? What about the senior trip Abby had planned with her best friend? What about the chair at the dinner table that would now be vacant? A couple of hours later Abby’s family came home from her little sister’s soccer game. Little did they know what they would find as they approached the top of the stairs. Her little sister, Ali, stood still as she looked down at her feet. There on the cold floor lay her big sister, her role model, and her super hero. Ali was crushed when she saw the pill bottle in her hand and the pale color of her skin. Her mom fell to her knees screaming and crying, wondering where she

    Read More

  • Family Crucible Reflection

    1074 Words  | 3 Pages

    Eventually, David and Carolyn are able to relinquish the triadic relationship with their daughter, Claudia. This restructuring in the family essentially alleviates many of the problems that were the cause for the family to seek therapy in the first place. Claudia is able to break free from the well worn routines of arguing with her mother and her unwanted behaviors diminish. After removing the pressure placed on Claudia to be their source of intense emotion, David and Carolyn are left to face the daunting task of exploring and eventually reorganizing their relationship with one

    Read More

  • Forced Gender Conformity Essay

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    Fresh from the womb we enter the world as tiny, blank slates with an eagerness to learn and blossom. Oblivious to the dark influences of culture, pre-adult life is filled with a misconception about freedom of choice. The most primitive and predominant concept that suppresses this idea of free choice involve sex and gender; specifically, the correlation between internal and external sex anatomy with gender identity. Meaning, those with male organs possess masculine identities, which involve personality traits, behavior, etcetera, and the opposite for females. Manipulating individuals to adopt and conform to gender identities, and those respective roles, has a damaging, life-long, effect on their development and reflection of self through prolonged suppression. This essay will attempt to exploit the problems associated with forced gender conformity through an exploration of personal experiences.

    Read More

  • Alice Munro's Boys and Girls

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story, “Boys and Girls”, the narrator is not the only one coming to terms with their identity.

    Read More

  • Awareness in Boys and Girls by Alice Munro

    1017 Words  | 3 Pages

    When children are faced with emotional events that challenge their ideas, they take another step on the road to being “grown up” as they discover their identity. The short story “Boys and Girls” written by Alice Munro illustrates this coming of age by allowing us to follow the development of a young girl. We follow the main character, who narrates the story, as she changes from beginning to end. As the story opens, the narrator acts like a care free child, not paying heed to her gender. She then begins to react strongly to the way she is treated by her family and their expectations of her young womanhood. Once she realizes that some changes are inevitable she begins to adopt a new understanding of who she is which is evidence of a more mature way of thinking. This story demonstrates that difficult childhood experiences regarding gender contribute to a developing maturity and are frequently met with varying degrees of resistance.

    Read More

  • The Four Families In Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club

    574 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the novel, The Joy Luck Club, there are four stories told by the four families that are in the Joy Luck Club. With each story of their past, there is an important lesson shown that the characters and the reader are meant to learn. Throughout the novel, every single mother wants the best for their daughters more than anything. At times, to achieve this, the mothers make sacrifices to better their daughter´s lives. Amy Tan uses a strong language style all through her novel.

    Read More

More about Exploring Cheryl's Trapped In The Wrong Family

Open Document