| Summary: | In their third session together, Melba Jean Trinidad Vasquez works with a young African American woman in her late 20s who is experiencing issues with trust and intimacy in dating. Using multicultural therapy as a framework, Vasquez establishes an empathic and supportive rapport with her client and honors the difficulties that African American women encounter in finding suitable partners. Vasquez and the client review insights from the previous sessions that include attributing her guardedness to self-protection that prevents her from entering relationships and therefore getting hurt. Vasquez also reminds the client of the goal established in the previous session to trust herself to handle the unpredictability of life. Vasquez recommends that the client safely and wisely experiment with behavioral changes, including being more emotionally open. In further reviewing the client's family history, Vasquez notes that responses of guardedness are typically developed early in life as a means of coping with pain. In addition to her father's emotional detachment, Vasquez finds that the client's resistance to intimacy can be attributed to negative stereotypes she has encountered as a result of her multicultural experiences.
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