An interview with a family counsellor

An interview with a family counsellor

Interviewer: I’m sure that a lot of people have no idea what a family counsellor’s job’s really 1)________. Do you think you could tell us a few things about it?

Counsellor: Yes, well, it’s quite an interesting job actually, we have to deal with very interesting cases day 2)_________ day – or perhaps, I’d better use the work complex here – you know the majority of these cases are rather sad as a matter of 3)__________.

I: Could you give me an example 4)____________?

C: Yes, certainly. Last year I had to deal with the case of a little boy for example. This little chap – eight years 5) __________ he was – had always been as good 6)__________ gold, doing terribly well at school – a real bright button of a boy, if you know what I 7)_________. ... now this lovely picture changed dramatically, quite unexpectedly, literally out of the 8)_________; from one day to the next he began stammering...

I: You mean he began to speak with pauses and repeated sounds like this without any warning, just 9)_________?

C: Yes, that’s exactly. And, what’s 10)________ worse, he started to behave very badly at school, became a real nuisance, really, very serious discipline problems indeed, like beating up other children, and not answering the teachers’ questions, stealing money from the staff room, things like that. 

1)   a – is, b – like, c – likes

2)   a – to, b – from, c – by

3)   a – fact, b – thing, c – facts

4)   a  - semmi, b – for, c - of

5)   a – under age, b – of age, c – age old

6)   a – than, b –so, c – as

7)   a – mean, b – say, c – am saying

8)   a – boy, b – blue, c – sudden

9)   a – over the night, b – fortnight, c – overnight

10)               a – even, b – more, c - yet

So he really started to show rather worrying symptoms. His teachers, and of course, his parents were terribly shocked, they just couldn’t understand these 1) _____________ changes, and they were really very seriously worried. Well, to 2)_________ cut a long story short, the case ended 3)________ on my desk, and I decided to sit down and have a chat with the whole family. My little patient, his mother, his father and his little sister, who was 2 and a half at the time, they all came into my office and sat down on the sofa that you’re sitting on 4)__________ the moment. The father first, then the mother right next to him, and then the little girl, and finally the little fellow himself over there at the far right end of  the sofa. Now, the moment they were seated, the little girl started to climb on her mother, 5)____________ and kissing her, talking to her all the time, obviously doing everything she could to take all of her attention. When my little patient tried to ask her mother anything or tried to take her hand, the little girl would just raise her voice or hug her mother even more closely, really she 6)_____________ it completely impossible for the little boy to have any kind of communication with his mother. Well, it was obvious that he was suffering from this situation; you could see the frustration in his eyes.

I: But did he actually do anything? I mead did he do anything aggressive or violent?

C: No, nothing, nothing at all. Eventually, poor boy, he just gave it all 7)__________, and sat there quietly, hardly said anything at all for the whole thirty minute session.

I: Oh, what happened then?

C: Well, I decided arrange the scene for the next session a bit. First of all, I asked the father to take care of the little girl while we were talking, so that she 8)___________ crawl all over the place, and particularly so that she wouldn’t go up to her mother and take up her attention. I also asked him to make sure that he and the little girl were the last to sit down after coming into my office. Then I asked the mother to make sure that she came first into the office and I also told her to sit down at the far left end of the sofa. And I explained to them that I wanted the little boy to 9)__________ the best place for himself.

I: And what did the little boy do?

C: Well, as you may have guessed, he immediately sat down right next to his mother, kind of, well, blocking the way for his sister. Wow, you should’ve seen the difference! Now that he was sitting next to his mother and was also getting all her attention, of course, his behaviour changed 10)_____________. He was much more open, he was obviously not frustrated, he was ... just happy.

I: So it was all because...

C: Yes, it was that simple. The poor little chap was suffering from, well, a lock of loving care and attention and he reacted to the situation in ways that really shocked everybody. I think he was giving clear signals. He was sending a kind of behavioural SOS that something was terribly wrong. Unfortunately the parents simply hadn’t realised that they’d just paid too much attention to the little girl.

I: And did things get better?

C: Well, yes very much better, just as dramatically as they got worse when the first symptoms appeared. Thank God, the parents understood the situation immediately and they spent more time with him, so things became perfectly all right in no time at all, and apparently they haven’t had any problems ever since. You know, the human soul is a very sensitive thing, and if we do not pay attention to the seemingly unimportant details, we might very easily cause or suffer injuries for a lifetime.

at      up     up     sudden      chose         made     completely     choose         hugging     cut    make                   wouldn’t

The exercise is based on a listening from the language book Blackbird.