“My dad told me everything,” she said after a few sessions. He even told Alex the details of her mother’s affair. His model was “We don’t keep secrets.” Yet when Alex tried to share with her father, he immediately told her how to think instead of allowing her to talk. She consistently asked him for input on her decisions because she didn’t trust herself to make the “right” choices without his opinion. But he tended to be critical and dismissive of her feelings.
