Which counselling therapy would you use?

Mary has sought counselling because she is feeling depressed. She has recently been off work for 8 weeks and is taking antidepressants. Although she does not feel well she is back at work and very afraid that if she takes more time off she will lose her job. She works as an auxillary nurse on a maternity ward. Due to the difficulties she is only working nights. She loves her job and describes it as the only good thing in her life.
Mary feels that her problems stem from her relationship to her father who was both physically and mentally abusive towards her, her two sisters and mother. She is the youngest child by 10 years her two sisters are very close in age. She is 28 and her sisters are 37 and 38 years both are happily married with children. Their father died 12 years ago and at that point Mary dropped out of education. Mary still lives at home with her mother and feels dominated by her sisters and also marginalized within the family group. She describes herself as still having loving feelings towards her father and would visit his grave. Both her sisters are described as hating their father and still talk about him with anger and bitterness. They feel that Mary鈥檚 feelings are a betrayal of family values. She feels that they are trying to force her to think like them and be like them and do not give her any respect as an adult with her own views. She feels the key to her current feelings is in the nature of her relationship with her father but she cannot talk about him without getting upset. She also tells you that her memories of childhood are patchy and she has no memories before the age of nine.

Is this an exam question? It seems to want you to say psychodynamic - all the problems with her father, dependence on her mother and patchy childhood memories would suggest psychodynamic (which believes these experiences are key causes for mental distress) would be appropriate.

Howeve, if its not a test, i wouldn't prescribe psychodynamic cus its got very shaky evidence as to whether it actually is effective. I'd use family therapy (to work through the issues she has with her sisters and mother) and perhaps cognitive analytic therapy to work through her distressing emotions and thoughts.
xxx