Ralph is a 47-year-old father of four children, all of whom are adolescents or older.

Ralph is a 47-year-old father of four children, all of whom are adolescents or older. He says that he is coming to you for counseling in order to find a way to free himself from feeling trapped by meaningless work. He was referred to you by a friend, and he tells you the following at the intake session:

"I feel a need to take some action at this point in my life—I suppose you could say I'm going through a late identity crisis. By now, you'd expect that a guy of my age should know where he's going in life, but all I know is that I feel blah. Just sorta like a zombie"!

"I attribute most of my problems to my job. I've worked with this department store chain for more years than I can remember. I'm the manager of a store with quite a few people under me. But now I've come to hate that job! There's nothing to look forward to anymore. It's no challenge. Part of me wants to junk the entire thing, even though I'm not that far away from retirement with a nice pension and many fringe benefits. So the conservative part of me says stay and put up with what you've got! Then another side of me says leave and find something else more challenging. Don't die living for a stinking pension plan!

"So I'm really torn whether I should stay or leave. I keep thinking of my kids. I feel I should support them and see them through college - and if I go to another job I'll have to take a big pay cut. I feel guilty about even thinking of letting my kids down when they expect me to see them through. And then my wife tells me I should just accept that what I'm feeling is normal for my age - a midlife crisis, she calls it. She says I should get rid of foolish notions about making a job change at my age. Then there's always the fear that I'll get out there and make that big change and then get fired. What would I do without a job? Who would I be if I couldn't work? I just feel as though there are heavy rocks on my shoulders weighing me down every time I think about being stuck in my job. I sure hope you'll help me get rid of this burden and help me make a decision about what to do with this work situation."

1. Based on his story, what are your impressions of Ralph? Would you like to work with him? Why or why not? Would you share with him any of your initial reactions and thoughts from the intake session? If so, what do you think you would tell him?