Maggie arrives bringing with her a sense of burden to which the therapist is receptive. She seems full up with worries about Steven. The therapist offers a space where the weight of her burden can be rested. Reports from school and daily struggles with Steven contribute to the sense of her exhaustion and depletion of internal resources. Perhaps the reports and the struggles are related. The sense of persecution the reports evoke in her undermines her confidence in relating to and managing Steven. She may feel they signal the presence of irrevocable damage for which she is responsible. However, the therapist, I feel wisely, resists highlighting these threads of material so early in the session