PORTRAITS Roger has been working two jobs for years just to make ends meet.  Unfortunately, he recently lost the higher paying of his jobs.  As if that weren’t enough, his son was also just suspended from school for drug possession.  Roger feels that he has failed as a father and blames himself for not being home enough with his son. Amanda longs to have a husband and a family of her own.  Now that most of her friends are married, she has been thinking a lot about her ex-boyfriend of five years.  She blames herself for their breakup and thinks about how things could have been different if she had only been a better girlfriend.  She has been spending most nights at home alone and her friends are beginning to worry. DEFINITIONS & KEY THOUGHTS Discouragement involves a lack of confidence or feeling of sadness that is the result of either a real or perceived event in life.  Two of the main underlying causes that contribute to discouragement include lack of confidence in oneself and … [Read more...]