Andi, you are right, my hardest work with this family will be getting the instinctively passive parents to step up for the good of their daughter...but as much for themselves.
It's just... there are a lot of traits that I'm by nature not that I have had to develop for my work, because it all boils down to one thing: what does this person need me to do/say/be to meet their needs at this moment? If I have to be firm or authoritative in a particular situation because that is what the person's developmental needs require, then I will bloody well do that. If the person needs me to answer the 37th time s/he asked that same question today as patiently as I did the first time, when s/he's already asked me the same question 37 times each and every day I have showed up to work with him or her, I will bloody well answer patiently each and every time for 400,953 times. Their needs come first; this isn't to say that I can never pay any attention to my own needs, because if I don't meet my own needs then I lose my ability to meet theirs, my desire to avoid confrontation and let others lead, and my desire to strike out sarcastically when annoyed simply do not actually qualify as needs.