Hi Sue, that's right, you can't name names. I mean, you can, but you (the author) open yourself to suits. I was flabbergasted by this. Yes, you could use the word "father." An editor was annoyed that I'd gone the entire first without giving my father a name. He was referred to as "my father" or by others as "your father." This reference happens to be real in my family, as no one wants to say his name even when talking about him! so I settled upon a ficticious name. Yes, I too renamed nearly everyone except for the counselor(s) Karen because I had thier permission. In victim advocacy work, I've discovered that perps have more rights than victims! And, the perps know their rights, where as the victims do not know their rights until they come to an advocate for help. It's a backwards world sometimes.