Case #126 - Moving into the time bomb

I spent some time trying to find what the issue was for Iona. She said she was not in touch with her feelings. Friends said variously she was warm, or angry, or other descriptions, but she could not really identify with any of them.

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Case #127 - Guardian policemen

Linda brought a dream. She was driving a car, and the brakes were not working. Also, she was driving a truck and the same thing happened.

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Case #128 - Getting attention, paying attention

Jenny talked about wanting to be brave. She was a young woman, enthusiastic, interested in learning, and vocal. I commented on the latter, saying she seemed to be good at getting attention…but it appeared to me that she didn't fully enjoy it the attention she got. She did attention grabbing things, but did not seem to fully notice, or take it in. She said that in fact she would like more attention. I joked about her future profession - perhaps being a performer could bring her the attention she wanted.

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Case #129 - Nothing wrong with you

Annabelle was concerned about some feedback she had got from others, over what people saw as her conservatism around relationship values. She wondered if in fact she was too rigid, and needed to listen to them, to loosen up a bit.

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Case #130 - Twisted feelings transform into the vision

Isobel was depressed. She said her issue was a 'twisted feeling'. She fought often with her husband. In fact she said it was 'all the time'. She was a housewife, and stayed mostly in the house. He would take their daughter out to places when he was off work, but Isobel would not accompany them.

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Case #131 - A knife in the chest

Aimie spoke of the issue of security. She had fear, and sometimes anxiety about catastrophic things happening. I asked for an example. Her daughter was new to primary school. Aimie made sure that the teacher knew to show her daughter the playground, as she was not familiar with where things were. Aimie was quite anxious that her daughter would know where to go, and waited until the play time, when she saw another man, not the teacher, leading her daughter onto the playground. This brought up great fears in her. She approached the man, and found everything was ok. Nothing bad had happened. But there was a deep pain in her chest the whole day. I asked her about the feeling - she said it was like a knife scratching on her heart. In Gestalt style, I had asked about this in the present, and she showed me the place on her chest she felt this.

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Case #132 - Intimate Communication

Larry had been practicing trying to notice his feelings. He found this enormously difficult. He had set them aside for so many years that most of the time he just 'felt emptiness'. Now, he was able to start recognising, sometimes, small feelings in his body.

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Case #134 - Together on the ledge

Harvey mentioned divorce in his family. His parents were divorced. His brothers were divorced. He was divorced. He was wondering what was going on in his family.

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Case #135 - Up on a pedestal

Lynne came up to work, but seemed unclear as to just what she wanted to work on. She appeared very disembodied to me. Her conversation would constantly go to abstract issues, questions, things where were engaging intellectually, but seemed far removed from who she was as an emotional being. I noticed her shirt - it had sparkly crystals on it. I made several observations about it, as well as trying to bring her into the present in the conversation. She would pull away from the present, and did not respond at all to my curiosity about her own 'sparkliness'. Ok, none of this was engaging her, or enhancing contact.

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Case #136 - Turn it around

Nuri was nervous. She described how she couldnt sleep, and mentioned her parents fighting every night. I said - 'I am 20 years older than you, and could be in the same generation as your father'.

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Case #137 - A terrifying wait at the train station

Evelyn's whole body was tense. She said she found it hard to sleep, since she was child. I wanted to know about the tension. I asked what happened to her when she was a child.

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Case #138 - Angry eyes

Lilly lived with her grandmother from her mid childhood. She went overseas as an adult, and returned after 10 years to care for her parents. She reported feeling very angry at her parents, even feeling hate.

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Case #139 - Failure to protect

As I sat with Sally, I asked what she was feeling. She reported feeling anger, sadness and fear. She talked about her dog, and how one time when she was out walking, a large mastiff attacked her dog and took a large bite of of her.

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Case #140 - The circle of deep support

Damien said he was looking forward to the group, curious about what he would learn. This is a passive position - it doesnt declare anything about himself. So I asked him to imagine looking back on the group, and be specific about what he might have learned that would be interesting or helpful for him.

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Case #141 - Protective behaviours

Cheri hardly spoke. She appeared extremely shy, and mostly just watched what happened in the group. On the occasions she did say something, she was tentative, seemed nervous, and did not use many words.

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Case #142 - A gather in the back of the jumper

Mary Anne came up for a session. I noted 'the obvious', which is a starting place in Gestalt for a person's phenomenology. This requires observation without interpretation.

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Case #143 - Letting go of too much responsibility

Zelda reported feeling tension, and conflict. She made two fists with her hands as she said this. She also said 'something wants to come up'. I said 'let it come'. This is called 'tight therapeutic sequencing' by Erv Polster, and is related to the 'natural nextness' of the moment which we follow as Gestalt practitioners.

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Case #144 - From fed up, to authentic expression

The second session with Zelda went like this. Having addressed her holding back/letting go process in relation to her family of origin, she was now ready to deal with more current issues. This is often the case - once unfinished business in the person's field is attended to, they are more available for focusing on the present.

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Case #145 - Allowing nourishment in

Liza spoke about eating too much, as well as not being able to sleep very well. Food is always a very big and complex subject in psychotherapy. It connects to body, to family, to self image, to feelings, to history, to orality...

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Case #146 - Safety and the scream

Molly had an issue about feeling safe in the group. Her sense of unsafety was about peoples needs being cut off, including her own. I asked what she wanted - to be accepted and recognised. This was a very general statement. In Gestalt we always want to get specific, personal, and present.

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Case #147 - A wall dissolves

Brittany spoke about having a picture of a wall in her mind, that she felt quite scared of. She talked about not being able to get through it. She felt distress, demoralised, and that it was blocking her way.

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Case #148 - Balancing Masculine and Feminine

Sarina was very sad. She said she wanted to balance masculine and feminine within herself. I noticed her socks - they were red. She said that a master who she followed told her that red was not a good colour to wear - it was too masculine.

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