ABSTRACT
Counselling session 3: client cancels as her daughter is unwell There was a phone call for Debbie who had just arrived at the centre. ‘Hello, Debbie?’ ‘Yes, hello Ania. How are you?’ ‘Maria is not well today and I will need to stay and look after her. I am sorry.’ ‘That’s OK, Ania, I hope it is nothing serious.’ ‘I don’t think it is serious. She has an ear infection and a high temperature. So I
need to stay with her.’ ‘OK. I hope she is soon feeling better.’ ‘I do too.’ There was a pause and the sound of crying in the background. ‘I must
go now. Maria is crying.’ ‘Yes, I hear her. I hope she is soon feeling better. And I will see you next week at
the same time, yes?’ ‘Yes, I will see you then. Thank you, Debbie.’ ‘That’s OK. See you next week. Bye bye.’ ‘Bye bye.’ Debbie put the phone down and shook her head slightly as she thought about
Ania’s situation. In a foreign country, three year old daughter unwell, going through counselling to try to resolve traumas from her past, no doubt knowing she needs Maria to be better so that she can go back to work - yes, she did have enormous respect for Ania. She hoped that the counselling would help her. She knew it could never take away the past, but talking it out, releasing emotions, sharing it with another person who was offering the core conditions, she knew that it helped people to move on in themselves. Not that Ania would ever forget the past, but it was as though people who experience severe trauma become locked into that traumatic experience and then find it difficult to break free. She could imagine that Ania would have found a way initially to block it out, using Maria. But now the feelings and memories were pushing back and hence her mood had come down, and Debbie knew instinctively that it was likely to get worse before there might be some ease for Ania. She would need to re-integrate the parts of her that carried the pain and hurt, and find her own way - was that the right way of describing it? Maybe it was more about
developing a way of being, a way of perceiving and experiencing her life, and herself, so that she could in some way find some kind of acceptance? No, that didn’t sound or feel quite right either.
