ABSTRACT
Sally’s thoughts stayed with the risk of cutting. She was shaking her head as she thought about how people got to that point of being no longer able to bear emotional pain, and instead inducing physical pain as a way of relieving the pressure. It could feel like a pain they could manage, or a diversion, it could have so m any different meanings. Like choosing to binge, each person cut for their reasons, and those reasons needed to be listened to and received with warm acceptance. Yes, she thought, Carrie has a coping mechanism. I t’s risky, but i t’s been working. W hat she needed now was therapeutic space to begin to feel able to reach behind the behaviour and perhaps allow w hat was inside her to be released. And for that to happen she needed to experience the therapeutic conditions. Sally had to be authentically present and warmly accepting of Carrie, and able to hear and appreciate w hat Carrie said, and Carrie had to be able to experience Sally’s responses. And whatever happened within Carrie
needed to happen at a pace that, well, th a t was in tune with the actualising tendency as it worked through her emotional and psychological processes.
