ABSTRACT
Carrie attended four more sessions during which time she continued to talk of feeling lighter, although there were pockets of heaviness as well. But the trend seemed to be as if she was in some sense lightening her emotional load. She had more emotional releases, but none as intense as that one in the fourth session. She began to talk more openly about her drinking. It felt easier for her to do this now. It w asn’t something she felt a need to deny or defend. She talked more about w hat she was drinking, and w hat it was like, although the am ount and frequency had reduced. She described how having a few drinks made her feel w hat she described as ‘norm al’, feeling how she needed, wanted to be. Carrie was able to differentiate the slightly drunk experience from the intense bingeing-into-oblivion style of drinking and she was able to increasingly appreciate the roles each played in her life, in how she experienced herself.
