ABSTRACT
Difficult therapeutic situations challenge both the client and the therapist. When therapy becomes difficult, it is often because the client comes with multiple experiences of trauma. Because the trauma has focused so much of the client’s time and energy on survival, he or she has not had the opportunity to develop in many areas of life, and will have perceptions and reactions from a traumatic past that interfere with the ability to be present. The repercussions of the trauma reverberate through the therapy forcing both client and therapist to strengthen their relationship to hold against the storm of affect and devastation of loss. What is lost-time, health, opportunities, relationships, etc.— cannot be restored without conscious thought and work. The greatest gains are made when the client is motivated and capable of change, and the therapist is knowledgeable about trauma and available to connect with the client in a genuine, healing relationship designed to empower the client to grow.
