ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the ways that the theory is embodied in the way therapists work, with a focus on how theoretical framework helps them to make sense of therapists’ patients’ lives, and how hard it is for them to change the internal patterns. It discusses the concept of containment, illustrating it with clinical vignettes of some of the typical situations therapists may face in their work. Like the mother receiving her infant’s distress, the first principle of containment is to receive what needs to be conveyed – to sit and listen. A specific containment issue, related to family of origin history, is how the couple is able to use their therapist in the transference. Couples that seek psychotherapy, like individuals who seek psychotherapy, have all probably suffered a failure of containment in their families of origin. Sometimes the ambivalence is projected powerfully into the therapist, who then feels despairing about the couple’s future.
