Case #81 — From crying to yelling
Jane was doing a process which involved surfacing ‘ aggression ’ - strong energies such as anger or rage, and bringing them into the relationship in a contactful way. In Gestalt, we view aggression as…
Case #82 — Looking to father
Ian wanted to work on his relationship with his father. He was 41. His mother had died a year ago, after struggling with cancer for 8 years. During this time Ian had been her carer. He had an older br…
Case #83 — You have a hard life. Now connect with me
Adelle had worked in a government-employed customer service position for 20 years. She spoke of how well she performed her role (she was popular with customers), but she was fairly antisocial in other…
Case #84 — Help making friends
Lilly was bright and cheery, in a genuine way. I liked her liveliness and her friendliness. She did indeed brighten up the room. I gave her my personal feedback about this. How I felt easily connected…
Case #85 — The empty swimming pool
Danielle told a very traumatic story. Both her husband and herself were teachers, and they travelled together, and taught English in a variety of countries. They had met in college, and it seemed they…
Case #86 — Why so fat?
Laila was fat. On the scale of obesity, she was somewhere in the middle. As is often the case, this was not something that she brought directly to therapy. It was something I observed, after getting t…
Case #87 — The good husband and the true love
Chuan had never done therapy before. He was a businessman. His father made things out of wood, and had a small farm. Chuan had fond memories of his early years, being with his family; his father liked…
Case #88 — Strong symptoms, little information
John had attended a variety of personal growth groups. He had been wanting to come to a Gestalt group. So he was clearly keen to be here. He came up to work. I had been noticing him over several days,…
Case #89 — Opening up a very private realm
I could tell Lizzie was a bit tense, but didn ’ t know what that was about. She seemed on edge, I imagined maybe angry. She talked about arguing with her father as a teenager about the topic at hand -…
Case #90 — When the client is more aware than the therapist
Martin had an acute sense of fairness. The context was that his parents asked a great deal of him, but offered him only criticism. This set the tone for our interaction. If I did anything in the thera…