Reaching through Resistance: Advanced Psychotherapy Techniques by Allan Abbass

Author:Allan Abbass [Abbass, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Seven Leaves Press
Published: 2015-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

Partial Unlocking of the Unconscious

Since anxiety and resistance are temporarily absent, pressure and challenge are not indicated. I simply highlight the painful aspect of this emotion and do not interrupt the process by talking. After the wave of painful feeling passes, we recap again.

Th: In that moment there were strong complex feelings all at once. You identified with John and his loss, and this mobilized sadness and rage with a body experience in it. But this rage had guilt attached to it. [Recap: triangle of conflict.]

Pt: Yes. But I didn’t get diarrhea or cramps that time, and I said something, and it worked out well, really.

Th: Yes, you were conscious of the feelings but didn’t get to quite experience them until now. And when you did feel them, the anxiety and tension dropped and the feelings were felt. But they were mixed and strong. Before, it would have been running to the washroom, having a panic attack, becoming more depressed, but for sure not talking about it. [Recap: triangle of conflict.]

Pt: That is for sure.

Th: But we have a question about these feelings. Do you have any thoughts what this all meant to you and why you felt so strongly? [Question to the unconscious therapeutic alliance.]

Pt: I do. [Wells up with wave of sadness and tears.] … My mom. [Unconscious therapeutic alliance brings link to a past figure with whom there is unresolved emotion.]

Th: There is a very painful feeling … [Resonating with and highlighting of feeling.]

Pt: [Weeps.] My father and mother divorced when I was five years old. All I remember after that was how I was not allowed to talk about my father, and I rarely got to see him. My mother wouldn’t allow it. It was like he died.

Th: There is a lot of painful feeling there.

Pt: [Displays more grief.]

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