Servicios que presentan las viviendas.

In the fou th sessio Fa e e p essed to e that I as u h ette tha a othe the apist she had seen, heavily criticising other therapists. My initial response was to feel quite special, valued and needed. However, I also felt a sense of responsibility and pressure to not to let her down. I brought this concern to supervision and my supervisor pointed out how I had spent more time

discussing her than any other client. I also realised that I had spent more time preparing for her sessions compared with other clients. My supervisor and I discussed how this may have reflected

fea of letti g he do a d ot a ti g to e like the othe ad the apists. We h pothesised ho Fa e ight ha e ee p oje ti g a ideall a i g othe o to e, eli iti g a esponse from me to ideally care for her. My response in giving her more time could be described as a reciprocating transference (Ryle, 1998). We questioned whether this search for an ideally caring other could be a response to feeling ignored and neglected as a child. Her dismissal of other therapists made it hard for me to feel that I could be anything other than perfect for her, meaning that I was being drawn into a role of striving to please her, leaving me feeling anxious that I could disappoint her at any minute. In supervision we also talked about how giving Faye more preparation time than other clients also reflected my own procedure of needing to be liked, valued and accepted and wanting to

ai tai this spe ial ess that she had gi e e.

This hypothesis seemed to gain further evidence at session five when a powerful and dramatic shift in the therapy dynamic came into play. In the first part of the session, Faye spoke about her week as she had in previous sessions. However, she very quickly became withdrawn from me and less responsive to my questions. Within 10 minutes she responded with nothing but shoulder shrugs and no eye contact. In fact any question I asked seemed to irritate Faye, demonstrated by her tutting and eye rolling at everything I said. I felt intensely confused and lost as to what had triggered this

ea tio to e. I felt uite i ti idated a d pa al sed to sa a thi g at all. Whilst I as t a le to ascertain what had triggered this dramatic change within this session, it seemed that I had

disappointed her in some way, perhaps failing to reciprocate an ideally caring role. Kellet et al. suggest that lie ts ho s it h et ee self-states so dramatically are likely to have a less well-integrated repertoire of reciprocal roles, which can be a result of severely abusive and/or neglecting early experiences. The session continued with long periods of silence and ended with me fearing that she would not come back.

Faye missed the following session without a phone call of explanation, perhaps further demonstrating her anger towards me for disappointing her in some way. In many ways I felt relieved, as I feared that I would be faced with her anger, hostility and rejection. In supervision we questioned whether my relief at her missing a session reflected a procedure of what happens in her relationships outside of therapy – that her anger pushes people away, leaving her isolated and alone. My supervisor and I discussed how I might need to tentatively share this formulation with Faye in the following session as a means of highlighting her potentially isolating and self-defeating procedures.

Faye attended the following session and seemed quite angry still, conveyed by her facial expressions and tone of voice. However, she was able to express why she was angry, stating that she nearly did t o e e ause I do t liste . Afte so e i estigatio it e e ged that I had ot remembered that she was having an appraisal at work and had not asked her about it at the beginning of the previous session. My immediate feeling was one of guilt and I felt an extremely strong pull to apologise for this, perhaps in an attempt to please her. Again this may reflect both a reciprocating transference to provide ideal care, as well as my own procedure of needing to please others and be liked. Whilst I acknowledged that I had let her down, I also used this as an

opportunity to discuss with Faye what might have happened, tentatively reflecting my observations and hypotheses about her possible pro edu es. We had tou hed upo he p o edu e as a t ap as aforementioned in the previous session, so this provided an opportunity to think about how this may have played out in the relationship between her and I. An analysis of the evident maladaptive interpersonal patterns that emerge between the client and therapist are often a way of managing and resolving threats and ruptures to the therapeutic alliance (Bennett, Parry, & Ryle, 2006; Daly, Llewelyn, McDougall, & Chanen, 2010). Indeed, whilst it felt like Faye still felt quite distant from me in this session, she expressed that she could see the pattern that I highlighted for her. It felt as though this shared understanding gave us some potential focus for the therapeutic work ahead and I felt hopeful that she was engaged with the work and would return the following week.