The Black Box.

Once upon a time psychotherapists truly believed that the task of grieving was a severing; they believed, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the faster we ignore any memories of our lost loved ones - the faster we will recover. The work of grieving was understood in terms of energy, that the energy we had invested in the beloved now flowed into the grave with them. And, the more we remembered, the more we felt the loss.  Put bluntly, in the older psychodynamic model - the dead provide us with no energy - and as our energy cannot be reciprocated by the dead, we should move on, let go, or risk depression.  I cannot for a second, agree with this! In the book, Continuing Bonds (1994) an example is given of psychotherapy at its most heart rending brutal worst. The concept that a refusal to let go of the loved one is a symptom of psychopathology justified a show of strength and resolution by a therapist as he metaphorically performed Chod, on a sixteen year old girl's mother...

I've been keeping an eye on the incoming complaints about therapists, to keep track and to learn what it is that most clients complain about. And the answer isn't predatory sex fiend therapists - a complaint male therapists most fear receiving! No, the most common reason for clients feeling traumatized by therapists is, sudden, inexplicable endings. Especially a sudden ending after a reassurance that therapy wont end without agreement! I'm guilty of doing this - twice - ending therapy without giving a transparent reason. Both situations were complicated by the rules of the agency I was working for/and/or my status as a student/and/or advice from a supervisor. I see therapy culture as the problem here. And I wonder how much of my therapist's catastrophic mishandling of 'my erotic transfer' was a direct effect of his training and his 'developmental issues'. He believed in 'developmental issues' so it is fair and reasonable to assume that they were ...

I call the therapist Kit - this is not the therapist's actual name. The dialogues in this blog are transcripts from recordings. Today, yet again I'm thinking that I should make an official complaint.  It won't happen.  This blog is it. .  This blog provides crash info. A Black Box . What I want people to understand from my experience is that qualifications in therapy are no guarantee of safe therapy. He had a Masters in therapy (2 years?) but his degree was in an entirely different subject. That means just two years of theory and placement - placement isn't overseen by anyone. And supervisors only know what they hear from their supervisee. If your therapist 'only' has a level 5 qualification, they will have studied therapy for 4 to 5 years -  that is 5 years of practice sessions supervised by tutors, plus 100 hours of placement.  Just saying... 23rd May 2022.  Minimising the emotional impact of what happened to my family. Undermining my interpretation of ev...

There is in many of us, obviously, a deep-seated desire to assent to extraterrestrial forces – to be embraced by them, overwhelmed by them, and if possible deprived by them of our own weary responsibility for ourselves. ​— ​“HICCUPS FROM OUTER SPACE”: RUSSELL DAVIES, REVIEWING CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, IN THE OBSERVER, MARCH 19, 1978 Vallee, Jacques. Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults (p. 32).  Eros is deeply, deeply irrational, and traditionally understood as a yearning for the sublime. A chalice of wonder and bliss we can't ignore.  And so we seek the outer to ignite the inner... The quote from Russell Davies made me think. About the sublime. About Eros. About yearning. And I'd not considered how powerful people's yearnings for "The space brothers" a faith in salvation from above, can be - until I read Messengers of Deception . The space brothers, those benevolent and wise aliens, are a symbol. A yearning for wisdom rich, anomalous saviour...