127
5.3 Containment, freedom and polarity
Both containment and freedom within the therapeutic relationship may be understood to be
enabling in that the counsellor attempts to provide a safe (containment) space (freedom) where
the client can think and feel his/her own experience in the presence of the counsellor. However
both containment and freedom as experienced within the internal
world of the client may be
disabling. Life events may have provided a containment that was confining, even harmful so that
any form of containment may be experienced as
disabling. Freedom may have been experienced
as dangerous or overwhelming so this potential space may also be experienced as
disabling.
Within the enabling containment provided by the counsellor the client may experience the very
opposite of what is being provided. This seems to be demonstrated in the following entry from a
main study journal:
Extract 8. Entry from WF journal W2. to show client‟s experience
Line 1.
Still no better!
Line 2.
Feel restricted!
Line 3.
No warmth - can I hack this?
Line 4.
Do I want to?? No!
Line 5.
Uncomfortable.
Line 6.
She is so astute!
Line 7.
Caught like a fish on a hook!
Line 8.
And I am wriggling.
It appears that in the containment offered by the counsellor the participant feels restricted (line1),
uncomfortable (line 5) and caught like a hooked fish (line 7). Although in the language of theory
this may be described as transference or countertransference these terms do not describe the
client‟s experience from her perspective. It seems that from her perspective that she feels caught
128
and hooked as if she is stuck somewhere and can only wriggle but not free herself. This appears
to show how disabling containment may feel to the client.
The key concepts of containment and freedom in this study are used to discover if these notions
are understood and experienced by the client to the extent that the participant feels the analysis
and the theoretical constructs fit his/her internal feelings as a client. My experiences that helped
form this research enabled me to understand the importance of knowing consciously the effects
or impact of particular life events. It was this knowing that in turn provided the freedom to
reclaim myself from trauma and create a new life with a changed concept of self. Etherington
(2000) states:
“Telling our story is a way of reclaiming ourselves, our history and our experiences;
a way of finding our voice. In telling my story to others I am also telling my ‟self‟ -
and my „self‟ (who is audience) is being formed in the process of telling. So there are
witnesses to my story, the „other‟ to whom I recount my story (which is what clients
do in therapy), and the self who is growing within me as I hear my story retold as I
speak or write it down” (17).
To reclaim myself, I told my story in therapy and in poetry. I journeyed through experiences that
felt to be, both disabling and enabling forms of containment
and freedom where these two
concepts appeared inextricably linked. My reflections on the paradox of containment and
freedom being both enabling and disabling led to the idea of a containment-freedom polarity.
129
5.4 Polarity
A polarity is generally understood to be the tendency to grow differently in different directions,
along an axis, as a tree towards base and apex, or roots and branches. It is the opposition that
Jung (Bischof 1964; Jung 1969) saw as engendering the movement which leads towards
resolution and momentary equilibrium within the client. An extract from a pilot study journal
demonstrates the opposing states that may exist within a client during a session:
Extract 9. From a pilot study journal
to show opposing states
Line 1.
Happy / content
Line 2.
Uncertainty
Line 3.
mild anxiety
Line 4.
excitement / anticipation
Line 5.
What do I say?
Line 6.
Is this the day?
Line 7.
Fear / high anxiety
Line 8.
palpitations
Line 9.
burning in stomach
Line 10.
confusion
The participant moves between various feeling states from „happy/content‟ to „palpitations‟ and
„burning in stomach‟. The confusion at the end seems to say how she may really be feeling but
the shift between so many feeling states demonstrates
the possibility of polarities, of opposite
poles of feelings being present.
In this study the polarity between containment and freedom is seen as internal growth (which
affects the external life), rooting down into internal containment, and branching out into internal
freedom. If the client experiences containment in their internal world as imprisoning then
130
containment within the counselling relationship may be experienced as disabling. If the client
experiences freedom as overwhelming then the freedom provided within the counselling
relationship may also be felt as disabling. In this sense containment with or without freedom may
be felt as imprisoning, whi
Dostları ilə paylaş: