Case Studies

Now that I have your attention and you have been drawn to this topic, I would like to say that I will not be posting “Case Studies” as such.

For one thing, I have never thought of or looked at a person as a 'case'. Nor have I ever considered anyone who has ever seen me or is seeing me in my practice as a patient or a client. I use only the phrases – 'people I see for therapy' or – 'people who come to me for therapy'.

However, from time to time, I will post excerpts from people’s experiences through therapy. Due to confidentialities long held, I have some difficulty in using people’s private stories about the work they have done on themselves. Of course, whenever and wherever I can, I will always do my utmost to obscure all detail that may ever identify a person and their very personal time with me. At the same time, every account of a person’s journey is told as truthfully and concisely as it was or is being lived out.

Over time I have asked some people I see for therapy for permission to mention them as an example of the therapy work they have done in relationship with me, the stories of them changing themselves. I make it clear that it is strictly as a way to give encouragement and hope to other people I am seeing. I have been pleasantly surprised almost every time. Almost every person has happily given me permission because they know how helpful it has been for themselves. In sharing someone else’s similar story I helped them know that they are not the only one suffering through particular difficulties. It can change the course of their journey immensely.

It reminds me of when I gave birth to my first child. At one stage, I felt I could not continue with the labour and in the deepest part of my mind I decided there was only one thing that would happen. I would die along with my child. I was very distraught, devastated. A nurse who had been tending to me told me she had to leave and as she left me there, stranded on my back, alone and in agony, she told me very kindly she would leave me a bucket on the floor “in case I wanted to vomit”. She left. I felt alone and abandoned and in intense physical pain. I felt desperate. I was lying on my back looking up at the ceiling and crying out. I realised I had to deal with the situation with my mind as there was absolutely nothing else I could do. Dying wasn’t happening. Suddenly I thought about all of the women throughout time who had given birth. I thought about it over and over. It opened my mind immediately. I thought – why would I be the only woman in all of the history of humankind who could not get her baby out of her body? For many thousands of years women had given birth and I felt deeply joined up and connected to all womankind and it gave me a tremendous power to carry on throughout the labour. I remember actually thanking all women who had given birth because it helped me not to die along with my baby. I learned from that experience that knowing I was not alone brought tremendous relief. It helped me out of a critical mental crisis. It was that thinking alone that made the difference between giving birth naturally and having a cesarean. The labour continued and I gave birth four hours later. So, relating to other people’s experiences, both triumphs and calamities, works very well in helping people through therapy. To know that many before them have felt the same, many have felt it was too hard at times to face their real situation, their near unbearable pain. Knowing that others have come through opens the person to possibilities for themselves.

And to those who recognise their story I know most of you will appreciate that you have helped others. Along with that you may be surprised about how common particular human problems are. Of course when we ourselves are suffering we do often feel we are the only person in the whole wide world who has ever gone through such painful experiences. Thinking back over the years I see how the human mind works and although we are all so very different, the mind is, at its base, very similar in all of us. So our story may be someone else’s story, at least very similar to another person’s experiences in life.

It is also worth noting that all names and identifying details have been changed and all photographs are merely representations of people and their experiences.

#peoplesexperiences #exampleofthetherapy #personsjourney #mind