The Client’s Nonverbal Utterances, Creative Understanding & the Therapist’s Inner Conversation

Abstract

Mother had contacted me because she was concerned about the behavioral problems of her 8-year-old daughter Elly. The family was gathered in the session: the mother, Elly and the 2 year old Art. It was the second session with this family. At a certain moment mother started talking about the possibility of having some time to talk with me individually about her painful childhood. At that moment Elly playfully gave mother an injection with a toy hypodermic needle. Mother interrupted what she was saying and we all looked at Elly. When this sequence happened the therapist was confronted with the question what he 2 would do next. Would he ignore Elly' s action and go on listening to the story of mother? Would he ask the child what she meant? Would he ask mother what she thinks Elly meant? Would he act on some idea that popped up 1 I want to thank Lois Shawver and everybody at the PMTH discussion list on the internet. Furthermore, I also thank Craig Smith, Tom Strong and Lynn Hoffman for their comments on this manuscript. I also want to thank my colleagues who have helped me in discussing the case: Sara Keymolen, An Nijsmans, Karin Tilmans, An Luyten, An Vanhimbeek, Mich Vanwayenbergh, Lieven Migerode. 2 In order to avoid the discriminating use of the generic masculine, the client and the therapist are referred to with a feminine pronoun, except when there is an explicit reference to a man.