Monday, August 28, 2017

Red Lines (part 7)

Presentation of the patient:
The patient was in cognitive-behavioral treatment when she came to the clinic. She complained about something holding her back. She was very shy and began to loosen up, when she joined a pentecostal church. The legalistic doctrine of her church kept her from reunions with her school colleges and family members, because she thought they were sinful. After one year of dating the church expected her to marry to prevent sin. Her sexuality transformed into a burden after a traumatic honeymoon. Her husband had not cut the umbilical bond with his mother, yet, causing nasty conflicts between the patient and her mother-in-law. When the patient started treatment with EMDR-J, an abuse memory with lasting consequences came up. The patient's treatment was very intense and complex. The author chose several sessions of different periods in order to give an insight in the patient's treatment.

Illustrative photograph by Jörg Garbers

Seventh session
The patient arrives at the session filled with anger and fear about returning to her hometown and she is afraid of settling there. She focused on her anger and visualizes a red colour on glass. There’s a dark colour draining and a sidewalk in the background. Somebody bursts the glass and a white colour appears. Suddenly she visualizes herself in a videogame with a gun in her hand. There are dead people. She is angry and wants to shoot. She runs over corpses in a truck. He hits a truck appearing in front of her and the truck explodes. She wants to leave, but returns to the same scene. There’s somebody in blue and blood. She puts the blood in a recipient and throws it at constructions leaving coagulated blood stains. Blood drains down the sewer. She visualizes herself surrounded by blood wanting to stir the blood and the trash. She isolates herself. The blood is drying and diminishing. The sideway and the street are clean. A truck retracts the human remains. She is afraid that the truck might also pick her up. The police, the ambulance and a helicopter arrive. She is in the middle of it. The cadavers turn into zombies. She doesn’t care about the zombies anymore. „Where does all this blood come from?“ There’s a tsunami of blood. The helicopter throws a rope. She can’t see the helicopter anymore. She turns her back to the scene. The ambulance is leaving and the patient feels at ease.

Conclusion:
The patient works in several metaphorical sessions through a abuse she suffered in childhood, her upbringing and socialization in church, her relationship with her boyfriend/husband, problems with her mother-in-law and land struggles with her neighbours. This seven sessions where chosen and transcribed by the author in order to give an impression of the intensity and  complexity of the patient’s feelings. Using metaphorical therapy as a tool, the patient was able to come to peace with her sex life, her marriage, her relationship with her mother-in-law and was able to return to her hometown without feeling bad about it.