Depressed Man
The first day this gentleman came, he looked very down, and told me a great deal about his life, which wasn’t working very well at all. There was almost nothing he could enjoy at the time, and as he didn’t need to work there were no workplace colleagues to talk to. His partner apparently became very jealous if he went out alone, so he felt trapped. In the end, through developing goals and how to achieve them, we found that he really wanted to join a choir and sing, but that was ruled out by his partner. I suggested that he joined a male voice choir, to reduce the possibility of jealousy intervening. On his next visit, the depression had lifted. He was smiling, full of excitement, and told me that he had found a mixed choir – and that both he and his partner were attending now and enjoying it very much! So he had come to a great solution, building on what we had discussed to ensure he was getting his essential emotional needs met, and his partner was also feeling better about their relationship. We went over a few other supporting ideas, and he didn’t need further sessions.
Child With Self-Confidence Problems
This young lad had been struggling at school, and his parents said that he kept trying to stay away by saying he was ill. After some encouragement to open up, I found that he was being bullied there. He was clearly very bright, and also quite sensitive and introverted. It emerged that his father, very loving as he was, had been teasing him about being sensitive, thinking he needed to “toughen up”. I arranged to see the parents separately, and we discussed this. They saw how their intentions to be robust and humorous were the opposite of supportive, and that actually his suffering was also driving a rift between the parents. When this awareness was discussed, along with other support I gave the boy to build his self-confidence, he then felt able to fit in better at school, and his life improved, as did theirs also.
Female Soldier With PTSD
This woman came to me via the soldiers’ charity PTSD Resolution, suffering from her memories of experiences on the battlefield in Afghanistan. She found it almost impossible to leave the house, meet other people, or hold down a job. She had flashbacks and panic attacks at times, and was extremely anxious. Almost none of her basic emotional needs were being met, and she didn’t like having to live at her mother’s house. We developed potential strategies for getting past feelings of insecurity; how she might be able to get a job that she could manage; to feel ok to go out and meet other people; and to consider moving to a place of her own. I used psychological techniques to help her experience a more calm state so that she could begin relax for herself, and developed strategies for reducing the impact of panic attacks. We also worked on how she might change things towards living a more balanced life. After 3 sessions, she had improved considerably. She found that her flashbacks were lessened, and decided to stop therapy for the time being. Some time later, I was contacted by PTSD Resolution to say that she had reported that I had turned her life round, she had a job, and she was much happier.