to the proposal to continue drawing after the first one was made, he gave almost abstract compositions from the given standard elements: squares, circles and triangles. The third figure in this series was subsequently decoded (Fig. 1). It turned out that it echoes the dream, which was the starting point for one of the episodes of the work. It depicts a sprawled man. «Two holes in him, in and out.»
Fig. 1
The dream refers to the period of 1995, when he broke up with the second girlfriend and felt as if something was also broken inside him. «I fell down on a piece of rebar at the construction site and it punched me through.» Some of his dreams the patient perceived as prophetic, so he stopped diving from a high of 8—10 meters, as he used to do.
His dream was rather old, but since the patient mentioned it today, I suggested to ’check’ where he was at that moment: still on the rebar or had already got off it.
«I’ve got off.»
«Was the wound healed?»
«How many percent?» I often use this question in my work. Its undoubted advantage is that it is completely «safe’. In case, «the wound’ is a hundred percent healed, it makes sense, if not a hundred percent – it makes sense as well.
Clarifying the feeling, the patient found out that his wound was not actually healed yet.
«Is there something about her that won’t let it heal?»
«Yes.»
«What is it?»
«Rust.»
«Much or little?»
«Much.»
«What will you do with it?»
«I will throw it away.»
«Proceed!»
While cleaning his wound from the rust, P. noticed that inside it was full of pus, and outside it was covered with a crust.
«What is the diameter of the crust?»
With his hands he showed a circle of a small plate. There was a crust on his back, below the shoulder blades.
«Do you need it for something?»
«No. It keeps the pus from coming out. If I squeeze it from inside, it comes out only in drops.»
«What will you do with it?»
«Pry it off»
He did it.
«Where will you put the pus: in a bucket, in a hole, in a toilet bowl, or somewhere else?
«The pus is running down my back.»
«Has the wound started to heal?»
«Yes. But there are still white streaks of pus».
«How many percent is it healed?
«65.»
«Shall it go on healing?»
«I apply some healing ointment, a bandage, and cover myself with a warm blanket. I need some rest.»
By the end of our conversation, I asked again about the condition of his wound.
«It’s almost healed,» was his answer.
As a rule, back injuries appear because of betrayal («a knife in the back’). In the case of P., it was a piece of rebar. There are also can be other causes of problems in this zone – functional blocks in the vertebral-motor segments (displacement of the vertebrae). Below we will talk about the non-psychic factors involved in the formation of sensations.
From the story about the events
“Now that you have spoken so beautifully about the events that have occurred in your life, I would like you to continue and describe the feelings that you experience as a result.” It seems significant to me. The patients are invited to make a more complete description of their condition.
From the images
If a jealous woman is “driven crazy’ by imaginary scenes of her husband’s cheating (“I go crazy when I imagine her hands on his neck…") – one can ask what she feels when she sees these scenes. Where is the charge associated with her emotion: in the head, in the chest, in the stomach? Is it big or small? etc. There appear a “black funnel’ in the abdomen. The direct correlation between the brightness, proximity of images of significant persons and the size of internal formations existing in relation to them is obvious.
From complaining about other people
“My mother-in-law bothers me”, a young woman complains with tears in her eyes. “What do you feel?” This question immediately turns the conversation from a useless discussion about the nature of the mother-in-law to a discussion of her state that arises as a result. The poor daughter-in-law finds “iron weight’ in her chest (her resentment). Somatopsychotherapy is the option of working with the results of the experiences.
On orders from the outside
An irritable person says: “I have a feeling that the energies of some people, like tentacles, reach for me, and I feel bad.” At the same time, he jokes at himself: “A false psychic!” “What do these tentacles indicate in you? How are they related to you? Why are you visible to them?” It turns out that these “tentacles’ are the assistants in tracking his own charges.
You can worry less
Wives of alcoholics often have an upset contour of their own feelings. They persistently take care about their husbands, but not themselves. The moment when a poor woman is asked: “In what state do you solve your problems?” becomes a true revolution in the life of their families.
Such women should be suggested to check the state in which they try to solve their husbands’ problems considering them to be their own. It helps to switch to the discussion about themselves. For example, a woman is trying to help her husband to stop drinking alcohol and at the same time is experiencing anxiety. She can feel that her anxiety takes away 90% of her forces and makes her almost unviable.
«Should you be so much stressed to solve your husband’s problems, or can it be less?»
«Maybe less.»
«How many percent less?»
«I guess it can be a hundred percent less. Whether I’m worried or not doesn’t change anything.»
«Maybe you shouldn’t calm down because in that case you will do nothing and let events take their course. Should you?»
«I think, on the contrary, I will be able to do something worthwhile, only when I am calm.»
«Well, will you calm down right now?»
«Yes.»
«Calm down and watch how your sensations are distributed. We always talk about the reconciliation of proportions of what we spend our energy on.
The method “to add volume” to the therapy process
Primary care for a patient depends on what they attention are initially focused on. The work on the bodily level usually finds a greater response in those people who have got naturally good feeling of their body, the body of their consciousness. They describe their sensations as an important part of their experience without any stimulation from a psychotherapist.
The ability for such awareness of the problems is an indication for the bodily psychotherapy. However, somatopsychotherapy can be also highly effective with other forms of self-consciousness and, in any