• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tony White

Psychologist

  • Home
  • Profile
    • Professional History
    • Professional Services
    • About Me
    • Training & Work Background
  • Books
  • Journals
  • Blogs
  • Monograph Series
  • Home
  • Profile
    • Professional History
    • Professional Services
    • About Me
    • Training & Work Background
  • Books
  • Journals
  • Blogs
  • Monograph Series

The client’s chair in the therapy room.

I have always said that a therapist’s room must be a bit beige, no high fashion and no dramatic statements.

February 23, 2019 //  by Tony White//  1 Comment

I got a new client’s chair today for my therapy room. The local council is having verge side throw out and so I seized the moment and got a new chair. The old one had done its fair share of miles and was creaking and crackling when people moved in it. So now there is a brand new chair there.

To get the new chair I took my life into my own hands and ventured down to Ikea on a Saturday afternoon!! The equivalent of climbing Mt Everest in danger and torment! But I survived.

Upon entering the chair section of Ikea one sees literally hundreds of chairs to choose from. So which one do I choose? I started sitting in chairs and ended up giving a lot of them a test run.

When I sat in a chair I would think, “Oh no, that’s not right.” But then I started to think, “Well why is that not right?” and I didn’t have an answer. I new it was not what I wanted for the client but I didn’t know why. After a time I began to verbalise why they were not right. I discovered I knew all this stuff that I did not know I knew, about what client’s chairs mean.

When a client sits in the chair they get a set of transactions from the therapist about how they view the therapeutic process and what it means to them.

Some chairs were so soft, when you sit in them you needed a snorkel and an aqua lung to breath. They kind of suck you in like a sea anemone.

1

Some client chairs, and therapist chairs for that matter, that are like a big cushion that you fall into. I knew straight away I didn’t want that. I thought,

Therapy is not an escape from the world.

The world exists out there and is not going away.

When the client leaves they have to go back out into it

Therapy as a sanctuary from the world to my mind is not a productive approach. 

Sometimes therapy can become rent a Parent or rent a friend. Whilst that may be very appealing to the Free Child of some clients, again to my mind it is not productive in the long run. Whilst I would obviously not get a chair like this teddy bear one the ulterior transaction that it is sending must not be sent by the client’s chair. It represents magical thinking. “The therapy room is where I can redo my childhood.” Whilst that maybe very appealing for some clients it cannot be done. You can’t redo your childhood when you are an adult. Yes in a therapist’s room people can regress into their Child ego state but that lasts for 1 hour then you have to go back out into the big world again. When you are 6 years old you don’t have to do that. A chair must not communicate this type of magical thinking to the client.

2

Then there is the chair that makes a statement. I must say they do appeal me

3

But alas it cannot be. I have always said that a therapist’s room must be a bit beige, no high fashion and no dramatic statements. A therapy room is not a place for a therapist to express their personality in that way. To my mind that makes it too, much about “Me!” (the therapist).

Then there is the purely business like chair. Not my style but some therapies do use this approach

4

I finally ended up with a chair that is certainly comfortable thus enticing the Free Child out in the client but in the back of the chair there is clear support for the back that keeps the person sitting up right to some extent. They are not rigidly sitting up but a straightness to the back is maintained.

So whist there is comfort there is still the transaction, “There is business to be done here. There are goals that we are seeking to achieve and we cannot forget that. And come out and join us Free Child in a comfortable chair.”

Category: PsychotherapyTag: client chair, therapy

Previous Post: « Is it OK for a therapist to be proud of a client’s achievements?
Next Post: Client’s chair in the therapy room – Part 2 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nataliia

    February 24, 2019 at 12:57 am

    I love you

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Website Re-build

The website is being rebuilt at the moment. Thank you for your patience and many apologies for any inconvenience.

Recent Posts

  • Deconfusion of the Child ego state
  • Deconfusion of the Child ego state
  • How I became a child psychotherapist
  • Consent and power in relationships.
  • Silence and the unconscious – Part 2
  • Silence and the unconscious
  • Silence in psychotherapy
  • Permission and redecision
  • Mature love, immature love and the teenager
  • Embrace the homeless
  • Psychology of the court process
  • Psychic organs to ego states
  • Regression – defence mechanism & natural human process
  • Two types or levels of life script change
  • Identification – Post 2
  • Identification – Post 1
  • Self control. Therapeutic implications
  • Adult ego state strengthening – Post 4
  • Adult ego state strengthening – Post 3
  • Adult ego state strengthening – post 2

Recent Comments

  • Irina on Social development – History taking
  • Joseph on How I became a child psychotherapist
  • Kahless on The Demon sub personality (Aka Lillith)
  • Kahless on How I became a child psychotherapist
  • Kahless on Consent and power in relationships.
  • Tony White on Consent and power in relationships.
  • Kahless on Consent and power in relationships.
  • Kahless on Silence and the unconscious – Part 2
  • Kahless on Silence and the unconscious
  • Kahless on Silence and the unconscious

Blog Archive

  • December 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • February 2021
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • January 2020
  • September 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • November 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • August 2013

Copyright © 2023 · Mai Lifestyle Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in