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Psychologist

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Working with the demon in therapy

As I said, this was the first time we had ever had significant dialogue between me and this part of her. It will be interesting to see over time what happens, especially her reaction to me.

December 29, 2018 //  by Tony White//  Leave a Comment

This is from last week as I was working with a client who has allowed the demon sub personality to become involved in therapy. This was drawn and written in response to me or our interaction. This was the first time I have had dialogue with this aspect of her personality.

What demon says

 The childlike nature of it is very obvious and its power is also obvious. To me it seems essential to  address this part of the personality. How is therapy going to proceed if you have this part of the client sitting on the sidelines? 

As I said, this was the first time we had ever had significant dialogue between me and this part of her. It will be interesting to see over time what happens, especially her reaction to me.

The following quote comes from my chapter in the book – Transactional Analysis in Contemporary Psychotherapy, (ed R. Erskine) 2016. From my observations to date similar responses tend to happen with the demon in the client.

“Clinical observations to date shows that after a period of a few weeks or months of building relational contact with the destructive core there tends to be a pacifying effect. It does not disappear but tends to become less ‘vocal’ and influencing in the personality. Most often a therapist would have tried to restrain it, contain it or modify it in some way. In this approach the destructive core experiences being related to directly. Instead it is invited to express itself and talk with a sympathetic other. The effect seems to be like a small child who is being naughty because it is not getting any attention. When it starts to get attention it tends to become less naughty and does less attention seeking behaviour. It is pacified in this way. To date the same effect has been observed in most circumstances when one is afforded to opportunity to relate directly to the core of the client’s self destructive urges.” (end quote)

Category: UncategorizedTag: demon sub personality, self destruction, therapy

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