Take Time to Notice the Counselor
Notable in almost every session I have had with an owning-class person is the client’s seeming unwillingness to notice the counselor. It is important to spend time on this before moving on to “bigger” issues. One distress that shows up here is about not getting enough attention. I shook for a year in session while noticing my counselors. I still find that being in front of a group is difficult because I “cannot” take in the attention. I can do it rigidly, with panache, but that is the old, old way. It is a profound contradiction for us owning-class folks to fall in love with each other, and for the client to notice the counselor is one step in this process. For me, everything surfaces here: feeling unsafe as client, feelings of hating the counselor, questioning the process, the works!
Stephen Schaefer
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA