One Good Session
It is a truism that no person who has had one good session can ever forget that glimpse of the possibilities of re-emergence.
In the early years in Seattle [Washington, USA], I sometimes made mistakes with my clients. I often didn’t know how to handle them. Some of them left, cursing me loudly and slandering me. I felt bad. I knew I must have failed in some way. I was very vulnerable to being disliked.
But I learned as the years went by to be somewhat confident, because after a few years the person who had hated me so loudly, and told awful lies about me, would reappear. A stranger would show up for an interview and ask about the use of counseling and then say, “So-and-so [the first person’s name] sent me in.” I would work with the new person, and the new person would have some success. Then one day this new client would say, “So-and-so is going to be in town and wonders if you have time to talk.” And the previous client would come in and say, “I don’t suppose you ever thought you would see me again, but I’ve got a problem I can’t solve any other way,” and we would resume counseling.
No one who has had one good session has ever been able to forget it. I could tell you many anecdotes about this.
From page 258 of “Graduation Day,” in The Longer View
(Present Time 193, October 2018)
1 Harvey Jackins was the founder and first International Reference Person for the RC Communities.