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Chapter Seven – A Discussion – Page 210
session, when Kelly presented her work with a child. Frances talks about recognising (in
her clinical work) the need to ensure that the suffering of children in a client family is
not overlooked because of the middle-class appearance of their mother. 4 Bill refers back
(in attempting to guide the group in the primary task) to Session Eight (discussed in
Chapter Six). 5
Ron talks about wanting to do the whole course again. Paula says the more she learns,
the less she knows. She also wonders how she would know if she were to be integrating
theory and practice, and acknowledges that she missed a lot in the first part of this
second year of the course. Kelly talks about the importance to her of all students
bringing a case in the course of a semester, which is a statement of her displeasure
(shared by some other group members) at the presenters in the immediately previous
semester (Semester 3), who adopted a different approach involving more didactic
teaching. Nancy speaks up about valuing the previous semester, suggesting that that
may be due to her background (as a mental health clinician rather than as a
psychotherapist, which most of her peers in this group are). As a consequence, she had
less clinical material to bring to sessions. Kelly points out that only one case is needed.
Bill steps in with a second (unclear) question (or, more accurately, set of questions)
asking what are members of the group wanting (from the opportunity represented by the
first half of the session), and following that, where do people find themselves. There is a
response from Ron, wanting to know more about the concept of mirroring. 6 Bill and
Judi avoid responding directly to this, diverting into recommendations for reading and
4
This description of Frances’s changed awareness seems to be an acknowledgement of her growing
competence with dynamic issues – see below for fuller discussion of this. At the same time, I also wonder
why the group are struggling with the task, and recognise that the tutors are also struggling, arguably with
the countertransference of teaching.
5
This can be seen as Bill cueing an eruption – see the section ‘Interpretation’ below, in this Chapter, for
more discussion of this.
6
(Changing voice for meaning) As I approached the end of my analysis (and editing), I was inclined to
add here. “… and seeming to expect that the tutors would tell him”. This is discussed further below in
‘Interpretation’, under ‘Ron’s question’.