Андрей Ермошин – Things in The Body (страница 8)
It should be noted that sometimes this part of the work is not the second, but the first one: instead of talking to the patient in their «abnormal’ state, the therapist invites them to the session, which is called «learning auto-training’, «hypnosis’ or something else. Only after nonspecific calming in a cozy environment, under the influence of relaxing music, words of «comfort’ with the lulling intonation, and storytelling, the patient is «taken’ to more specific work.
At the early stage of my professional development my working combination was . After discussing with the patients their important issues, I offered them to close their eyes and . Partly, that was the pre-system of the work I am describing now.
– this rhythm began to seem more natural and important. It is a kind of a . The second part (hypnotic and auto-training) changed its tone in the process of «working out’ this practice. If, at first, I tried to imbue something to the patients at that phase (based on the material of the previous study of their problems), then later I refused to be directive and often offered just to observe the sensations after the conversation, to let them «lie down’.
Offering patients to observe what happens after a usual empathic hearing often leads to surprising results. Patients connect to their body sensations, fall into a kind of trance, and undergo a series of transformations, often spontaneously describing the process that, in fact, is organized by in.
The stones of unease can be detected and disintegrated, sensations can move actively from one area of the body (overfilled) to another (devastated), completely new and optimized contours of sensations can be formed. The convalescents get into the new spaces, from which they come back renewed. It is like . Conciliation, calming down, and rebalancing occur spontaneously, in accordance with the «program’, which the body choses itself.
Recently, I was impressed by a kind of echo of my old “mute’ practice (mute, because it has a minimum number of questions with maximum confidence in own healing process of the body). This story is about the transformations that a twelve-year-old boy began to experience, as soon as he sat down on a chair and heard the words: “Close your eyes. Describe what you feel.”
The boy had a weakened immunity of unclear genesis. He had been suffering from furuncles for a long time. The last two months he was continuously treated for submandibular lymphadenitis (there was a crack in the corner of his mouth, through which he, apparently, got the infection). Two operations under general anesthesia were unsuccessful. He underwent a lot of bandaging, and there was constantly a tubule for drainage in his wound. Of course, he had to forget about going to school.
The boy was brought to me just after he had been bandaged once again. He sat down on a chair and fell into a special state of connection with attention to inner sensations – a kind of trance. He began to describe his sensations in detail without any instructions from me, except for the most general one: «Watch and describe.» The boy understood the main instruction perfectly, though it didn’t say: «Heal.»
The movement of sensations was very intense. The terrible heat was gathering in his chest and there was the feeling of a huge furuncle.
«Will you let him break through?»
«No.»
The boy felt as if he «put his hands in the oven’, then two dinosaurs were fighting in front of his eyes. Then, after a bright flash, everything disappeared.
First, his head «weighed 300 pounds’, then his legs did. Then «a worm slid on his hip and jumped out,» and «a turtle with a small shell, a long neck, big eyes and a silly smile made him laugh’. At last, being weightless, he began to «flip’ in the air.
«Count how many times.»
«Five.»
He began to «flip’ in the air again. This time he had ten «flips.»
A series of transformations, which lasted for about thirty minutes, ended with the formation of a sensation of even heat throughout his body, and the boy felt the opportunity to open his eyes.
I was interested in following the outcome of his healing after that process of spontaneous self-regulation. I asked about the condition of the boy in a month. He was healed. Two months later I met him once more.
He maintained balance in his sensations. He enjoyed playing with his friend. «Everything is good. I can play and jump,» he said. Only a small crimson scar under his jaw reminded about his former problems.
«Scars adorn a man,» I remarked.
«I have got enough of them,» my little patient said proudly
The boy reproduced the dynamics of recovery: steady internal heat remained after our meeting. «We were going to take him to the regional center for a more massive operation, but the need for this somehow disappeared by itself. The wounds began to heal,» his mother added. We communicated with him on February 8, and on March 8 he was already at school. Later his health was improving steadily. His relatives noticed that in he also became calmer. th th
At the end of my communication with the boy his aunt expressed a desire to talk with me about her problems. It was an indirect sign of recognition of the connection between the session and the recovery by the boy’s relatives. A large lump of fresh cottage cheese, which I brought to Moscow to my children, seemed to me a great reward for my modest question: «What do you feel?»
When you can let happen transformations like those, described by my little patient, nothing else is necessary.
In a few other cases, the challenge is to . Such transformations are the essence of therapeutic achievements.
To tell the truth, sometimes I almost fall asleep when the patient tries to describe in detail the story of his suffering, not hurrying to work through it. It happens not only to me. In the “Technique and practice of psychoanalysis” Ralph Grinson especially considers such cases when a psychoanalyst accidentally falls asleep during a psychoanalysis session. He recommends not to blame the patient. I can cope with it even without pinching my own hand, but I do not tend to overestimate the effectiveness of this method of psychotherapeutic session and try to warn the patient about the uselessness of just listing the facts.
To avoid this, at the of a significant event for the patients, which left a mark in their soul, I prefer , to verify the expediency of its storage, instead of being limited to a simple listing the imprints of events in their soul. I call it .
However, I must note that there is no need to impose a rather closed, non-objective language of body sensations, when a person calls for an open conversation on existential topics and the balance of their state is not in doubt. Indications for SPT method are very wide, but not unlimited It is needed in almost 100% of cases, but it is not the only thing that the patient may need. Thus, the psychotherapist is not obliged to use the methods of SPT always and everywhere.
We will continue to talk about situations where the balance of the human condition still raises doubts.
With the time, the phase of communication between the doctor and the patient, conventionally called the “relaxation phase’, became increasingly valuable. I learned to perceive it as a kind of goal, the culmination of the process of psychotherapy,
I once noticed that I was not at all inclined to talk to a patient. Of course, I mean «conversation of minds.» Taking into consideration the importance of the influence of affective charges on a patient’s thinking, I found out that it made sense to «talk to the boss’ (unconscious), in the words of M. Erickson, and not with subordinates (thoughts of conscious mind).
It was easier to find «the boss’ by the sensations in the patient’s body.
The direct appeal to the sensations from the very beginning of the work marked the opening of a unique opportunity to change the state directly (in the usual meaning of this word). The old formula «conversation – relaxation – conversation’ was replaced by a new one: .
The idea, that the analysis of the patient’s circumstances was usually given an exaggerated value, began to strengthen. In fact, , but It is important to help a person to take a different position in relation to the circumstances, to find another their state. The further is the matter of their own life.