Clients‟ experience of counselling within a narrative framework

5.5.6 Desire for containment-freedom
This polarity gives a sense of the enormous range of movement within the containment-freedom 
concept. There is a tug of war between wanting containment and wanting freedom (as I 
experienced in chapter 1) for while the two concepts are split they appear only to contradict each 
other rather than complement. 
 
Usually a more conscious movement, wanting containment is a wish to be held or cared for by 
the counsellor. It is a desire to feel safe as well as recognised or known as an individual. It may 
be experienced as a desire to feel merged within the safe containment of the counsellor, to be 
liked, understood (Steiner 1993) and accepted by her, and even to feel like her, or for the client 
to feel that there is a likeness between him/herself and the counsellor (Siegel 1996). 
Wanting freedom has a huge energy or movement which may be grasped with a sense of control 
or power. It may cause a feeling of dislike or irritation with the counsellor. It may also surface 
with feelings of isolation experienced in moments of separateness which may be too huge to 
contemplate as such. Yet there may also be the desire to be an individual, to be different from 
others rather than having to feel or be the same as others. This polarity may be seen in the 
journals as the client‟s desire to be accepted by others, particularly the counsellor. It may also be 
seen as the desire to be different, a unique or exclusive self (Anderson 1997; 364) who can bear 
to be outside the group and separate from others. An example of this category may be seen in the 
journal entry below: 

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Extract 13. Entry from a pilot study journal to show desire for containment-freedom 
Line 1.
Felt safe, held
Line 2.
cared for 
Line 3.
“loved” her 
Line 4.
Relieved / thankful 
In this small entry the participant seems to demonstrate her desire for containment of her internal 
world in that she appears to feel safe, held and cared for (line 1,2). She even seems to feel love 
(line 3) for the counsellor and this appears to cause her to feel relieved and thankful as if she now 
trusts the counsellor. Unlike in the previous example (p. 139 extract 12) when she could not 
access her own thoughts about the counsellor, here she seems to be able to find her own thoughts 
and realize that she feels relieved and thankful. It is as if the client‟s „fight‟ in the previous entry 
enabled the polarity between containment and freedom to work together for here she seems 
calmer, and able to access the other pole of her own affect. 
5.5.7 Towards containment-freedom 
The pull and swing of a pendulum is a useful image for this polarity. There is a sense of 
alternating emotional movement but still perhaps some indecision as to which way to go. There 
remains a desire to be merged and/or contained by another just as there remains a desire to keep 
one‟s freedom and be separate (Field 1994; 477). These first swings towards either side of the 
polarity may be tentative and momentary, but are a strong indication of movement. This 
movement may be seen as a necessary aspect of progress in the client: 
“it is essential for progression, which is the successful achievement of adaptation, 

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that impulse and counter-impulse, positive and negative, should reach a state of 
regular interaction and mutual influence” (Jung 1969; 33). 
 
The concept of interaction in this study is perceived as happening between internal containment 
and freedom. Some vague sense of movement is perhaps the initial phase of a shift towards 
containment being felt within the client. It is strong, like the swing of a pendulum, but faint like 
the rousing of a child from sleep or the „hatching‟ process described in chapter 2. Perhaps it can 
be seen as the tentative letting go of defended over-containment. Momentarily the client 
experiences the containment offered in the freedom provided by the counsellor, in that s/he finds 
the freedom needed to own a greater range of spontaneous feelings (Miller 1979). Perhaps this 
movement is always present in a working relationship for the uncontainable may be invisibly 
contained in what feels to the client to be the worst of sessions, in that unfamiliar affects are felt 
and these feel different and uncomfortable. 
 
As with „towards containment‟ this movement „towards freedom‟ is a momentary shift towards 
separation and away from a merged state. It is a glimpse of the possibility of being a different 
self with new perceptions, feelings and values, or in Rogers‟ (1951; 489) terminology, the 
beginnings of „self actualisation„. There is a sense of either stillness or movement where the 
client is able to feel satisfaction or understanding in holding or owning their own feelings. It is 
hard to visualise these two existing together for the struggling client, but perhaps that is what is 
so difficult, the reality that containment and freedom can coexist. Perhaps it is worth 
remembering that Beauty (containment) and the Beast (freedom) are aspects of one person that 
need to unite so that the individual begins to integrate opposing aspects within themselves.

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Whether moving towards containment or freedom this polarity is demonstrated in the journals by 
the client‟s growing capacity to feel his/her own affect as opposed to what „should‟ be thought or 
felt, or what is defended from feeling. It is an owning of parts of the self which have not been 
previously brought into awareness. Sometimes it may be the dynamic meeting of an „unthought 
known‟ (Bollas 1987; 101). The example for this construct is taken from the main study: 
Extract 14. Entry from A journal W44 to show towards containment-freedom 
Line 1.
Enduring 
Line 2.
Feeling passed on through generations 
Line 3.
Fear of being trapped underground 
Line 4.
Known + unknown side of people 
Line 5.
My picture at the workshop 
Line 6. Want to be seen. 
The participant meets a fear of being trapped underground, which has been symbolized 
previously in the journal but not owned as it is here. It is as if she acknowledges there is an 
unknown self that has been buried and that this fear was part of that unknown self. She starts to 
own more selves as she moves towards owning her own internal world, her own thoughts and 
feelings. 
This category highlights containment and freedom experienced almost simultaneously as shifts 
occur for the client, but it also highlights still moments where a kind of holding, pleasure or 
understanding occur, which may also be termed „balance‟ (Jung 1969; 33), or stillness. The 
entry feels mysterious and creates stillness in the way it is written. Bringing together opposing 
parts of herself she seems to demonstrate Jung‟s moment of balance as she realizes she wants to 

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be seen.
5.6 The structure 
Visualizing or understanding the concept of a containment-freedom polarity feels almost 
impossible. But if the idea of a continuum is drawn out then it may be possible to have a sense of 
the movement and pull between the two aspects of the polarity (p.122). The continuum 
incorporates all the categories and the whole sits on the axis of uncontained-unfree, the stuck 
position. There is a sense that opposition pulls through the axis so that the categories move 
together shifting through each other along the continuum. All are part of a process of movement 
and in this sense every category has value. When the contents of a category are brought into 
conscious awareness the client discovers the opportunity to meet previously unknown selves. For 
example in the following entry from a main study journal the participant seems to realize that she 
is in a stuck position, that is uncontained-unfree:
Extract 15. Entry from WF journal W3. to show uncontained-unfree 
Line 1.
Still unsure - I am MAKING myself! 
Line 2.
Feel it must be happening for a reason. 
Line 3.
I feel so „squirmy‟ 
Line 4.
The boundaries are So tight. 
Line 5.
She knows I have been „testing‟. 
Line 6.
Why am I being cruel to myself? 
Line 7.
She will make me „get there‟! 
She says that she feels „squirmy‟ (line 3) in this place as if she is trying to get out but making no 
progress. She recognizes the boundaries of the counselling, they feel „so tight‟ (line 4). Both of 
these feelings suggest that she is unable to move internally. She also seems to question whether 

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she is cruel to herself (line 6) as if there is a realization that she keeps herself in this place. It 
seems she has the opportunity to experience and see where she is. She feels her apparent 
stuckness and then questions if she makes this happen to herself. It is as if she has a viewing 
platform, on the axis, where even though she feels stuck she is able to see something of where 
she is. This provides an opening for choice or movement away from one way of being into 
another. It is as if there is a desire for union within herself, brought into awareness by being 
stuck. The opposing parts of her seem drawn together: 
“True opposites are never incommensurables; if they were they could
never unite. All contrariety notwithstanding, they do show a constant
propensity to union” (Jung 1969; 207).
Jung‟s (1969) theory „On Psychic Energy‟ provides a clear of understanding of the movement 
which I originally sensed within myself and then searched for in the participant‟s journals. The 
fit between his theory and the construct (p.126) emerged from the study. His work seems to 
confirm the sense of movement between polarities and the need for the unity of the polarities. 
5.7 Conclusion 
This chapter has described the theoretical construct of the containment-freedom polarity and the 
categories that emerged within it. The categories that were created by the pilot study became 
clearer during the main study. This may imply that the participants who took part in the main 
study and knew the theme of the research did, whether consciously or unconsciously, covertly or 
openly, include the theme in their narratives. However, the categories may have become clearer 
through the more thorough analysis of the journals before looking for the categories. 

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Opposition/polarity seems to be inherent in the journal narratives and the attraction of opposition 
gains clarity through my interaction with the data. Beauty and the Beast deny each other yet want 
each other. The friction felt in opposing desires seems to be created by both desires being felt at 
once. Jung‟s work on opposition clarifies the categories and gives them credibility in that they 
correspond with established theory. Although it still feels difficult to hold the splits between 
containment and freedom together, this perhaps mirrors the difficulty of the client who struggles 
to recognize and accept opposing feelings.