Clients‟ experience of counselling within a narrative framework

5.5.1 Containment
I understand containment as a concept which defines the client‟s search for a safe internal and 
external environment, in which s/he may be enabled to:
1. think his/her own thoughts, in a place where thought can be contained 
2. play with notions, in a contained environment
3. experience feeling, in the safety of a non judgemental relationship 
 

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5.5.2 Freedom
I understand freedom as a concept which defines the client‟s search for an infinite space in which 
s/he may:
1. think her/his own thoughts, in a place where thought can be set free 
2. play with notions, in a free environment
3. experience feeling, in the space of a non judgemental relationship 
The above concepts of containment and freedom appear to offer identical opportunities for the 
client, yet never the less this study suggests that the client perceives and experiences these 
opportunities differently. It feels hard to hold this split between containment and freedom yet 
experience informs me that when freedom has been too terrifying to explore, then containment 
offered by the counsellor is essential to progress and if containment is not felt then exploration 
may be held up. This does not mean that containment was not offered or present but simply not 
felt due to the impact of the client‟s previous history (Etherington 2000). In these moments 
where emotional movement appears to be obliterated by previous experience what becomes 
important is the continued emotional presence of the counsellor. This is perhaps when, without 
the client being aware of it the counsellor holds what cannot be held or tolerated by the client. So 
in a sense it is the client‟s immobilised state which is contained (or freed) and which in being 
contained, frees the client to experience themselves (Klein 1995). In this way the client‟s own 
affects which have not before been brought into awareness may be experienced. As feelings are 
brought into awareness the client is enabled to move or remain stuck as opposition is either 
worked with or denied. However, even when opposition is denied and the client seems stuck 

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there remains the opportunity to examine this stuck position and from it view their internal 
world. The split between containment and freedom perhaps helps the client organise experience 
(Godwin 1994) so that some order begins to be created out of the chaos of their unaware 
unconscious. The overall structure of containment-freedom appears to hold both the stuck 
position of the client and various forms of movement which emerge in the following categories. 
5.5.3 Uncontained-unfree 
This polarity, like the overall polarity is also a paradox in that it is a polarity without movement 
which may be termed stagnant opposition because of the lack of movement. Perhaps it could be 
compared to being frozen with fear, or even an emotional paralysis that binds the client in the 
trauma of a past event, just as I was stuck in shock. In considering the existence of psychic 
energy Jung (1969) seems to describe this stuck position: 
“ in the stoppage of libido that occurs when progress has become impossible, positive 
and negative no longer unite in co-ordinated action, because both have attained an 
equal value which keeps the scales balanced” (33). 
It may be understood as no movement in that scales do not move when equally balanced. It also 
may be understood as „no feeling‟ in that when feeling is cut off or denied it is not experienced 
or is outside of awareness. In this way uncontained-unfree may be seen as the axis, or centre 
point of the containment-freedom polarity. 
Uncontained could be understood as having the same meaning as freedom but the apparent 
similarity between uncontained and freedom is not so simple. Freedom, by its very nature 

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suggests choice, but in an unfree place there is no choice in that choice cannot be experienced 
when the individual is stuck. Uncontained is a place of no movement, for there is neither 
containment nor freedom at this fixed point where nothing shifts. However if this stuck place can 
be brought into awareness through the containment and freedom provided by the counselling, 
then movement becomes a possibility as freedom, the possibility of choice comes into focus. 
Unfree is the fixed polarity of uncontained. Each, exist together in the same place both 
superimposed and in opposition which is the bind that holds the client in a place of no 
reflections, and no movement. But again if this fixed point can be experienced and brought into 
awareness it becomes a place from where movement may be viewed and tested. It is perhaps 
somewhere along the continuum of this polarity that the capacity to be alone begins its growth 
within the individual. Aloneness may be experienced as a negative or unwanted state (Jacobs 
1986). But as the experience of aloneness or isolation is felt within the therapeutic relationship it 
can be examined within the containment and freedom provided by the counsellor. Here, 
aloneness may be discovered in altered form as it comes to be realised in conscious knowing 
(Etherington 2000). 
This category appears in participants‟ journals as a stuck place where they feel trapped or caught 
and unable to move towards change. But it is also a place where they appear to look around and 
examine where they are in their internal world. This example from the main study shows an 
entry that has been categorized as uncontained-unfree: 

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Extract 10. Entry from WAI journal W22.to show the category uncontained-unfree
Line 1.
Feeling disappointed with self 
Line 2.
stuck + expecting to feel better. 
Line 3.
Removing myself from situations 
Line 4.
making others responsible for own mess. 
Line 5.
Not allowing self to be dragged in 
Line 6.
- do it differently + not explain how or why. 
Line 7.
Keep asking as „just in case‟ 
Line 8.
stop asking + see what happens. 
Line 9.
leave the load, relieve stuckness. 
Line 10.
Accepting + respecting the others 
Line 11.
paralysing fear. 
 
The words used that suggest this category are; „stuck‟ and „paralysing fear„. However the full 
context of the journal also contributed to this construct being chosen. What can be seen is that 
the participant looks around to see what she does and she makes this clear in lines 3 and 4 where 
she suggests that she makes others responsible for what belongs to her. It is as if this 
understanding has only just come into conscious knowing.