Clients‟ experience of counselling within a narrative framework

6.5.2 Overcontained-overfree
This category is about being full of the thoughts and feelings of others as opposed to having 
one‟s own. It could be Beauty who cannot hear her own voice for it is drowned out by so many 
others. It seems to highlight confusion in the client as internal and/or external agitation or 
repetitive movement. In week 12 below, Alice seems to provide an interesting example of 
overcontained-overfree: 
Extract 35. From a journal to show over contained-overfree. 
Line 1.
Skirting round the edge
Line 2.
Dreams 
Line 3.
Sexuality and rescuing
Line 4.
My client 
Line 5.
My energy 
Line 6.
Contain it within me
Line 7.
Don‟t let it drain away 
At first sight no category seems obvious but the analysis helps to show what is present and 
happening for the client: 
Extract 36. from the analysis to show defining a category. 
She appears to be dancing again in this session as she skirts round the edge (line 1) of what she 
really needs to bring. Yet having stated this action she seems to reflect upon it. It is a difficult 
entry to make sense of. It seems she remembered dreams (line 2) which may have skirted round 

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sexuality and rescuing (line 3), but these could have been other issues that she encountered. It 
seems she spoke about a client (line 4) that she sees, but this client could also represent the 
participant‟s self who is the client in this session and who tells herself what to do. She wants to 
contain her own energy (line 5 and 6), within herself and she exhorts herself not to let it drain 
away (line 7), as she again tells herself what to do. Perhaps she is fearful of losing the self she 
meets during her sessions, the self who feels and experiences. It seems she wants to stop 
concentrating on blankness (week 10; line 1.) and keep hold of the self who has more awareness 
and energy.
Even with the analysis there is still no clarity of a definite category yet perhaps this lack of 
clarity is part of the participant‟s hidden confusion and anguish. What helped define the category 
of overcontained-overfree, with the interpretation was the rhythm created by the words: 
Extract 37. From the analysis to show how rhythm defined overcontained-overfree. 
There is almost a panic in the rhythm of the words, an invisible beat at the end of each line as if 
she is overfree, or cannot quite hold onto herself, as if a part of her is slightly out of control, 
skirting round the edge. Perhaps she needs to feel this panic before she can move forwards. 
The way the participants wrote their journals again comes into focus. There is a sense of rushing 
in the rhythm of the entry as if her unconscious confusion became explicit in the writing. This 
helps define the category of overcontained-overfree and shows how the interplay between the 
interpretation of the narrative, the rhythm in the words and the way the journals were written, all 
need to be considered in the overall analysis. In week 21 of her journal Wriggling fish provides a 

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clearer demonstration of overcontained-overfree: 
Extract 38. From a journal to show over contained-overfree. 
Line 1.
I apologised - felt rather stupid. 
Line 2.
I had not expected her soft anger. 
Line 3.
The reddened neck spoke it. 
Line 4.
It somehow lacked caring 
Line 5.
I felt dishonest, it was the truth. 
Line 6.
I shared subsequent reasoning. 
Line 7.
It seemed accepted. 
Line 8.
Mixed high emotions, anger! 
Line 9.
Need to protect own space.
Line 10. 
Bicycle, gutter, shudder, fall. 
Line 11. 
The need to „get on‟ again 
Line 12. 
Boundaries felt tight. 
Extract 39. From the analysis to show the interpretation of the above entry:
After cancelling the previous session she apologises and feels rather stupid (line 1) but perhaps 
she is really feeling guilty and angry. She seems to experience the counsellor as being softly 
angry (line 2) with her, but it seems possible that this is projected onto the counsellor, and that 
she really feels angry with herself. She appears to see the counsellor as having a reddened neck 
(line 3) and it is this that spoke the anger. It is interesting that she sees the counsellor as having a 
red neck, for it is her own neck in previous entries that seems to hold the feelings that she cannot 
connect with, in that she seems to feel pain in her neck rather than feeling emotional pain. She 
feels that the counsellor lacked caring (line 4) but again it seems more likely that she is 
projecting out the lack of care for herself (like Beauty) in that she chose not to go for a session 
when she needed one, and in this way she denied herself experiencing the feelings aroused by the 
funeral. It feels as if she acted out her anger at the death by not attending the previous session. 
She then seems to recognize her dishonesty (line 5) presumably by using the snow as a reason to 
not attend (week 20). She also sees this as the truth (line 5) and goes on to share her reasoning 

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(line 6) from the previous week which she experiences as accepted (line7) by the counsellor. 
Having been honest, perhaps more importantly with herself than with the counsellor, she 
experiences what she calls „mixed high emotions, anger!‟ (line 8). She feels a need to protect her 
own space (line 9) as if something feels intrusive. She then presents an image „Bicycle, gutter, 
shudder fall‟(line10). It seems she is feeling as if she had just fallen off the „bicycle‟ of 
counselling so perhaps this is what the missed session now feels like. She recognizes her need to 
„get on‟ (line 11) again as if she is aware of losing something if she does not. And she ends by 
saying that the boundaries feel tight (line 12) as if she has returned to the feelings noted in earlier 
weeks (week 2, 3). 
The interpretation of the entry links it to the whole context of the journal as it notes links to a 
missed a session, a death, funeral and earlier entries. It is the metaphor of falling off a bicycle 
that helps confirm the construct of overcontained-overfree for she uses the word „shudder‟ which 
feels like an internal agitated movement. She also refers to the „tightness‟ of the counselling 
boundaries as if she feels hemmed in by them rather than freed or held safely. This is perhaps a 
reflection of the overcontained-overfree state of her internal world that holds the feelings and 
opinions of others rather than her own voice.