Clients‟ experience of counselling within a narrative framework

 
Construct: towards containment - freedom 
The client appears to shift towards containing the feelings about her early beginnings as she 
thinks about where she comes from and accepts this history. Her shift towards freedom appears 
to be shown in her again questioning who she is as if there is now a possibility of writing her 
own life as she wonders if she can draw / make her own life-line and her own happiness. 
Week 17. 
Line 1.
Difficulty showing life + happiness line. 
Line 2.
OK talking it through. 
Line 3.
„Not much happiness‟ visible. 
Line 4.
Seeing the sadness in childhood. 
Line 5.
Expectations, „parentification‟, role 
Line 6.
of „doer‟ in marriage. 
Line 7.
Change - difficult. When low + fragile 
Line 8.
return to old patterns. 
Line 9.
Much confusion. Is it change, me 
Line 10.
or the „confused messages‟ I was given. 
She continues the theme of the previous week and apparently finds that in drawing a line to 
represent her life and happiness that there is not much happiness (line 1). It seems to be okay 
talking about this (line 2) but she writes again that there is not much happiness visible and puts 
this in inverted comas as if she really wants this to stand out for herself and perhaps for the 
reader. Drawing this life line seems to enable her to see the sadness in childhood and she is 
seeing (line 4) it as if this is a new process and very active. She appears to look at the 
expectations (line 5) that were put upon her and the parent like role that she took on. She seems 

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to make up her own word for this (line 5) as if this was something that was done to her. This role 
seems to be aligned with her role of „doer‟ (line 6) in her marriage as if she makes a link that 
this is where this role comes from. She then recognizes that change is difficult (line 7). 
Particularly it seems when she is feeling low and fragile (line 7) for it appears that she finds 
herself struggling to continue with change as she returns to old patterns (line 8) or her known 
ways of being. There seems to be much confusion (line 9) for her in this process and she 
questions whether this is due to the change, herself, or the confused messages (lines 9,10) she 
was given as a child. Although there is no question mark she writes this as a question and it 
appears that she is again using a question to show what she intends to do next. To look at this 
confusion and where it comes from would be an obvious expectation but perhaps the confusion 
is a way of keeping herself a victim and powerless, so maybe she will let the confusion go and 
claim some power for herself..