Respectfully submitted to my peers. © Jack Blackburn 2005
This is the first in a series of articles dealing with the range
of actual ethical situations that occur in our work, situations that
can perplex bodyworkers due in part to an overzealous application of
psychological principles. This is an actual case from my practice. In another article we will deal with the ethical implications of this client
relationship and others and hopefully expand our understanding of these
issues. To read the full article, as it was published in the AMTA-WA State Chapter Newsletter, March 2005, please visit the Articles section of the website.
DP - Dual relationship, Transference, and Countertransference
DP passed away, a year and a half ago. I have learned more about client
relationships from her than anyone else. Her first session, in July
1992, and she was 81
years old at the time. She was widowed in 1990 and had been depressed
ever since. She suffered the discomfort of arthritic degeneration,
hypertension, and bouts of angina and tachycardia - she'd had a heart
attack in her 70's.
A few days after her first session DP called me to report that she was feeling better than she had in years. She wanted to receive more sessions, but was on a fixed income and could not afford my fees. I wanted to learn how effective my modalities were for someone in her condition. I was willing to work with her if she would see me twice a week - I would accept what she could afford. I asked her to keep a daily record of her symptoms and any health related issues. These things she agreed to do.
After we'd been working together for about a month, I realized that I liked DP a lot - the feelings were mutual. She was very grateful for the care she was getting and I was grateful for her commitment to the therapy process. She would turn in her journals at the beginning of every week. Surprisingly, we both became aware of some amazing coincidences. DP had the same name and nickname as my mother - who had died exactly one year before our first session. Both were just over 5 feet tall, both were high school valedictorians and members of Phi Beta Kappa in college - and both were musicians. DP was depressed partly because she'd been estranged from her son for many years. The same had been true of my mother and I - until a year before my mother died. DP and I became aware of the transference-countertransference issues we were dealing with. We were both willing to be friends... honestly and openly discussing these issues. We both sensed that destiny had brought us together so we could each work on our respective mother-son issues.
I worked with DP until she died at the age of 93. Like my mother, DP decided to die consciously in her own bed, with only minimal medical support. One month before my mother died I gave her the only session she ever received from me - when I finished her eyes were full of tears. The session confirmed the forgiveness we were offering one another. I remember working on DP's body for the last time - seven hours before she died. I spoke with her as I was working on her. She was beyond speaking, but I could feel her come in and touch my hands with her mind as her tissue relaxed; it was a good session. She was very peaceful when I said goodbye for the last time.
Our relationship was much more complicated than usual practitioner-client relationships but it was also mutually very healing. DP is one reason that I cannot subscribe to sweeping warnings against dual relationships with clients The transference and countertransference issues actually produced the healing.
