A client called me on the phone in a panic. She had a great deal of generalized anxiety about her upcoming marriage. Because it was a crisis call, my goal was to redirect the client's attention as quickly as possible. I began redirecting her anxiety using the Storytelling Therapy method of creating mental and visual images. Soon her panic subsided and she became more rational.
I told Betty a "Success Story Of A Previous Client."
| Ken: | Hello? |
| Client: | Hi! Do you have a minute? |
| Ken: | Well... [Before I can answer, the client is rambling hysterically.] |
| Client: | My daughter is really pissing me off! I'm getting married next week and I won't have my daughter come between me and my new husband. She's not going to ruin my marriage |
| Ken: | What's your daughter doing to ruin your marriage? |
| Client: | [Client is unable to specify what the daughter is doing to ruin the marriage. She is loud, unfocused and rambling.] |
| Ken: | What does your fiancee have to say about your daughter's behavior? |
| Client: | He's OK with her. [More panic and rambling speech.] |
| Ken: | Where's your future husband now? |
| Client: | He's here in the house. [More panic and rambling speech.] |
| Ken: | Where in the house? |
| Client: | At the table. [More panic and rambling speech.] |
| Ken: | And what's he doing at the table? |
| Client: | What's that got to do with anything? [Client sounds surprised, and seems to find the question laughably irrelevant. She laughs a bit and is less rambling.] |
| Ken: | I think it's important what he's doing at the table. But if you don't want to say, I can live with that. [This is a pivotal step because it offers the client a choice to continue her hysterical way or to let me take the lead. In order decrease her panic, she will have to focus her internal resources toward a specific image, that of her fiancee at the table.] |
| Client: | (Hesitating a few moments.) No, no. That's OK. He's eating dinner. Although I really don't see what that has to do with anything! [Client is becoming less hysterical.] |
| Ken: | Well, that's good. It's good that he's eating dinner. Tell me, what's he having for dinner? |
| Client: | What do you mean, 'What's he having for dinner?' |
| Ken: | Quite literally and simply, 'What 's he having for dinner? Is it fish, meat, chicken...[Client interrupts my sentence.] |
| Client: | Well, let me see. I don't know (Hesitating) It's chicken |
| Ken: | Well, what kind of chicken? |
| Client: | What do you mean, 'What kind of chicken?' |
| Ken: | Well, is it baked chicken, breaded chicken, fried chicken....? |
| Client: | (laughing, but almost spontaneously) It's baked chicken. |
| Ken: | And where did he get this baked chicken? |
| Client: | (Laughing, spontaneously but thinking for a moment as if trying to remember.) At a takeout restaurant near us. |
| Ken: | And how did he get it? Who went to the restaurant to get it? |
| Client: | We both drove over. |
| Ken: | And your daughter? Did she go with you? |
| Client: | No. |
| Ken: | And what else is he having for dinner? Certainly, he's not eating a piece of chicken on a plate with no side dish. Like broccoli, or fries or something. |
| Client: | (Laughing, spontaneously) Cole slaw. He's having cole slaw with his chicken. |
| Ken: | Anything else? |
| Client: | Uh, mashed potatoes. |
| Ken: | Nothing to drink? |
| Client: | (Laughing openly) O.K. I get it. Thank you. |
| Ken: | Not a problem. |
| Client: | Bye. |
| Ken: | Bye. |
Throughout the conversation, I asked the client to focus on a specific mental image. By the end of the conversation, she realized she had more important things to concern herself with than the unfounded fear her daughter was trying to ruin her marriage. I could have delved into her underlying fear that she would ruin the marriage herself and suggested she was irrationally projecting her fear onto her daughter in a paranoid fantasy. Instead, I thought it wiser and more expedient to have her dissolve her panic attack by forming and focusing on an internal mental image.