The Surface Is Glass
Real stories from therapy sessions
My client gave me permission to publish this, hoping her story will help others. Names are not real.
Monica made it easy for me. She wouldn’t let me talk, something I do way too much of as a therapist. She wanted to lay it all out first like a giant jigsaw puzzle. There was so much happening all at once, like there always is in life. She had recently answered her internal call to live near water and moved out to California. It was something she’s always dreamt of but was always afraid to do. Or maybe she just needed a reason. The “reason” came in the form of cutting the cord. She was stuck in a marriage that wasn’t going anywhere for years and had finally mustered the courage to leave. But her leaving cause his internal collapse. He wasn’t emotionally stable so she couldn’t really cut the cord. It just stretched. Creating anxiety and guilt. She would call him daily to check up on him while also trying to be present with a new person she had started dating. Puzzle piece one. The person she was dating was also friends with her ex-husband. Puzzle piece two. She was also being harassed at work by someone who had trouble with boundaries. Puzzle piece three. Then there was her living situation. She had just been evicted because she recused a cat. Puzzle piece our. There were about ten pieces. I lost count. They didn’t matter. She…
