This fascinating book looks at the importance of exploring the unconscious mind to help people overcome relationship difficulties. The book breaks new ground in demonstrating that techniques to explore both the present and the past should run in tandem. Extensive clinical sessions, post-therapy interviews, case studies and topical references are used to examine sympathetically relationship difficulties in the home, workplace, social situations and in times of illness.
The book argues that the underlying cause in relationship breakdown of any kind is almost always rooted in childhood and insists that getting to the core of the problem quickly is essential and can also be achieved within the first few sessions.
Topics discussed include absorbing accounts of buried memory, the power of the mind, destructive personality types, and how clients have learned to avoid, or overcome relationship crises. Interviewees reveal their deepest feelings, learning to cope with tragedy or with the sadness of inexplicable marital collapse. Case studies include:
- A divorced wife reflects on many years of grieving which served to strengthen and sharpen her instinct for survival.
- The homosexual couple who offer their own solution to coping with the problem of jealousy in a long-term relationship.
- An Afro-American twelve year old boy who learned to communicate his feelings using toy animals in a sand tray.
- The difficulties experienced in living with a partner diagnosed with such conditions as Alzheimer's Disease, Asperger's Syndrome and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.
The case studies and post-therapy in-depth interviews will serve as invaluable learning tools for mental health professionals and trainees and provide helpful insights for anyone interested in understanding more about the way people relate to others, and to themselves.
