Mother do you think I am good enough?

(Ellis, 2021. University of Chichester)

Alice Miller (2007) states there is only one weapon in the struggle against mental ill health.  It is the emotional discovery of the truth about childhood.  There are a large number of people who enter therapy in the belief that their childhood was happy and protected.  The causes of emotional disturbance were to be found in the infant’s early adaptation.  The disruption need not have been extreme abuse  (Miller, 2007:5-10).

I witnessed first-hand Rogers’ theory of the absolute power of the helping relationship.  This learning provided an important lesson with those clients who came to counselling with an idea of what they needed to explicate, and who part way through therapy, surprisingly self-direct themselves onto a different path of discovery.  The offer of a safe relationship supported this process combined with having the opportunity to express the phenomenological experiences that transcended the unconscious mind.  Counselling had the capacity to bring to the surface all those experiences that were buried deep and previously rejected as no longer relevant.