Case Response I: Geraldine Godsil

Abstract

the Azores, it was nice but he swears at me, calling me names while we have sex. I'm tired of prostituting myself."With therapy and SLAA meetings, Chloe begins to learn a new language and perspective on what it means to move toward a sense of wholeness, i.e., "my sense of self-worth is greater than what someone could pay me to make me something that I am not."Over the course of a year, Chloe vacillates in self-doubt and grief as we explore, "I'm no-one without Kate"; "life is rather boring and ordinary" and "I'm so lonely." We continue to talk about self-respect, dead-end relationships, her shame, and how her mother used her and did not protect her from abuse. Chloe begins to value empathy as a relational practice and is more aware of the vicious cycles of her pursuit for arousal that lead to numbing out activities. She begins to own her truth and is more selfaccepting. Chloe continued in therapy with me for another year while establishing her recovery and further integrating her trauma.This was not a tidy case. I was often overwhelmed and sought consultation to help me hold the raw Dionysian archetypal energies at play. I had a child the same age as Chloe at the time of treatment, which enhanced my countertransference feelings. Although my treatment with Chloe was over 15 years ago, while writing this case, I had a countertransference dream reactivating my distress to help liberate Chloe from the destructive parts of herself. In the dream: