Page 85 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 1

Christian Psychotherapy

Contemplation on an interview
transcript of therapeutic
sessions – ELA

by Anna Ostaszewska
Elena Strigo

In therapy of trauma the body aspect is very important. mistrust. The light of the torch is a word of the psycho-
Violence committed to body (sexual abuse) disintegrates therapist, directed to the hidden and neglected parts of
the wholeness of self identity. The natural material ba- the inner world.
sis for mental, emotional and spiritual growth from age Needless to say, a patient is very reluctant to visit these
to age is lost. A person cannot normally grow up in her places. She prefers the psychotherapist go first and show
body, which is no longer a safe place for growing. Con- how to deal with the threatening figures.
sequently, there is no integrated experience of personal
structure development during life changes. Intellectual Thus, this Purgatory way works for the psychotherapist
activity, reasoning, emotional responses, self-represen- as well, as she is first to meet the sins as they are. She has
tations and relations are disintegrated. The fragments of to have her light torch cleansed, and her heart disposed
this experience are split out in the therapy room like pie- to love.
ces of puzzle for the psychotherapist to put them into an
organized frame. They are not connected into functional The sins have to be named, and “the right way” shown.
unity on the body basement. Body is no longer a temple These islands of truth, created with the help of a psycho-
where soul can feel herself safe under the guidance of spi- therapist are the small rocks ascending “out of the under-
rit. The temple is destroyed in personal self-perception. gloom” (Dante). These pieces of land are the small parts
Neither knowledge nor emotion can live and get mature of consciousness purified from delusions created by sins.
there. There is no age, no history, and no interest about The pieces of ground created in therapy are the places in
how things are related in this empty “place of no worship”. the soul purified from sin, where the Spirit can make his
There is no place for soul to live. work. The body is first to be reconstructed. Jesus Christ
appears in psychic reality as a person in a body. He is cry-
The psychotherapist meets a patient in her Inferno (Dan- ing. He is available to talk with. He is a part of the alliance
te), in the “dark wood”, full of fear, danger, silence and of patient and psychotherapist. He is present. Jesus’ body
loneliness, where is no sun and light. Patient’s soul is in Maria’s hands is the image of the holy body, united by
wandering in this gloomy and broken world with no sen- love. Though feeling the opposition of the wounded body
se. She feels her inner viciousness, impurity and badness. of a patient is very painful, it is however the real body. It
She is overflowed with sins felt as her own. That’s why like is not a shaky world of delusions, where “everything is
Dante’s sinners she has to have her face twisted backward possible”, which means every sin is possible. It is an image
and walk backward, because she could not see ahead of of the holy body which can be reached by raising from
her. the dead.

Because she has no age, she has no future, and her memo-
ries from the past (connected to sins) do not help her to
create any meaningful future.

So she goes without time, without age and with no beau- Elena Strigo, Russia,
ty. Beauty is an essential part of body life; it makes the Psychologist, psychothe-
whole construction, the architecture of body balanced rapist, European Certi-
and sane. From the time her body had been violated, it ficate in Psychotherapy
has lost its image of beauty. Since that time beauty exists (EAP). Full member of
in the idealistic world of her mind, and the reality is in- Professional Psycho-
compatible with it. Her body also should not reflect any therapeutic League of
beauty; otherwise it becomes attractive to abusive moti- Russia. Head of Psycho-
ves of others. logical Counseling Cen-
tre ABIGAIL, Krasno-
The therapy process becomes a challenge to the psycho- yarsk, Russia. President
therapist. It is like a blind walk in the dark room in which of Krasnoyarsk Regional
patient, and psychotherapist run across unacceptable Society of Christian psy-
feelings and memories. Psychotherapist holds the torch, chologists and psycho-
so a patient could find her path through ignorance and therapists

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