Friday, 11 May 2018
Before You Let The Sun In by Ian Robertson and Katerina Couroucli-Robertson
Release Date: 15th May 2018
Publisher: Sphinx
Publisher: Sphinx
This book consists of ten case histories that cover a wide range of
themes from obesity to depression. One woman is trying to come to grips
with past memories, another cannot escape from a passionate love with no
future, an adolescent immigrant is trying to overcome a persistent
stammer, a fifty-year-old man decides to separate from the love of his
life rather than compromise with his principles.
Writing in the
first person, the dramatherapist describes her reactions to and
interaction with the client as well as some of the techniques used in
the therapeutic process. The stories are based on real cases, but in
order to conform to the story-telling genre they contain a beginning,
middle and end, which is not always the case in real life.
EXTRACT
Chapter 1
Dancing with demons
I was sitting in my Athens
office one overcast day in late February when Laura phoned me. She had a flat
unemotional voice. “Do you deal with people who are overweight?” she said
plainly.
I said that I did deal
with people who were overweight, which was a slight misrepresentation of the
truth, as I was only just embarking on my PhD in dramatherapy with overweight
women. So, her call came as a positive omen. We made an appointment for the
next day.
On the phone she had given
me no idea of her current weight. She could have been anything from 60 to 160
kilos. So, I was prepared for anything. When I saw her framed in the doorway in
a rather masculine mackintosh, I had the feeling I was facing a wall. She was
plain and unmade-up, with a solemn face. It wasn’t until we were in my office
and she lowered herself into the armchair opposite me that I realised just how
big she was. I guessed she must have been about 120 kilos. In fact, I was out
by 23 kilos. She informed me that she was 143.
From her stern
countenance, I knew I would have to tread carefully. I wondered whether her
extra weight was a shield, a thick padding against a hostile world. I had seen
it before. It could take weeks, even months, to penetrate her defensive wall,
and weeks more to flush out her demons, who or
whatever they were. Was she aware of them? Would she try to hide them
from me, as she had no doubt been hiding them from herself and from everyone
else?
I could see in her pale
face and graceless demeanour a battered pride, still intact, but fragile. I
had to be careful not to let her dig too deep too quickly for fear of bringing
the wall crashing down around her before she had managed to reinforce it. I
needed to establish her trust, allow her to understand that my intention was
not to break down her defences, leaving her exposed and vulnerable, but to help
her create a state where she was in control of her own life. I would let her
tell me her story, piecemeal, in her own way and in her own time, so that
together we could uncover and deal with her furtive demons.
She started at the very
beginning, even before her birth, which, as she explained to me, had not been
an easy one. Laura’s mother had had two previous pregnancies, losing both
embryos, the first one early on, the second at five months. The second had been
a boy and therefore an added disappointment for her old-fashioned Greek
parents for whom a boy was a blessing and a girl a burden. After she lost the
second child, her mother went into a depression but she did manage to become
pregnant again. This time she took no chances and stayed in bed for most of her
time. So, the relationship between mother and daughter was strained before she
was even born, only to be further exacerbated on her first day in this world by
a complication with the birth. The umbilical cord got wrapped around her throat
and face and it was a miracle she survived at all.
For the first two years of
life, Laura had a mark on her face, which faded in time, but apparently not, it
seemed, without leaving a scar beneath the surface, visible to no one, not even
to Laura herself perhaps. Baby Laura was not the image her mother had had of
the perfect child. In fact, it appears she was quite ashamed of this blemished
creature, as no photos were allowed to be taken of her as long as those marks
were still on her face. Laura said that it was as if she only came into
existence when the marks of imperfection had disappeared. I couldn’t help
wondering which stigma had done the most damage, the one on her face or that
left by her mother’s shame.
Before
You Let the Sun In, is out
May 2018, published by Sphinx, an imprint of AEON Books, priced £14.99 each.
For more information see:http://www.aeonbooks.co.uk/
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