Shame For Late Appointment

Lisa called for an emergency session. She was a therapist, and a few days prior to her call she had an incident which led her to show up late for an appointment with a new client. The client had been referred to her by an esteemed colleague, and now she was overburdened with shame towards both her colleague and her new client. This whole incident had costed Lisa a few nights of insomnia. 

I led Lisa through a voice dialogue to reconcile some of the inner tension arising between her commitment to good service, and the shame. To help Lisa fully make peace with having made a mistake, I guided her through an embodied exercise borrowed from comedy improvisation which turned shame into acceptance and even joy. 

Then we devised together a communication strategy to offer apology and amends to both her client and her peer. A few days later Lisa wrote to tell me that she had slept well since our session, and that she had cleared the air, so to speak, with her colleague and her client. Inner tension within herself, and the expectation of relationship tension have given way to peace.