Archive for the 'Therapy Assignments' Category

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DREAM: Trust Love and Forgiveness Re-write

Published on October 3, 2008 in Dream Therapy, Dreams, Segments, Therapy and Therapy Assignments. 4 Comments Tags: .

(as part of dream therapy you re-write the dream for an ending that you can live with or where you are the victor instead of the victim.)

My sister and I are sleeping in separate rooms when I hear a burglar at the door. I run to wake my sister who is sleeping as she always does, like an letter in an envelope. Her blankets are straight, folded very neatly at the top and nothing is out of order. She’s sleeping like a picture perfect princess. I giggle and think to myself, “How on earth does she sleep like that?” then I shake her to let her know we have to get out of the house. She jumps to her feet, throws the covers back to their original position. I notice the bed looks as if she never slept in it at all. I shake my head and we run to her window and climb out together. The sister who will be called Mia is down below telling me to jump and hurry because she thinks they’re already in the house. I’m afraid of heights and have always been but I know jumping is necessary. At the bottom Mia and I run into the field knowing full well we’ll have to fight off lions and wolves. Mia heads in first and tells me to stay close behind her. We’re going to the highway then into the city for help. As we pass through the field we don’t see any danger but we know it’s all around us. Several houses have a porch light but Mia senses they won’t help so we keep going. A lady approaches us and says she’ll take us only as far as the highway. Again sensing danger Mia denies assistance and takes us through the dark, overgrown field.

Despite sleeping her hair is perfect, her pink nightgown is without wrinkles and there’s not a drop of sweat on her. Continue reading ‘DREAM: Trust Love and Forgiveness Re-write’

Integrating Thoughts And Feelings

Published on July 6, 2008 in Borderline Personality Disorder, Therapy and Therapy Assignments. 2 Comments

Last Wednesday the therapist and I talked about integrating thoughts and feelings. He wanted to bring two extremes closer together. I mentioned that I see my doodles and sketch pads as evidence that I’m one screwed up woman. I told him that I doodle to keep from cutting and when I see a thousand loose pieces of paper and a ton of sketch books that it feels like proof that I really have major problems with self injury. Just as I said this someone inside said they saw them as proof that we are capable of handling our anxiety in healthier ways than self injury. Thus began the exercise of integrating these two thoughts. Continue reading ‘Integrating Thoughts And Feelings’

Three Birds – Shape Shifting

Published on July 2, 2008 in Art, Dream Therapy, Dreams, PTSD, Therapy and Therapy Assignments. 0 Comments

This is the rest of the entry titled Dreams: Misrepresentation and Shape Shifting

Three Birds

This last dream I found difficult to re-write so I painted it instead. The pictures in the dream were not one’s I ever want to see again but this, well, I think I can live with this version of it.

Instead of using a cat in the painting I used a bird. A mother holds her baby instead of tossing it in the air. There is much chaos in the background, a lot of movement and energy, even fear I’d say but the baby is held closely, Madonna-like. There’s a lot going on in the painting that would seem less than peaceful but there’s still hope here. The mother’s hair has the colours of the rainbow in and around it. Click detail 1 to view her close up. Detail 2 is a closer look at the mother and child. If you’re using Firefox and would like to see a slightly larger view of the image here just use your right-click. Continue reading ‘Three Birds – Shape Shifting’

She Hangs The Moon

Published on May 23, 2008 in Abuse, Art, Borderline Personality Disorder, Letters Home, Pets, PTSD, Relationships, Soapbox, Therapy and Therapy Assignments. 5 Comments Tags: .

Dear Sister,

She Hangs The Moon (unfinished)I have to leave you alone now. This letter will be jumbled because I’m not use to feeling what I feel when I think of you. I’m use to singing your praises. I’m use to telling others I couldn’t stand the way you screamed but never have I felt so angry and so hurt when I think of you. I use to just be sad and long for you but in the last few months when I think of you all I want to do is bend over and cry.

When we were kids, though I didn’t understand you at all, I figured we had something big in common and that gave us a secure bond. I thought the abuse was enough to bring us close together so we could out wit the mother, stay one step ahead of her together, be each others confidant. I thought we could be friends. I saw you in nothing but light. Despite being disgusted by your reactions it never changed how I felt about you. I was disgusted by your reaction, not you. That issue is my own and I know why and I’m trying to deal with that. But I want you to know it never made me think you were anything other than the source that hung the moon. Continue reading ‘She Hangs The Moon’

The Sunflower Leaf

Published on May 21, 2008 in Art, Dream Therapy, Dreams, Mental Health, PTSD and Therapy Assignments. 3 Comments

Dream Therapy Nurtured LovedI put it off as long as possible. I avoided the subject of my sister as well as painting and writing what I was to bring in for therapy tomorrow/today. I don’t know, I just couldn’t do the writing part. I tried to paint the leaf from my dream just the way I saw it, broken, dry and brown in spots. When I painted it I felt so sad. I feel stupid saying I was nearly in tears and that I had to take several breaks. My goodness, I painted a sunflower leaf why would I feel so heart sick over that? Man I feel stupid saying I felt like that. I guess it’s just that I see myself in sunflowers (cause they’re multiple’s too and their heads hang low when they have too much to bear). When I see a sunflower damaged or neglected I internalize it. To see a perfect example of how I see myself please click the link to the blog called Go! Smell The Flowers. Continue reading ‘The Sunflower Leaf’

Dream Therapy: Rough Terrain Part 1of2

Published on May 10, 2008 in Dreams, Mental Health, PTSD, Segments, Therapy and Therapy Assignments. 0 Comments

Two TV’s watched in the living room by strangers. One TV worked clearly, the other was blurry. I talked to the mother on the phone as I steam cleaned the carpet and strangers watched my TV. I poured dirty water from a small bucket into a large bucket as I explained to the mother that our recent phone conversations weren’t helpful but hurtful. We talked while there was a chimp sitting on the sofa, this chimp’s name is Bob. A pigeon perched on my desk which had been moved into the hallway while I cleaned the carpet. The desk blocked the restroom and bedroom from any entry at all.

The mother and I began to argue about what to feed Captain. She said her co-workers thought I should feed Captain differently. At that moment Captain was outside with two snakes in his mouth, one gold and black spotted, the other black and white striped. I told her when her friends pay his vet bills they can have a say in how I feed him. He seemed quite content with his new feeding program of wild animals he caught in the yard. The mother went on to tell me she was sorry she’d let me down recently. She then said she was going to have to let me down 4 more times. I asked what she meant. She said she was bringing home 4 new people to live with us. I told her that’s not letting me down but they can’t sleep in my room. I can’t share a room with anyone I told her. My sister, who had been quietly watching TV with complete strangers piped up and asked, “Since when can you not share a room with anyone?” “Since right now!” I said, “I’m not sharing a room with anyone.” The mother and I chatted a bit longer then hang up.

Continue reading ‘Dream Therapy: Rough Terrain Part 1of2′

Dream Therapy: Woman Child

Published on March 1, 2008 in Borderline Personality Disorder, Dream Therapy, Dreams, Mental Health, PTSD, Relationships, Segments, Therapy and Therapy Assignments. 0 Comments Tags: .

My mother, a family friend and I were driving by the second grade house in the middle of the night in a yellowish orange van. I noticed she was speeding and so was everyone else. Cars were swerving in out and nearly causing crashes but somehow managing not to. I turned to watch 2 cars merge into the same lane and noticed one of them him something. I realized it was a child who had fallen off his bike. When I turned back around to tell the mother I noticed about 10 children riding the same kind of BMX bike towards on coming traffic. For apparently no reason at all they began to fall, one after the other. Cars attempted to miss the kids but they were run over again and again. I began telling the mother from the back seat how to maneuver around the fallen children so as not to hit them. She was stiff, driving carefully, listening to my calm instructions. The passenger in the front seat was silent, perhaps stunned by what was happening. We got through the children without killing any but we ran over the hand of one. The body was laying face down, blue jeans, dark hair and a green shirt. We ran over the hand but were happy we didn’t kill the child. I never looked back to see if anyone else hit him/her. What I did notice was that children kept coming, riding their bikes directly into traffic, falling for apparently no reason at all.

Continue reading ‘Dream Therapy: Woman Child’