However, this was not the only mistake I made in my trauma treatment with this client. Later in her therapy, at her request, I agreed to meet with her husband and their son to do a family intervention session with just the two of them. During the first few minutes of the session, the father began to attack his son. To tell you the truth, I do not remember why the father was so angry with his son; I was so taken aback by the father’s attack that I froze and let the attack go on for several minutes. Fortunately, I was able to recover and intervene to halt the father’s attack but the rest of the session was a complete blur to me when I finished it. I certainly was not present enough to help the father and son work on resolving the conflict that afflicted their relationship. Needless to say, the father did not schedule another therapy appointment with me.
Worse still, I had to report back to my client about what had happened and explain that when her husband began attacking their son in the session with me, I had shut down because my father had often attacked me as boy in just the same way that her husband had attacked their son. I had gotten triggered as a new, beginning therapist because, unfortunately I had not completely healed the abuse and trauma that my father had caused me to suffer as a young boy. I still had some healing to do and this prevented me from being present and effective in helping her husband and son begin to solve their relationship problems.. It was a very humbling incident. Why do I tell this story?
