Resistance: “Ugh, the weather is gross! I don’t want to go out.” (for my music therapy session this afternoon)
Guilt: “You don’t want to go out because you’d rather play Skyrim. Think of all the people who have to go out and work today! Wakana is going out so she can meet with you in her office, you should do it too. Stop being so selfish!”
Pragmatism: “But we have the option of meeting over Skype, so we don’t have to go out. And it’s safer to avoid traveling in the current conditions. We know someone who got in an accident because of the weather last night. Do you want to risk getting hurt when you have a perfectly viable alternative?”
The Wounded One: “You two think ‘staying safe’ and playing Skyrim are more important than therapy! I need to work in therapy so I can heal!”
Compromise: “Yes, continuing our work in therapy is very important. We will definitely continue doing that work, and we can – and will, Resistance – do something toward it today. It might not be as much as you’d like, Wounded One, because Resistance feels very strongly on the matter, but it will be something, okay?
Compromise: “Guilt, our going out today will not do anything to help the people who ‘have to’ go out. If anything, we might make things more difficult for them by getting in the way. I agree with Pragmatism that it is better to stay home than take the risks associated with going out in this weather.”
Wounded One: “But my therapy!”
Compromise: “Wounded One, if we choose not to go out today, we are not giving up on therapy completely. Even if we were to terminate therapy – not that anyone’s suggesting we should! – that would not undo all the hard work we’ve done so far, nor would it reduce the benefits we’ve gained. We respect that this work is important to you and we have every intention of continuing it. We can make every effort to maximize the benefits we get from that work today… except for traveling in this weather. That’s the only thing we’re asking from you, permission to stay home and be safe. Is that okay?”
Resistance: “I don’t want to do the work today.”
Compromise: “But you agree that the work we’ve done so far has been helpful, yes?”
Resistance (reluctantly): “Well, I suppose so… You’re giving me a voice, that’s kinda nice.”
Compromise: “And it’s worth continuing…”
Resistance: “I guess… I’ll hang around and see what you people come up with.”
Compromise: “Great. So we’re staying home and using Skype to meet with Wakana. We’ll do what work in therapy we can, given the circumstances. Next week hopefully we’ll be able to go in and have better conditions for getting the most out of therapy. Okay everyone?”
The Wounded One and Pragmatism: “Okay!”
Resistance: “I don’t know how I feel about going in next week.”
Compromise: “We’ll talk about it then. We’re staying home today – that’s what you wanted.”
Resistance: (sighing) “Okay.”
Guilt: “You still shouldn’t use the extra time to play Skyrim. We have a thesis to work on and the house is a mess and -”
Compromise: “Okay, we’ll use it to do other things as well – there certainly are plenty of good things we can do with that time! And, well, there’s nothing wrong with taking some time to play Skyrim… it’s just better if we don’t spend the whole day doing it.”
The Healthy One with Good Communication: (crying tears of joy) “Wow, look at what you all accomplished today! This is a testament to all the hard work you’ve done together in therapy. I’m so proud of all of you. Keep it up!”
a day with depression 