[Read Transcript]
Hey there I am back in my office, in the city, yeah! Even if it is just seeing my clients online from here, it’s really nice to be back. It feels so good. And I hope that soon I can see people face to face, it’ll be so good.
Anyway I just wanted to take a few minutes and tell you a funny story.
It’s actually a response to one of your Ask me Anything questions, where somebody asked me “What’s the funniest thing that’s ever happened to you in therapy?”.
And while there have been many funny things that have happened, this one stands out for me and it always gives me a chuckle when I think about it.
So I thought I would try and bring a little smile to your face today and tell you this quick story.
I used to do therapy from home. I used to use my front living room to do it, and it worked out really, really well for a while, until this story happened.
I used to light the fire at night. It was really cozy and I enjoyed it quite a lot.
And so the way my house works is, you’ve got your living room here and you’ve got your front door here and then you come through the hallway and you come into the living room this way. So you can open up the curtains and look out and kind of see the front door if you needed it to.
So I have my one client in there and we have a good session and it’s time for the session to end and we get up to go and we go to open the door from the inside of the living room to go out into the hallway and then I can let her out and the door won’t open and I’m thinking, well, I’ll just turn it again. And I turn the door knob again and the door knob just keeps turning, round and round and the door will not open.
And I realized that we are stuck in my living room and I’m thinking, what do I do?
Now, fortunately the client I’m with, was not a particularly anxious client. So she’s rolling with it so far. And I look at her and she looks at me and I say, “Well, it seems more we’re stuck in the living room.” And she’s like, “Okay, let me have a go.”
And so she starts having a go and turning it and trying starting to kind of pick the lock a little bit and I’m thinking, I’m going to get my mobile. I’m going to call my husband because he’s in the loft. And maybe he can come down and open the door from the outside. It’s not ideal. Because I don’t mind her meeting my husband, but it’s not the best. You’re not really supposed to do that.
I thought, needs must. We can’t be stuck in the living room, my next client’s showing up in another 10 minutes. We need to get out.
So I am slightly panicking, starting to sweat a bit, but haven’t exhausted my resources.
I pick up my phone, I call my husband and he’s not picking up. And then I realized that, he must be playing his electric guitar and can’t hear anything. Because when he has that thing going, just nothing, he can’t hear a thing.
Oh great. So that’s no good.
So I’m there on my phone, it’s ringing, nobody’s picking up, she’s there, she’s gotten her credit card out now and starting to kind of jam it into the door lock. And, of course, the doorbell rings and my next client arrives.
I’m thinking, “Oh God, what am I going to do?” I think, “I’ve got to let my client know at the front door, why I’m not answering”.
The reception in my house is horrible. So, I opened up the curtains and I look out and I’m waving at her going, “just one second” and “there’s a problem”. And then I shut the curtains quickly and I come inside and I’m looking at my other client and wouldn’t you know it, she manages to kind of get the door open with the credit card just then. Yes!
So then I need to figure out how do I get this client out and the next client in, without them seeing each other? And I leave 15 minutes between sessions so that it all goes smoothly, but best laid plans.
So what I do is, I kind of shuttle my one client into the kitchen and I shut those doors and I say, “Just wait in there.” And I open up the front door and I let my next client in and I show her into the living room. And then I sit her down and I shut those doors and I open up the kitchen doors and I say goodbye to my other client. And then I shut those doors, take a breath, and then I go into the living room. I don’t totally shut the living room door. And I see my client.
That was pretty stressful.
And let’s just say, I don’t work from home anymore. I’ve got my lovely offices now. The door’s open. No more of that stress for me.
So anyway, that’s one of the funniest things that has happened to me in therapy. And I hope it’s brought a bit of a chuckle to you today this afternoon and I will see you guys next time, bye.
Dr Courtney. x
