Page 61 of The Missus

‘Mandy…’

‘No, fuck this. I knew this was pointless.’ Mandy stood up. ‘Don’t expect to see me next week.’ She walked out.

Alanna was left alone with her failure. She’d laid it out too clearly for a person who wasn’t ready to see certain things. Maybe shewasa know-it-all.

***

‘So the session didn’t go well?’ her own therapist, James, asked later that day. She had to get forty hours of personal therapy with him as part of her accreditation.

‘It went shit, James,’ Alanna told him. ‘If I’d tread a bit lighter, I might have been able to help her. And who knows what will happen to her now.’

‘You know you can’t take responsibility for a client’s unwillingness to engage with the process, don’t you?’ James asked.

‘I know that. But I can take some. Ishouldtake some.’

‘Of course you should. But I’m not convinced that this client was there for the right reasons.’

Alanna sighed and slumped down. ‘You weren’t there, James.’

‘No, I wasn’t. You were. How would you perceive her commitment?’ he asked, as though he already knew the answer.

Alanna nearly did a Mandy there and then, calling him a know-it-all and walking out. Instead, she took a deep breath. ‘OK, fine. Maybe she couldn’t engage. But I have plenty of clients who come in without knowing what’s going to be asked of them. I can still get them there.’

‘Is this the first time a client has walked out on you, mid-session?’

Alanna thought. ‘Yes. A few have threatened, but they never actually made it out of the door.’

James looked surprised. ‘Seriously? The first time? And you’re in your third year? When I trained, it happened to me a few times in the first year alone.’

That surprised Alanna. ‘Really?’

‘Speak to other counsellors, and I guarantee they’ll tell you the same. You did well to get this far without experiencing it. You’re being far too hard on yourself.’

Alanna didn’t say anything to that.

James sat back and laced his fingers together. ‘Does this have anything to do with your mother staying with you?’

Alanna gave James a hard look. ‘I feel like you’re making me understand why people hate counsellors right now.’

He laughed, unbothered. ‘You’d say the same if you were sat here. I know you would.’

‘Fine. Yes. I would. Do you want to talk about my mother?’ she asked him.

‘Doyouwant to talk about your mother?’ he asked—the bastard.

‘Not especially.’

‘What about Keira?’

Alanna was startled to hear her name. ‘What about her?’

‘How is it, living with your mother and Keira?’

Alanna frowned. ‘Weird. I grabbed her genitals this morning.’

His eyes widened. ‘Your mother?!’

‘No, Keira.’