Richard weep, yelled at the top of his voice, and then graphically described how he would hold the gun in his mouth in his garage while positioning himself in a makeshift structure of plywood boards and blankets in order to minimize the cleanup of blood. With a calm voice, Dr. Meichenbaum only asked a simple and persisting question, “what would it look like?” in regards to how Richard would express his anger, which was typically “kick ass, yell, show love, and then try to understand the other person is just a human being.” I thought Richard might actually punch Meichenbaum in the face. Meichenbaum remained calm and composed. Courageous. Meichenbaum engaged the moment in the here and now as validated by actual emotional reactions expressed by Richard. That was alarming to me and Richard’s video is still transferring negative energy to others over 30 years later. …show more content…
Strupp believed in a three step process where he would try to identify maladaptive patterns, bring them to the patient’s attention, and then help patient explore the ramifications of these patterns in his or her current life. He admitted that the maladaptive patterns could be apparent in the first session, but it may take a long time to explore. Perhaps dwelling on the past would eventually create such negative energy that Richard would actually act out his suicide plan described to Meichenbaum. If Strupp had been in the “here and now” instead of trying to dig into Richard’s mind to figure out “why” from his childhood, he would have seen that Richard was a time bomb about to explode and potentially hurt others and himself. Strupp concluded that he was unable to get a clear picture of Richard due to be clouded by