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It was just the start of our second session, but we were in deep trouble already. Christopher was agitated, talking really quickly and with a sense of urgency. There was something he said I needed to know, but I couldn’t follow him; nothing made sense. The harder I tried, the more confused I got; I felt I was losing the plot. I thought: Is this a psychotic episode? That made me panic; my heart was beating fast, and I felt hot all over. What should I do? My mind went blank. I thought, Here we go again, my fear system has just kicked off. I knew what to do now. Stop working, observe my breathing, nothing else. A couple of moments later, a bit calmer, I focused my attention on my body, my agitation and sense of disconnection, and my fear of craziness. A thought came into my head: “He’s scared he’s going mad.” At the same time, I had a mental picture of an astronaut, with his connection to his spacecraft severed, floating off into black, endless space. We had a moment of real connection, then we were able to start working together to make sense of all of this, both of us having recovered the ability to think reflectively.

It was just the start of our second session, but we were in deep trouble already. Christopher was agitated, talking really quickly and with a sense of urgency. There was something he said I needed to know, but I couldn’t follow him; nothing made sense. The harder I tried, the more confused I got; I felt I was losing the plot. I thought: Is this a psychotic episode? That made me panic; my heart was beating fast, and I........

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