Examples of a pen picture
As you will see, these don’t need a great deal of information, just enough to build a basic picture, and to get started. In most situations, people tend to flesh out the picture they provide over time as they start to talk about their life, and the issues they experience.
Please scroll to the bottom of the page for a more detailed explanation.
***************************************************************
I am a 46 year old woman.
I live in my own home with my husband of 25 years and we have Four adult children, all boys still living at home.
Unfortunately one of the boys, a 20 year-old, was killed in a tragic car accident just over a year ago.
Since then I am struggling to continue to function. I have a job as a bar manager, but find this extremely hard at times particularly when customers try to be helpful, supportive, or make any comment or observation about what happened to my son.
I am having periods when I’m feeling low and despondent, but at other times I can be extremely short-tempered and have had to walk out of situations rather than blow a fuse.
I find it hard to speak to people about the problems I’m having. My husband is grieving in his own way, but is actually quite withdrawn and is unavailable and not supportive, and my other boys are just getting on with their lives and even this is difficult for me to see.
I am constantly reminded of the presence of the son that I lost and seem to need help to work through this. I don’t want any kind of help to forget about him. As far as I’m concerned, he is still my son.
**********************************************************************
I’m in my late 60’s and recently retired, and bought a large property in the country where I moved with my wife.
Unfortunately my wife has developed early onset Alzheimer’s and I am now having to provide support and care for her.
In order to help with this, my daughter moved, with her partner, into a separate part of the property, although we share some common parts like kitchen etc.
My daughter is being helpful and supporting us, but the entire house has to run on a schedule that she insists that we stick to. I am finding this intolerable, and over the year since we moved, have become more and more miserable and depressed to the point of feeling suicidal at times
I was a successful businessman, and management consultant before I retired and it feels like my life is failing and slipping out of my control.
******************************************************************************
I’m a bloke in my 20’s. I’ve got a flat.
My ex partner, who has my 4 year old daughter, keeps messing me around.
I’ve got a job, but I keep getting further into debt.
It just seems that it doesn’t matter what I do, things end up getting worse.
I have to keep things straight, or my ex will stop me seeing my daughter.
I keep thinking about ways to kill myself, and have thought of a number of methods, and even tested a couple of these to see if they would work.
I don’t really want to kill myself
**************************************************************************
I’m a 56 year old woman. I live at home with my husband. We are comfortably off and my husband has his own business.
Our two boys are grown, one at university, the other works away.
I’ve had help from mental health services in the past.
I don’t leave the house unless I absolutely have to. My husband helps out and does shopping etc.
It just feels like I spend all my life trapped inside these walls.
I do have a car, but never use it.
I feel quite miserable, and guilty as my parents are getting quite old and I’m not able to support them. I’m guilty my husband does everything for me.
I have no idea what is wrong with me
******************************************************************
I’m 45, a woman, live with my partner and 3 kids. Life is good, and we get on well, but I have just left my most recent job after having an argument with another employee. I seem to have 3-4 different jobs every year, and we tend to move every 3-4 years, usually after I fall out with friends and neighbours.
I had a very difficult childhood, and my family were pretty shit most of the time. I don’t have contact with any of my siblings, and my parents are dead.
It just seems that wherever I go, and whatever I do, I end up ruining everything, and we have to pack up and leave.
I thought we had ended up in a perfect place as we have no close neighbours, but all my problems just seem to follow me wherever we go. My husband and kids are great, but I think even they are starting to get tired of this
*******************************************************************************
All these stories are based on people I have worked with in my professional capacity.
You may notice that despite there being a certain amount of personal detail, there is no way that you, or anyone else could use these descriptions to identify the people concerned. This is the same degree of anonymity you will have if you provide a picture of yourself.
***********************************************************************
And just to put this into context of how people make use of sessions, and how this impacts upon their life:-
This is in no particular order
One decided to pay a private psychiatrist to diagnose Bi-polar disorder, despite no previous history of this, another had a single session, and a follow up, just to see if it really had been as effective as it seemed. A couple of these had around eight sessions each, and made a lot of progress, and finally, one was seen sporadically over a couple of years.
***********************************************************************
The pen picture…more information about
This is just a short overview about you, your life and world, and if possible a little bit about what you hope to achieve by engaging in these sessions.
This doesn’t need to be an essay. A couple of paragraphs of basic information is more than enough to give an overall picture.
I don’t expect people to be articulate, able to write well and describe every nuance of their lives. For most people this is probably not anything they have ever done before so it will be a challenge.
However, this also means that I do not have to spend time asking you to expand upon information just to make sense of it.
Many people find it quite cathartic to write down their own story. It’s a bit like describing your own history and in the very process of doing this it’s amazing how often people will gain insight and be able to make better choices, and understand their world or situation better.
Having this information also helps me focus on how you may want to use the sessions effectively.
It helps me put things into context when you’re speaking to me and gives me something to refer back to if I need to remember things about the overall picture.
Bear in mind that whatever story you’re telling me, you’ve had it in your head for a very long time and know all the details, all the characters and know very well how they fit together etc.
I need a little help sometimes…
