Barriers to Emotional Discharge Vary Greatly
The amount and resistance of the barriers to emotional discharge which any particular client has accumulated will vary greatly. One client will go into a full-scale discharge of tears, laughter, anger, or heavy fear in response to the initial question, “What’s the problem?” Another may seem perfectly calm and controlled and incapable of releasing any tension under the most favorable conditions. In the second case, of course, the person has been so thoroughly interfered with in tense situations in childhood as to have adopted as their own, compulsively, the holding in of their discharges under conditions of tension. They are in the position of a person rolled tightly in a ball of string. They can help the counselor get them out of the inhibition or controls only very little at first. They need much skill, understanding, and patience, operating from the outside.
From page 24 of the Fundamentals of Co-Counseling Manual
(Present Time 204, July 2021)