Psychotherapy Nicole Chew-Helbig Singapore

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Psychotherapy and Counselling in Singapore

A case illustration with therapist Dan and client Jack

Context

Dan is an experienced therapist.
Jack has been in therapy with him for some time.

Jack is thoughtful, articulate, and psychologically informed. He reads widely, researches extensively, and comes to sessions with new ideas and frameworks. Yet despite insight and motivation, his life outside therapy remains largely unchanged.

Sessions have begun to feel repetitive.

· Jack speaks about plans, intentions, and understanding.

· Dan listens, reflects, and supports.

· Both leave sessions with a sense of “having talked well” — but without movement.

Jack expresses frustration:

“I understand all this. I just don’t do anything with it.”

Dan begins to notice something else:

· a familiar circularity,

· a subtle flattening of affect,

· a sense of polite engagement without risk.

Nothing is wrong — but nothing is alive.

The Therapist’s Dilemma

Dan recognises a common clinical danger zone:

· insight without contact,

· reflection without mobilisation,

· thinking that replaces acting.

Yet he also notices his own participation:

· he has been responding intelligently,

· helping Jack refine understanding,

· inadvertently colluding with the same pattern.

Dan does not feel stuck in a dramatic way.
He feels quietly stalled.

This is precisely the kind of moment FieldNotes was designed for.

Using FieldNotes After the Session

After one such session, Dan writes a raw narrative into the app. He does not tidy it.

He includes:

· Jack’s frustration about “not doing”,

· his own sense of flatness,

· the feeling that the session was “clean but lifeless”,

· his observation that Jack talks about life rather than from it.

Dan generates:

· the full structured output, and

· a reflection / supervision view.

What FieldNotes Reflected Back

1. The Repetition Was Not the Problem

The reflection did not treat repetition as failure.

Instead, it framed repetition as information:

· something in the field was stabilisin movement was being contained,

· contact was being approached but not crossed.

This immediately shifted Dan’s stance:

“Ah. This isn’t a lack of insight. It’s a lack of contact.”

2. Skirting Contact — Together

The output highlighted a subtle relational pattern:

· Jack stayed in thinking, researching, planning.

· Dan stayed in attuned listening and conceptual reflection.

· Neither challenged the between.

They were skirting contact, not avoiding it consciously, but circling it safely.

Importantly, the app did not place this solely on Jack.

It named Dan’s participation:

· his responsiveness,

· his comfort with reflective dialogue,

· his own reluctance to interrupt a “good session.”

This mattered.

3. Field Parallels with Jack’s Family Life

The reflection tentatively linked this pattern to Jack’s broader relational field.

In Jack’s family:

· discussion substitutes for decision,

· intelligence substitutes for agency,

· harmony substitutes for confrontation.

No one “acts wrongly” — but nothing changes.

Dan recognises this immediately.
Not as a diagnostic insight, but as a field resonance.

What Dan Did Differently Next

Dan does not confront Jack with an interpretation.

He does not introduce a new technique.

Instead, guided by the FieldNotes reflection, he changes how he is present.

In the Next Session

When Jack begins to speak in his familiar way — reflective, informed, distant — Dan slows the moment.

He says something simple:

“As you’re talking right now, I notice we’re thinking very clearly — and I’m not feeling much movement between us. What are you aware of in your body as you say this?”

This is not a strategy.
It is a contact intervention.

Jack pauses.
He is uncomfortable.
Silence enters.

Something shifts.

The Resulting Movement

Jack reports a tightening in his chest.
A familiar feeling: pressure without direction.

For the first time in weeks, they stay with it.

No reading.
No planning.
No explanation.

Just contact.

Dan notices:

· more aliveness,

· less fluency,

· more risk.

The session feels shorter — and fuller.

What Changed Was Not Jack’s Insight

Jack already had insight.

What changed was:

· the relational field,

· Dan’s willingness to interrupt repetition,

· the invitation to act in the moment, not later.

Over subsequent sessions:

· Jack begins to notice how often he substitutes thinking for action,

· not as a flaw, but as a relational survival pattern.

· Small actions emerge — imperfect, hesitant, real.

How Dan Now Uses FieldNotes

Dan does not use FieldNotes after every session.

But when:

· sessions feel repetitive,

· he feels bored, flat, or “too competent,”

· progress feels stalled without obvious resistance,

he uses the app to ask:

“How am I participating in this field?”

FieldNotes has become:

· a mirror, not a map,

· a prompt, not a prescription,

· a way to detect repetition before burnout or disengagement sets in.

Why This Case Matters

This case illustrates a core principle of FieldNotes:

Repetition is not a client problem.
It is a field phenomenon.

And fields shift when therapists shift.

The app does not fix therapy.
It helps the therapist notice where contact has gone quiet — and choose to re-enter it differently.

Closing Reflection

If you recognise Dan’s experience:

· the “good” sessions that go nowhere,

· the intelligent clients who don’t move,

· the sense of doing therapy well but not deeply,

FieldNotes is not there to tell you what to do.

It is there to help you ask:

“Where am I standing in this field — and what might happen if I moved?”

Psychotherapy and Counselling in Singapore

FieldNotes by NikHelbig User Manual -Part 3 Case Study 1

A case illustration with therapist Dan and client Jack

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