Read this article in the original French: Les deux vélos
The Two Bicycles - a client transcript
Arielle von Saenger-Bardouin
A young woman whom I had
previously facilitated
using Symbolic Modelling, calls me asking for an appointment. She
tells me she has a problem with her 3-year old son: she is pregnant
and her son gets angry and hits her almost every day. The appointment
is set at my home, a country house with a garden where toys are
available, among which are two bicycles: a blue one and a yellow
one.
First appointment, June 2004
On the agreed day, the mother and
the son arrive.
Getting out of the car, the young boy glances at the bicycles.
Facilitator: (to the
boy) Where would you like to be, here (near the bicycles), in the
office, or in the garden? (pointing to each place with my
hand)
Boy: (he looks in
the garden's direction while holding first the blue bicycle, then the
yellow one).
F: Would you like to take the
bicycle to the
garden?
B: (he nods, then tries to push
the blue bicycle
but he cannot move it forward)
F: Would you like me to carry
this bicycle?
B: (he nods)
F: (I take the bicycle down the
stairs to the
garden and lean it against a low wall while the boy stays standing by
the yellow bicycle upstairs; then I go back to the boy) Would you
like me to carry this one too? (pointing to the bicycle)
B: (he nods, walks to the top of
the stairs and
waits for me)
F: (I pick up the second bicycle
and follow the
boy downstairs until we are both in the garden) Where would you like
me to put it?
B: (he points to a part of the
low wall next to
the blue bicycle)
F: (I lean the bicycle at the
place indicated) Is
it alright like that?
B: (he looks at both bicycles,
then moves the blue
one further away against another low wall on the other side of the
garden; he looks at the yellow bicycle that remained against the
first low wall, then he walks back to it, picks it up and moves it
next to the blue one, keeping the same relative positions and
orientations against the wall: blue bicycle first, yellow bicycle
second)
F: (I have been following him,
replicating his
gestures: moving, stopping, hesitating)
At this point, the boy goes round
the garden
several times repeating the same process of moving the blue bicycle
to a new place and then going back to the yellow one and moving it
behind the blue one. All along, I keep replicating instantaneously
his gestures and following him. On the fifth time of running this
process, the boy moves the bicycles back against the wall where they
had been initially placed. In the meantime, the mother had come and
sat nearby.
Mother: (she looks
at her son) It's hard (she pauses)
F: (to the mother) Would you like
me to facilitate
you now?
M: Yes (her breathing becomes
more relaxed)
F: (to the boy) I am a little
with your mum now,
is it alright with you?
B: (he nods and stands leaning
against his
mother's shoulder)
F: (to the mother) Where would
like me to
sit?
M: (pointing to a chair) Here is
fine.
For about fifteen minutes, I ask
basic cCean
Language questions to the mother. However, I keep paying attention to
the boy, watching for any sign from him. Then the boy walks a few
steps away from his mother, stops and looks at her. As she looks back
at him, he goes a few steps farther and notices a red plastic
ball.
B: Oh, the ball! (he runs to get
it)
F: (to the mother) I am going
with him. Is it
alright with you?
M: Yes (and she looks at the boy)
I move next to the boy and, for
about five
minutes, I replicate his gestures and movements: picking the ball,
throwing the ball, going to get it again, smiling, laughing. Then,
noticing a decrease in the intensity in the boy's laughs and knowing
that the time for the session was nearly up, I stop replicating the
gestures. The boy then walks back to the place where he last threw
the ball from, with the ball in his hand, and looks at me.
F: (to the boy) It's time to end
this game
now.
B: (he squeezes the ball against
his belly)
F: (pointing to the ball with the
hand,
replicating the gesture of pressing) Would you like to take it with
you?
B: (he nods)
The mother stands up and begins
to put away the
bicycles. The boy immediately goes to the bicycles and put his hand
on the one the mother was about to move, so the mother lets go of
it.
F: (to the boy) Would you like to
have the
bicycles stay right here?
B: (he nods)
F: Alright.
The boy walks to the car,
pressing the ball
tightly against him, and waits for his mother at the car's door. The
mother follows him and they leave.
Second appointment, August 2004
Fifteen days after the mother's
second baby was
born, she called me to set another appointment, which the boy had
requested twice. On the agreed day, the mother, the baby and the boy
arrive. The boy has the red ball he had taken last time in his
hand.
B: (as he gets out of the car,
the boy looks at
the place where the bicycles were when he first came) Where are the
bicycles?
F: The bicycles are in the garage
(pointing to the
garage).
B: (he looks in the direction I
pointed to)
F: Would you like to go and see
them?
B: Yes.
I go into the garage, followed by
the boy. He
moves towards and picks up the blue bicycle and looks outside.
F: Would you like to take it out?
B: Yes. (he pushes the blue
bicycle for a few
steps, stops, looks at the yellow one and then looks at me)
F: Would you like me to take this
one out?
(pointing to the yellow one)
B: Yes. (smiling)
I take the yellow bicycle and
follow him to the
top of the stairs above the garden. After asking for his agreement, I
take both bicycles downstairs and he follows me. As I hold the
bicycles standing in the garden, the boy goes to where he had found
the ball and puts it back there, then he goes to the blue bicycle,
takes it and leans it against the low wall where he had left it last
time. Then, he comes back to me &endash; I haven't moved
&endash;,
takes the yellow one and puts it behind the blue one.
From that point, he starts the
same process as
during the first session, successively checking the same places in
the same sequence around the garden, each time putting the blue
bicycle in front of the yellow one. However, during this second
session, he moves more quickly and with a smile on his face. Like the
first session, I am beside him, replicating his gestures and
movements. As he moves the blue bicycle back towards the initial
place, he stops near me and looks back at the yellow one, hesitating.
I extend my arms to hold the blue bicycle for him; he releases it and
walks to the yellow one. When he comes back with the yellow bicycle,
he lays it down on the grass.
B: It is asleep.
F: (looking at the yellow
bicycle) And it is
asleep.
B: Yes, it is tired. (then he
looks at the blue
bicycle I am still holding standing)
F: Ah, it is tired. (I look at
the yellow one and
then I look at the blue one)
B: (he comes to the blue one,
takes it and lays it
over the yellow one) It is asleep too.
F: It is asleep too. And when it
is asleep too,
what happens to (pointing to the yellow one)?
B: (he looks at yellow one, then
at blue
one)
F: (I replicate looks) And when
it is asleep too,
is it fine for (pointing to yellow one)?
B: Yes.
F: And yes. And when it is asleep
too, is it fine
for (pointing to blue one)?
B: (he nods)
F: And (replicating
nodding). And can (I turn
to blue one) be asleep too?
B: Yes. (after a short while, he
lifts the blue
bicycle up)
It is done with sleeping. (he
moves it to the
initial place, leans it against the wall and stands by it)
F: And it is done with sleeping.
B: (he leaves the blue bicycle
and goes to sit on
another part of the wall from where he faces the yellow one; he
stares at the bicycle then at me, straight in the eyes)
Her name is Eva, she's my little
sister.
A long pause follows. Then the
boy looks again at
the yellow bicycle, and so do I. He looks up towards the house,
stands up and goes to his mother who is inside with the baby. I
follow him. The boy leans against his mother who is sitting in an
armchair, her baby asleep on her lap. She hugs him and strokes him
with her hand. Very long pause with exchanges of looks between the
mother and I.
Before leaving, the boy picks two
round cones from
under a cypress tree and waits for his mother at the car door. He
sits inside and holds the cones on his lap. Then they leave.
Epilogue
The next day the mother calls me,
as I had
suggested with a gesture when she was looking at me inquiringly while
waving goodbye. She wants to talk about the session. It is important
for me to offer her the structure of the session without disclosing
its content (i.e. the boy's words). I explain that the play with
bicycles has enabled her son to integrate the presence of his little
sister. Responding to this, she tells me about her difficulty in
playing with him and remembers that he had often asked her to do so,
in particular with two plastic toy motorbikes. She had not been able
to dedicate time to this play until then and is feeling ready to
somewhat do so now.
A month later, towards end
September, the mother
and I meet 'by accident'. She tells me how much her son is calmer
now, that he is asking to go to school and that he is talking about
his little sister and calling her by her name ...
© Arielle von
Saenger-Bardouin,
2004
Translation assisted by Eric von
Saenger in La
Bouvetière, Normandy, November 2004
Arielle lives near Manosque, in
Provence, France,
and can be contacted via
this web site.
First published on this site 21
December 2004