I saw Jane for four sessions related to her driving test.
On the first session we tapped on the fact that she had already failed 11 times.
We covered a lot of aspects
I must be stupid,
I will never pass “etc.
It will be the same old story
After we got this down to 0 we worked on thinking about doing her driving test.
This brought up many interesting aspects.
Before Jane could do her test, she needed to apply for it. This involved making a phone call to the driving test department.
Jane has a very slight speech impediment. We tapped on
I am no good on the phone
They won’t understand me and then I will feel awful
It’s embarrassing. I will need to call my sister to finish the call and they will know I am stupid.
We worked on some previous situations where these fears had already happened.
When we got it down to 0 we finished the session.
When Jane came back for session two she had booked her test and she had made the call without any assistance from her sister.
The main focus of the second session was on
Meeting the instructor
Answering the questions about what is under the bonnet
Hearing the door close and being alone in a car with a male.
We then worked on some sexual abuse issues.
At the beginning of session three my husband met her and role played the instructor asking her the questions about the mechanics of the car .
Session three then focused on actually driving the route.
One big thing was coping with the silence of the instructor and her feeling of anxiety when he used his pen.
Jane assumed she had done something wrong when he would use his pen.
Then we focused on the parts of the route she found difficult, driving through a pedestrian crossing, traffic lights etc.
Session four took place the evening before the test and I went around the route with her. She was very nervous for the first 5 minutes I was in the car.
I could see her knuckles gripping the wheel.
However she relaxed and drove very confidently around the route.
Next day she successfully passed her driving test
Helen Mc Crarren is an holistic psychotherapist based in Monaghan Ireland .
Her website address is WWW.learntoolsthatwork.com
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