Millennium Girl

Something was missing in Sarah's life...a "void." For as long as she could remember there it was...the longing...the emptiness...the need. As a child and well into her adolescence she was very lonely. She struggled, as most adolescents do, with her sense of identity and her place in the world. Her fragile emergence into adulthood is shattered by the sudden onslaught of a ravaging, chronic illness (Lupus) that initially causes the amputation of her right leg. This enables her to bury the "void"...bury it under her determination to build herself a "normal" life in spite of the considerable physical disadvantage that she found herself. This determination also enabled her to never really deal with the loss of her limb, her health, or her childhood dreams.

The main theme of the story focuses on the relationship between patient (Sarah) and a therapist (Carolyn). During the first five years their relationship was appropriate, professional, and therapeutic with definite boundaries between patient and therapist. For Sarah, Carolyn seemed to have all the answers. She seemed to understand all about Sarah's troubled soul. Carolyn taught Sarah the difference between her thoughts and her feelings. She taught Sarah how to feel those feelings. But as the months went by, Carolyn's kind compassionate, gentle caring became like a drug to Sarah. A drug that finally seemed to fill the emptiness of the "void"...quench the burning longing. Carolyn not only had all the answers...she WAS the answer! And somewhere along the road they traveled the transference experienced by Sarah and the counter-transference experienced by Carolyn led them onto a path that deteriorated into a dangerous, destructive, and totally inappropriate relationship. A personal relationship developed between the two with no clear boundaries between them.

Somewhere within, Sarah knew her relationship with Carolyn was not right. But, blinded by her obsessive need for Carolyn's affection and approval, she turned a deaf ear to the little voice that tried to tell her...tried to warn her. "No! Carolyn knows what she's doing!" Of that she was absolutely sure. Carolyn lead the way...and Sarah followed. They would be together forever. Carolyn promised, and Sarah believed...until "forever" came to an end.

This is an immensely useful and interesting case study for any aspiring therapist/counselor to read, reflect, and respond to in their own professional training process. For the consumer, the prospective "patient," it is an invaluable education in how to recognize if and when they are falling into an inappropriate therapeutic relationship, how to take charge of the relationship, and how NOT to become a victim of it. In general, the manuscript leaves no doubt about the correct reasoning behind the medical professional's "Prime Directive" of no personal involvement in their patients' lives and the absolute necessity of the strictest adherence to this rule.