The fact that story isn’t important will likely be surprising to clients. They may be used to conventional talk therapies that give a great deal of time to talking through what happens.
Because of this, clients may naturally go into describing stories. Let’s say we ask the client to think of something that makes them anxious. They might launch into the story, telling us who did what, to whom, and when. This story-telling can often take a very long time. However, for the sake of the Odoki Method, it is simply not relevant.
All we need is to know that the client can bring the situation to mind. Therefore, in a break with conventional therapies, it will likely be necessary to interrupt the client. “That’s very interesting, but I’m interested in something slightly different…” It is important that the client feels respected when this is done.
The attitude driving this interruption is not that the practitioner has something more important to say, but rather that the practitioner is interested in a different aspect of the client’s experience. Thus, dispite being interrupted, the client can still very much feel that the practitioner is actively engaged with them.