In a somewhat similar vein, one of our group therapists at my recent trauma programme was extremely passionate about the virtues of deep, controlled breathing as a means of regulating intense emotions and lowering anxiety. A sound enough theory and practice, for sure. So passionate was she about this technique that it seemed she could not go longer than a few minutes without mentioning it, and when I say mention, I rather mean an extremely animated, exclaimed reference to it, something along the lines of "just breeeeeeaaaaaaathe girls!" which she would utter to the group, along with demonstrating this phenomena with such zeal that I felt dizzy and lightheaded just listening to her.
Needless to say, it was at first amusing, and ultimately somewhat irritating, a fact which was not lost on any of us. A rather disruptive core group of participants took it upon themselves to count the number of times per session that she referred to this, and to take it in turns to shout out the running total each time it rose by another 10 counts. Muffled cries of "10", "20", "30", etc, were thus heard throughout our next few sessions, along with accompanying snickering and snorting from those close enough to have heard, or those who anticipated the outcry.
Yes, it was incredibly childish, equally as irritating after a time, yet undeniably amusing, whether or not the rest of us chose to acknowledge it. It was made even more so by the fact that the therapist at first (albeit briefly) seemed to perceive the snickering as a mark of enthusiastic response, and became even more animated in her display.
To her credit, she took the joke well when it revealed itself to her and used the opportunity to further emphasise the importance of "breeeeaaaaaathing". If nothing else, her behaviour certainly had the desired impression of leaving an impact, and to this day, I am reminded of her flamboyance, and in turn of her advice, whenever I am feeling distressed, so on that score, she was very effective in her method and delivery.
Maddog
