What disability adds to the relational dynamic

• A power imbalance that already exists in any therapy relationship, now layered with disability-related power dynamics from outside the room
• Projections — victim, hero, burden, saint — that can arrive before either person has said much at all
• A client’s accumulated experience of professionals who didn’t listen, brought into the room as a live expectation
• Countertransference around the therapist’s own vulnerability, dependence, and mortality

Symbolic space, before anyone speaks

What meanings does disability carry before anyone speaks?

Visible disability changes a room’s symbolic space before the clinical work even starts. The task isn’t to pretend that projection disappears through good intentions — it’s to notice it, name it when useful, and keep making room for the actual person underneath whatever story got projected onto them.

A reflexive question worth returning to

Where do I locate vulnerability, dependence and mortality in myself?