As a therapist, I have often worked with women who experience difficulties with sustaining friendship and partner relationships, leaving them struggling with feelings of helplessness, confusion, low self-esteem and sometimes self-hatred. One of the recurrent patterns I have noticed is that these women often describe a father who wasn’t able to help them develop a positive sense of self or foster a capacity to channel their anger and aggression productively and creatively in inner and outer relationships.

In popular culture this positive channeling of aggression is understood as the ability to maintain good boundaries. While this may seem readily achievable, good boundaries can only be developed and maintained if they are supported by an underlying resilient sense of self. Building this resilience, where there has been an absence, involves therapeutic work at depth.

In my practice I see both men and women who are looking to build this kind of resilient sense of self. However, in this presentation I focus on the father/daughter relationship, using the framework of the fairytale “The Handless Maiden” to amplify and explore themes that arise in this therapeutic work.

Katy Bannister is a psychotherapist working in private practice in Fremantle. She has a particular interest in working collaboratively with her clients at depth, to work with the underlying causes of repetitive patterns of behaviour, difficulties forming and keeping relationships, as well as feelings of stuckness, anxiety, meaninglessness and low self-esteem.

She has a MSSc in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Edith Cowan University and worked for a number of years in agency settings, including the YMCA’s LYNKS counselling program and Relationships Australia.

Katy has a long-standing interest in Jungian, post-Jungian and psychoanalytic thinking.

For more information about Katy’s practice please visit www.katybannister.com