Resistance to Taking Medication

The therapist in this case was a trainee provocative therapist, and the therapy session was carried out as part of training during a PT training course.  The trainee is also a medical practitioner in General Practice.  The client, Julie, is a diabetic  She suffers from mild, maturity-onset diabetes, and to control this she needs to take one tablet each day. 

Julie's problem was that taking the tablet each day was proving too much for her– many times, she would realise that she had not taken the medication she needed– and that she really didn't want to take it. 

The therapist said that, of course, he quite understood why Julie would want to resist being told that she needed to take her medication every day.  In fact, he thoroughly approved of her independent nature.
What she really needed, he went on, was a way to really express her very admirable contempt for the medication, and for the medical profession in general. 

Every day, he said, she should make a point of ceremoniously holding her tablet over the toilet, dropping it into the bowl, and flushing it away.  (This simple suggestion mirrored the truth about her non-compliance to the client in a way that no stern admonition could possibly have done.) 

Three months later, the client was emailed, and asked for permission to put this case study onto this website.  She emailed back giving permission, and the following is a quote from that email:

"Absolutely– it (PT) must go on, it was a fantastic exercise, and I have been taking the meds every day since the second flush.  I have taken them out of hiding so that they are everywhere in case I forget!"

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