The Story of Jude

The true story, session by session, of a how a woman finds strength to overcome devastating loss and disability through her relationship with a rehabilitation counselor. The second part of the book discusses the ideas, attitudes and skills that the author engaged with Jude in their successful process of rehabilitation counseling.

While quietly mourning her husband on the very street corner where he was killed in a motorcycle accident, Jude was run down by an impaired driver who left her with a serious brain injury. As a result she lost the care of her children, legal autonomy, important aspects of her health, and sense of self. She was so angry that life had heaped these insults upon the indisputable fact of her rapidly advancing Huntington’s disease that she vehemently rejected offers of professional help – until she met Sol Mogerman, a counselor hired by her insurance company.

The first part of this book gives a session by session account of the counseling journey that led to Jude’s forgiveness of a world that injured her and acceptance of her place in it as bearer and example of unconditional love. The second part puts forth the ideas, attitudes and skills that Sol engaged with Jude in their successful process of rehabilitation counseling.

From the preface:

The exchange of energy between Jude Banks and myself over a year and a half of counseling therapy, where she was the client and I the counselor, produced results that noticeably changed the quality of her life for the better. Jude overcame seemingly insurmountable loss and bitterness to triumph in the end as a clear and emotionally healthy person.

Colleagues and people who knew Jude before and after her therapy asked me how I did it. This was an inquiry that I dared not directly answer, as the question of how I or the tools of my profession actually do anything that produces observable results is extremely complicated and obscured by the chemistry of human relationship. I believe one answer to the above question might be found on the interpretive side of the border between observable fact and creative inference. Therefore I have chosen to respond by writing my answer in the form of a story of our time together.”

From Session One:

Jude took one look at me through winky eyes, gave an open stump-toothed smile, and proclaimed "Angel Santa Claus!" Then she threw her arms around my neck, pulled me closer, tried to kiss me on the mouth, and playfully tugged at my beard with tobacco stained fingers. I felt like a lifesaver in her storm. It took some doing to unwind her arms and reclaim my personal space. After she settled down, Paul drove off and left us alone for our first session, which lasted for an hour and a half.”

From the Introduction to Part II

Rehabilitation: from the Latin re + habere, which translates to “back” + “have” or to “have back”.

As you can see from the story you have just read, your job as a rehabilitation counselor is to help your client “have back” an image of himself or herself as a whole and healthy person. This is a complex and subtle process that relies, in part, on intelligent, artful, and professional utilization of counseling attitudes and skills. PART II is written to help you better understand how these attitudes and skills were focused and practiced in the story of Jude’s rehabilitation and provides guidance that is applicable to all counseling situations.”

From Part II “The Structure and Nature of Teamwork”

Restoring a self-image inevitably varies from client to client for each injury, or combination of injuries, creates a unique response in an individual. Due to the fact that human beings have physical, social, familial, and spiritual relationships, rehabilitation must take place in a climate of cooperation with members of a multi-faceted team that is qualified to help a client come back to healthy function in all these worlds.”

Sol Mogerman, M.Sc., is a Registered Clinical Counsellor in private practice in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He is on the staff of Kia Ora Rehabilitation Services, teaches at City University, Vancouver Island Campus, and is the author of Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear (Inside Brain Injury) (People with Disabilities Press, (2001).