The Phobia In Phoebe! (Part I)

Phoebe was her name, smooth was her skin, sweet was her voice and great was her mind. Lest I should forget, lovely was her face, splendid was her heart and soignée was her style. She had a friend, Bridget who had phobia for bridges and Virginia who'd vowed to remain a virgin till her wedding night but was deflowered by a psychopath neighbour on a moonlit-night. How pathetic! Phoebe was a brilliant lawyer; she loved life and love but had phobia for snakes. Jasper was her fiancé, he was tall, cute and witty. An architect and real estate broker of class. He was well-travelled and loved snakeskin shoes.

When I see snake skin shoes
I 'see' snakes in the mortuary – but synthetic snakeskin is now their sanctuary.

She loved him; he loved her, but she couldn't cope with the relationship because of his love for snakeskin shoes. She eventually told him but he said it won't cost him anything to change his shoes but if he did it'd be a case of sympathy – I know how you feel: which proffers short-term solutions.

“I'd rather empathise with you. Empathy is about the golden rule. Paraphrased, 'I feel how you feel.' In a nutshell, if I were in your shoes, in all honesty what would I've loved? I'd prefer a long-term solution which would permanently eradicate my 'less-human' feelings, the feelings of inadequacy.”

In the Kingdom of Sense and Emotions, the mind had called feelings my 'child,' but feelings took offence: “The palm-wine tapper should never brag in front of the palm tree because he was nameless, jobless but for the palm tree.” The analogy was excellent but was he right? Maybe, maybe not!

Jasper advised her to go see her doctor because she was the one having a malady not the shoes. “You'll always come across snakes, real or unreal on TV, radio, social media so putting myself in your shoes I'd want a cure,” Jasper finalised. She had wanted him to sacrifice his shoes for their love but she knew that that wouldn't solve the problem. He had told her to choose a day so they could go see a clinical psychologist cum psychotherapist. So she loved him more and wanted to give him a surprise gift.

She went to see a clinical psychologist the next day. He was Dr. Kofi, a Ghanaian professor of Psychology and a practicing psychotherapist based in the US. He was genuinely concerned, gave her rapt attention and encouraged her to express her mind and feelings. In the end he counseled, encouraged and motivated her. “The fact that you visited x-rayed you'd like to subdue this challenge and subdue you will, I can assure you!' Dr. Kofi voiced confidently.

Peace kissed her mind, the French way and she was happy she'd visited! She was relieved and finally left. She came back the next day as instructed and Dr. Kofi told her he would give her three days to think about any encounter she had had with snakes most especially when she was but a child. “If you can't remember perhaps because you were too young then, please talk to your parents, uncles and people who knew you when you were a toddler or even younger.”

She ruminated throughout the day but couldn't she therefore called her parents. They tried to help particularly her mum but couldn't remember any incident. However, her mum woke up in the middle of the night. She hungrily, hurriedly grabbed her phone the way Jacob grabbed the angel in the bible. The phone hissed dejectedly; she sleeps when her boss was asleep. She called Phoebe at once!

Phoebe's cousin, Dudley was bitten by a snake many years ago and he never survived it. And again she remembers she read a story to Phoebe on how serpent made humanity offend God and how He pronounced enmity between snakes and man ... these were the ones she remembered.

On hearing the news, Phoebe and sleep were divorced in a law-court by the notorious judge, Anxiety! So early in the morning Phoebe was already in the hospital waiting for her therapist. “Good morning Phoebe, my instinct told me you've found it. Eureka!” Dr. Kofi voiced, she smiled! Women are excellent conversationalist and she never disappointed her colleagues.

She gave detailed account of the whole story to her caregiver. Her unconscious conflict was responsible for her malady! The rapport between Phoebe and Dr. Kofi was very refreshing, motivating and inspiring and that is very sacrosanct for psychotherapy to be effective in clients.

He administered psychotherapy on her. He brought to her awareness the cause of her malady and the cure needed. He empowered her mentally, emotionally and psychologically. He worked on her cognition, emotion and action and in the end she subdued her malady.

She finally divulged the good news to Japser at a Chinese restaurant in downtown New York. He hugged her in response and scripted a scene, “Friends, eat, drink; smile, laugh! I'll pay your bills! Today is my happiest day in life!”

She was a good friend for she referred her friends, Bridget and Virginia to Dr. Kofi and in the end, they became not only mentally sound, they enjoyed holistic health as well.

On her wedding day, she wore snakeskin shoes! Her wedding and marriage were awesome and wonderful!