This discussion, focused on clinical material presented from the early phase of Renee's therapy with Lucyann Carlton, considers the immense challenges for both parties as they start a perilous journey together into the “dark woods” of a shattered person's inner world. The residue of profound privations, exploitations, misrecognitions, and abuses has required Renee to erect barriers to human connection. The metaphor of the Metal Box, rendered in Renee's poem and carried forward in resonant dream images, indicates the delicacy with which the therapist must embody a nonintrusive presence. We witness therapist and patient adjusting to being with each other and the first signs of potential for deepening work. We emphasize the therapist's vital function of holding hope without expectation.