Beth was transferred to the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital from a psychiatric clinic in her home town. She was accompanied by a co-worker on the plane flight, and arrived in the evening. I did not meet her until the next morning, but I knew beforehand that she was suicidal, had an eating disorder, and had had several short-term hospitalizations with no significant or lasting improvement.

When I met her the next day I found a small, very slight built women of middle age who was cordial, but wary and despondent. She had only come for a short stay, she said, and only because she had been told Sheppard had people who were experts in eating disorders. I knew she had been admitted to our hall because of its long-term orientation. In the following initial interviews we both became somewhat more comfortable with each other; she expressed the beginnings of some trust in me as a person hoping to help, I felt fairly safe in the predictable structure of early assessment. It was still early.