‘No. I mean, yes, sometimes. But mainly it’s just that nameless fear. That something will happen to one of them.’ Kate got up and stared out of a gap in the curtains into the dark night beyond. A mortal enemy about to storm the room. ‘And, I suppose, yes, fear of abandonment, I guess you might say, so much worse since my husband left.’

‘Understandably so.’

‘Yes.’ Kate watched the slow progress of a man with a selection of small dogs on leads. ‘It’s made worse every time I see my mother. In the last twenty-four hours alone, she has shifted from being kind, considered and thoughtful to spiteful and utterly poisonous, with a healthy dose of racism thrown in.’

‘Your mother is, by the sound of it, a very damaged woman.’

‘Yes, I see that.’

‘She cannot care for you because she is too busy wrestling with her own demons. That is the cycle you must break. As I said to you the other day, you must learn to reassure yourself.’

‘But if I know how toxic it is to see her – and, believe me, I do – then why do I always go? I can’t resist it.’

‘Your mother has always been a critical voice, when what you wanted – what any child needs – is reassurance and support. That is the paradigm. The more she denied you praise, love and assistance, the more you craved it. This is the essence of all emotional abuse. But this is the cycle we must break.’

‘Why don’t I just stop seeing her?’

‘It would make sense to restrict your visits for a while, but as your mother is unlikely to change, it is your psychology we must focus on, so that you see your mother for the sad and damaged woman she actually is, not the instrument of your torture.’

‘The thing is, I know that,’ Kate said, ‘but I haven’t been able to change the way I think and feel about it.’

‘That is the purpose of this process. I would like you to think about the serenity prayer – whether it’s a faith you follow or not is beside the point. O Lord, give me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can and the wisdom to know the difference. You cannot change your mother, or her behaviour, so you have no choice but to accept it. However, you can change the way you think and feel about it – and in so doing you will liberate yourself from the mental prison that the abuse has created for you.’

Kate sat down again. ‘I do understand,’ she said. ‘I’ve been trying to visualize the conversation you talked of and it does make sense. And about the time off work, I will think about it.’

‘Do. Or it may be taken out of your hands.’

Kate didn’t like the sound of that. ‘Will I get better?’