I need help with some guidance about how to deal with my client [name withheld] who calls me at least once a week wanting me to work on her family and clients she thinks she is sending me, who almost never follow through in wanting services, many of whom I do sessions for simply because I can and it seems the right thing to do. I am concerned about her starting to adopt a menacing tone and I really want to be free of her for the safety of myself and my family. Will anything be gained by my calling her to reassure her I will continue to do regular sessions for her and her family but don’t need her calls and don’t need her attempts to recruit clients for me?

Your best course is to remain neutral here and ignore her as best you can. While this could be viewed as hostile and would not be universally endorsed, we see this as the lesser of evils, that through simply being inattentive she eventually will move on and fixate on someone else, as she has done through a series of such would-be helpers. All she approach do their best to try and help but none gets results and you are now in that category, but she will not let go because your message is so high-level and she perceives this and cannot understand why she is not included in the many blessings you are seeming to bring to the world. If you interact with her, she will not truly listen and understand your words and get the message you wish to convey. She will either continue acting as before and your message will not have sunk in and be given any weight, or she will view your attempt to disengage with suspicion that perhaps her darker fears are warranted after all, that you have been harming her or attempting to do so and this is simply revealing your darker side through rejecting her. This is clearly a no-win situation, and so the best approach would be to avoid contact altogether. Then you cannot be blamed for what she might do or not do, as you have not been involved with her, or on record with any attempt to influence her, which could look bad for you because she has quite a long history of mental illness on record, and justifiably diagnosed as such by a number of physicians. So you are on dangerous ground for more than one reason here. We still do not see her as a danger, more of a nuisance. But you are correct in wanting to disengage as you can still help her and not be distracted from her frequent entreaties that are highly impassioned and can begin to turn accusatory. This is most unfortunate and we are doing what we are allowed to do to bring help her way. Her main obstacle is herself. This we have told you and will not change quickly. This is a long-term healing proposition and that is why you are best served by not being a part of her life directly, so as to be dragged along and sharing her frustration for years and years to come.