Judith Viorst, who wrote Necessary Losses, first came into my life with another marvelous book - Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (available at Amazon or abebooks.com) in which a little boy has One Of Those Days, from waking up with gum in his hair to bedtime when the cat wanted to sleep with his brother, and not him. It's hilarious and real.

Yesterday T didn't have a client right before me. I was in her waiting room when she came rushing through, dashed outside, and rushed back to her office with a fleeting word. A few minutes later she did the same again. Later she told me that her last pen had run out of ink , and then she discovered that she had run out of Kleenex and it occurred to me that maybe my T was having a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

I was wondering, what else would constitute a Terrible Horrible for a therapist? For mine, it would be me coming in the door saying, I know your clock can't be fixed, and you really need one, so I have brought you a gift and I sure hope you like it [a clock that reads 'Kiss Me, I'm a Psychotherapist']."

any other ideas?