The therapeutic work, while respecting the pain that patients bring, has the specific task of recovering, continually, traces of life which live with the suffering. It’s about transforming into "absence" what patients bring to us as unsustainable "emptiness". Then, through the intensity of the "relational field", a few frozen frames can develop into richer stories always. Therapists know they are not a collection of patients, but rather they are an intersection of infinite number of stories. Therapists are placed at the intersection point where some stories seem dull or ended up and they can only use their curiosity and passion to go gently into a space apparently empty. The therapists then will not seek traces of a past life, but suspended or potential movements of: photos, records, letters that John May finds in the homes he visit are not important to get information about the case, but let activate again processes during which meeting characters who keep alive and still continue a story seemingly over. Like in every therapy that succeds, life will touch and transform John May.
Keywords: Still Life; Absence; Vacuum; Dissociative Process; Photographs; Cinema; Psychotherapy; Death.