This article describes the psychotherapeutic work, conducted within a psychodynamic-systemic framework, with a patient experiencing difficulties in communicating her emotional states. In the first year of therapy, the patient complained of deteriorating relationships in her personal and professional life. She was also troubled by a feeling of emptiness, which she believed was responsible for her inability to experience pleasure. I explore the development of the patient's difficulties by combining an understanding of intrapsychic phenomena with an analysis of her interpersonal domain, particularly her family dynamics. Survival was paramount for the patient in childhood, leaving her no opportunity to develop an internal space for self-understanding. She learned to marginalize and camouflage her suffering, which manifested as relational and emotional crises - an unintegrated internal voice she could not hear or accept. Based on the premise that thoughts too difficult to process can cause chaotic experiences, I assisted the patient in creating an internal space for reflection and conscious choice-making. Initially, she struggled to speak about herself and wished to withdraw from therapy. The analysis of transference and countertransference, especially the therapist's somatic countertransference, was crucial for understanding and sustaining the therapeutic process.