My T wants me to bring childhood pictures into session. He seems to find it very important, I'm feeling really reluctant and uncomfortable with it and am leaning towards 'no'. Have you ever refused homework/a direct request beneficial for your therapy? If so, what was it and how did it go?
It is totally OK to refuse a direct request or homework from one’s therapist. He likely has his reasons for thinking this might be beneficial to you, which is why he suggested it. That said, homework in therapy is not like it is in school where you have to do it to get a good grade. It’s really a prompt for exploration. The exploration can happen as a result of you completing the assignment (or in your case, bringing in the baby/child pictures). But it can also come about as a result of you sharing the strong feelings the assignment itself brought up for you.
You do not have to decide at this time to bring in pictures or forever refuse to do so. I would say the next step for you is to talk to him about the feelings—specifically that you’re feeling reluctant and uncomfortable with it. You don’t even have to know why at this point. Just tell him that’s what you’re feeling… and that’s what you two will explore, and move towards resolving for yourself, as well as deciding together whether to have you bring pictures at a later time or table that altogether and try something different.
My therapist has rarely assigned homework, but he has often encountered my resistance to his attempts to do therapeutic interventions with me. What he tells me is that the resistance is telling us something important, and that it needs to be understood and not just pushed through.
