#ifs
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What do you do when your upset turns to anger towards your therapist? I feel I don’t want to see him again as ill get upset again. I want to give up.
I think you write down the feelings, let yourself feel them, and then when you go to your next session you let your therapist know how you’re feeling, including that it’s directed at him. Regardless of
Are there issues in your life, seemingly, unbearable/unsustainable? Are you actively working on these particular issues, in therapy, or holding back?
This answer is very much colored by having already spent several hours in Internal Family Systems training. So one of my issues is that I feel this very visceral terror around losing M or losing our connection
Should a psychodynamic therapist hold back, reveal very little, refrain from offering reassurance and provide little validation? Must a client endure the painful reenactment, in order to heal the oldest wounds?
Maybe if the client enjoys being tortured. Even then, not a good idea. Some clients self harm. Doesn't mean the therapist should encourage it. If your therapist is doing this to you please find a new one!
Does your family and friends know about severity of your mental health problems? How to explain to them your struggels if all the time you were trying to hide the depth of your problems to everyone even to therapist?
I’m taking it slowly as far as telling friends and family about my mental health problems and the extent to which they have shaped my life. I’m pretty transparent about the fact that I have them if we’re
If we end our psychodynamic psychotherapy prematurely, is our therapist permitted to show sadness? The client/patient might wish for some display. Should a therapist’s personal feelings remain hidden, even then?
I think this is one of those questions where the answer is so client dependent that there isn’t one right answer. I’ll answer it for myself but my answer won’t necessarily be right for everyone. The only
If I have transference & my therapist has counter transference, then does that often mean termination of therapy & my T will refer me to someone else?
I’m a client so I would give more weight to any answers provided by therapists on this matter. Transference from the client towards the therapist should not be a concern or weigh heavily or at all in this
If we cannot fully internalize the psychotherapeutic relationship, even though we love our therapist, should we step away? Or, is this reason enough for remaining in therapy indefinitely?
It doesn’t necessarily have to be either one of those scenarios. The best place to begin is by sharing your concerns with your therapist. Talk to him about how you love him but have not yet fully internalized
Can we be fixated on changing our therapist, all while enjoying normal and healthy relationships outside of therapy? Is this near obsession likely the maternal transference, or something else?
If you are feeling fixated on changing your therapist, then I would recommend you speak to your therapist about that. There is something coming up for you in that relationship, and I suspect that comes
What are your thoughts if your psychodynamic therapist says “we could be great friends”? I assume he means if circumstances were different. I realize it will never actually happen. He has always been appropriate so I’m not concerned about that.
Since we humans are relational creatures the point of therapy is to help us have better relationships. We usually enter therapy having suffered from relationship wounds of various kinds. The therapeutic
In therapy, how should we begin the mourning process for the death of a parent? The relationship was a most difficult one. We dread unearthing a slew of complex emotions.
I don’t think there is a right or wrong way to approach this in therapy. I think you work with whatever is coming up in a given session. One thing to know about difficult relationships—the mourning after
For long-term therapy clients/patients, those working solely with one therapist, would you consider ending this alliance? In what circumstances might you begin a new therapeutic relationship?
I’m not currently entertaining any thoughts about ending my therapeutic alliance but it has been discussed between us fairly recently. When I began to understand that I have borderline personality disorder
My therapist asked me to imagine my emotionally neglectful father being everything I needed him to be in order for me to heal. I can’t do this. Is this necessary for me to heal or can I try something else? I feel like don’t need a fairytale!
I want to help you take a step or two back from this situation and look at it from a certain perspective that I think might be helpful to try out. One thing to keep in mind is that in therapy any kind
Is it possible that a therapist (unconsciously) reacts bad to the fact that he knows that a client is going to be a therapist too (this client = me and I never talk like a "no-it-all" - I obviously don't..)?
It’s certainly possible in the sense that anything like that is possible when there are humans involved! Assuming that you are working with a competent therapist, I would put my money on it’s your stuff
For any client who writes in the various therapy spaces on Quora, do you ever feel like the time might be better spent working on your own therapy? I won't be coy, I sometimes do.
This is my way of working on my own therapy! When I've gained a lot of insight and achieved a lot of growth in between sessions from sharing my experiences with others here and learning about their
Is there any kind of therapy that incorporates counselling with touch? I’m desperately touch-starved and need more than my psychologist can offer. I need some kind of therapy where I can be hugged or at least have my hand held.
I did not think there was, and would be inclined to point out the problems associated with things like hugs and other forms of touch in therapy that others have pointed out. And then over the summer I