Posted by mair on November 14, 2003, at 14:44:27
In reply to Worried about today's session, posted by Dinah on November 14, 2003, at 10:20:02
Dinah
How did things go? It sounds to me like the last session wasn't your therapist's finest hour. I went through this a while ago with my therapist who also decided that I maybe wasn't going to get anywhere unless she challenged me a bit more. I have the same problem as you described. When I feel "threatened" I tend to seize up and I have a great deal of difficulty talking. However if this frustrates my therapist, she does a very good job of hiding it, I think because she's so intent that I not make judgments about how I "do" in therapy. She pushes; I go as far as I think I can. I feel more comfortable telling her I'm having too much trouble talking and then we talk about that fairly neutrally. It's not perfect and I still have some pretty dreadful sessions, but I think she knows that I'm trying and I've come to appreciate her patience. It's not that she backs down; it's just that soem days maybe she doesn't push as hard as others. I think your therapist must understand how difficult this is or he wouldn't have suggested ratcheting things up. By the same token he needs the patience to understand that you're not going to transform yourself into a different person just because the 2 of you have agreed to try to take things to a different level.
Here's hoping for smoother sailing today.
Mair
poster:mair
thread:279699
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031114/msgs/279779.html