Posted by Penny on December 18, 2003, at 13:03:48
In reply to therapist moving away - panicking, posted by pegasus on December 18, 2003, at 12:51:59
First of all - welcome!
Ummm...do you have a new therapist lined up? I highly HIGHLY recommend this route. Terminating therapy is difficult I would imagine if you are ready to do so, but even more difficult when it's for other reasons, such as a move.
In my last session with my former T, she read me a letter she had written to me summing up our three years together. It was a nice, albeit emotional, way of bringing closure to the whole thing. Not that I didn't still cry like a baby both in the session and after, but closure is important and that's what it was.
Whatever the case, don't skip the last session - you need a last session with him.
I really hope you find a new therapist who can help you through this difficult time. Do you at least have someone else to be a support person for you? A pdoc maybe?
Another thought - try to think back over the past two years and look for the positives - the things he's helped you with - things you can hold onto. Are there things you can do without him to honor those positives? For example, if one of the things you got out of being in sessions with him was a feeling of safety and security, can you replicate that feeling by doing something else? Or do you need something so you feel like he's not completely gone from your life? When my former T went on maternity leave, she suggested that during our usual meeting time I do something 'special' to nurture myself - she knew I enjoyed going to Barnes & Noble, so she suggested that I go there and journal and have coffee or something in the cafe. Which, of course, led me to wonder what her favorite drink was, and she told me, so I ended up going several times and ordering *her* favorite drink and journaling and thinking about her. It helped me to feel close to her even though she wasn't available to me.
Of course, that was only a short-term separation, but it's a thought.
good luck and take care.
P
poster:Penny
thread:291313
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031213/msgs/291315.html