Posted by fallsfall on March 24, 2004, at 22:19:31
In reply to CBT, attachment, and termination » fallsfall, posted by lonelygirl on March 24, 2004, at 21:08:54
I think that all therapy orientations recognize that termination is often a big deal to people. I know that my CBT therapist certainly did.
You are clearly trying hard to understand your attachment, and to understand your feelings about ending sessions with him. If a topic is important to you, then it is good to bring it up in therapy. You could ask if he thinks that stopping in May will be different than stopping would have been after 6 sessions.
>I guess my point is that I don't know how much good it would do to mention this to him, and maybe he would even get freaked out to know that it is such a big issue for me, and act like I'm weird because of it.
When you talk to your therapist about things that are "big issues" for you, often your therapist is able to help you understand *why* it is a big issue for you and what kinds of options you have for dealing with it. I don't think he would get freaked out - actually, I don't think that he would be surprised at all. Have you ever asked him why he thinks that you keep coming? It is certainly not weird to be attached to your therapist. That *is* one of the goals of therapy, to allow us to get attached and have a positive relationship. I think that if you start talking about the attachment with him that you will learn a lot. I also think that he can help make the end easier for you.
I agree that at the student health center he probably has few "long term" patients. But I'm sure that his training included a lot about terminations and endings and goodbyes. These subjects are very difficult for lots and lots and lots of people.
Try talking about it - I promise that it will be interesting.
poster:fallsfall
thread:327147
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040321/msgs/328013.html