Posted by pegasus on June 10, 2004, at 10:47:24
In reply to therapist vacation, posted by lifeworthliving on June 9, 2004, at 18:41:36
This type of attachment/dependency is so normal in therapy, but so uncomfortable! I could have written exacty what you wrote.
My understanding is that the attachment we form to our therapists is somehow like the attchments we form to good parents. Some of us never had a chance to form a normal, healthy attachment to our parents, and so the one we have in therapy is the first one we experience like that. The reason we attach to parents when we're little is because humans need that attachment to learn certain things, like self regulation of emotions, stress, physical problems, etc. It's hardwired into our species.
So, I guess the idea with attaching to our therapists is that we can use that attachment to learn certain things that we haven't been able to learn on our own (because there are a lot of things that humans just don't learn on their own). So, usually, therapists see attachment as a good thing.
This is all just what I've gleaned from reading and discussions with therapists. I'd be curious if anyone disagrees. But it makes sense to me this way, and this understanding makes the attchment itself seem less uncomfortable to me.
pegasus
poster:pegasus
thread:355217
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040603/msgs/355390.html