Posted by fallsfall on August 14, 2004, at 14:14:02
In reply to TOV club: question for fist session back, posted by gardenergirl on August 14, 2004, at 7:52:51
This is what I did for my first session after his vacation. It worked pretty well.
That morning I printed out all of the posts/emails/IMs I had written during his vacation - but I didn't read them. This gave me an idea of what the topics might be, reminded me of what had happened. I didn't read them because I didn't want to get all upset before I saw him, and I wanted to feel what was important at the time of my session, rather than what was important during his vacation.
When I got to his office, I had the printouts, but I put them on the floor. I told him in general how I had been and gave some specifics. I figured that what I remembered to talk about would be the most important stuff to talk about. And it really did work that way. I had had a pretty hard time while he was gone, so the first session was mostly letting me know that he was back and that I had survived.
I used to make detailed lists for sessions, but my current therapist doesn't like me to do that. He does believe that what needs to come up will come up, and the less I plan the sessions the more likely we are to end up where we "need" to be.
It's a pretty foreign way to approach things for me, but it is getting easier with practice.
poster:fallsfall
thread:377489
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040812/msgs/377632.html