Posted by fallsfall on May 2, 2005, at 18:29:45
In reply to What do you talk about when everything's fine?, posted by crushedout on May 2, 2005, at 14:15:10
How nice to hear that you have no current crisis!!!
You might try to free associate. Maybe not in the strict sense, but using that kind of approach. To do this, don't plan what you will talk about, don't make a list of possible topics, just show up at therapy. When you get there, tell her you don't have a topic picked out, and that you are just going to talk for a little bit and see what comes out. Then talk. Don't try to make it make sense. Don't try to stay on whatever topic you start talking about. Just tell her what you are thinking (I usually start with "I have no idea what to talk about. I don't know what to do with that." etc. for a while.). When something pops into your head, say it. It doesn't matter if it seems trivial or unrelated or rude or anything.
Usually when I do this after about 5 or 10 minutes I end up talking about something. Or sometimes I will have talked about a couple of things, but (amazingly) they tend to tie together.
Some of my best sessions have been ones where I didn't have a topic when I went in.
This can take some practice, so don't expect it to be easy (don't expect to feel "successful" the first couple of times you try it). But just trying to be really honest (by telling her what you are really thinking about) can be important.
Congrats on being out of crisis!!!
poster:fallsfall
thread:492733
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050428/msgs/492849.html