Posted by Aphrodite on June 26, 2005, at 9:14:13
In reply to T comment about Babble, posted by gardenergirl on June 25, 2005, at 23:39:45
It's so interesting that you brought this up. I was struggling with the same notion.
I think All Done is right that it would depend on the number of times a week you see your T and how "available" he/she is to deal with any strong reactions between sessions.
I had stopped participating for a while b/c of a deep depression, but when I returned, I kind of felt the same thing. When I was getting things "out" here -- even if it was responding to the situations of others -- I was more calm and logical in sessions. I noticed a big difference from the open mess I was when I wasn't posting or reading. Good or bad? I don't know.
In a related problem, I think Babble has made me question my T and style of therapy. He's VERY unconventional (lots of unorthodox methods like energy therapy, EMDR, chakra work, autogenic training, meeting at childhood landmarks, etc.) that he is very proud of and I think works for me. I've brought up the board and how most T's do things, and he said that I have a "unique set of challenges" and that he has always found success being out-of-the-box. The more I was reading the board, the more I was questioning things like our sitting on the floor and meditating in his office. In response he said, "This therapy needs to be just between you and me." On his end, he said when he was consulting about my case with conventional licensed clinical psychologists, he said it made him question his instincts with me, so he resolved to stop consulting unless some crisis arose beyond his expertise. Likewise, he said I was doing the same by reading the experiences of others who may not have the same issues. He said my outside reading was causing me not to trust things that I reluctantly admit work and make me feel better.
Still, I don't know if I would have hung in with therapy in the beginning if I hadn't come here and gotten reassurances about all the strong reactions I've had to therapy. I certainly learned a great deal about the therapeutic relationship here that I don't find anywhere else.
I'll be interested in the results of your experiment. I wonder if Dr. Bob has run into this in his research.
poster:Aphrodite
thread:518993
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050622/msgs/519144.html