Posted by Emily Elizabeth on November 8, 2005, at 10:22:38
In reply to How much, how soon?, posted by Dinah on November 8, 2005, at 9:43:11
Hmmm. That is a tough one. I'm just going to type out all of the possibilities running through my brain in case something helps, k?
1. You could say something to her like, "I know how helpful it is to be open in therapy, but at the same time, there are many difficult things that have happened in my life and I don't feel comfortable sharing them all right away. I will do my best to share what might be helpful when seems like it would be helpful, but I wanted you to know that it might take me some time to put it all out there."
2. Make sure to weigh how much of your hesitancy to share might be you harshly judging yourself. Do you think you will be judged b/c you judge your own actions (and perhaps another person, esp a T, might not). I know I fall into this a lot. I'm terrified to say something to my T, but then she reacts positively and it is not nearly as shameful as I expected it to be.
3. With some things perhaps you could say, "I think that telling you about [general topic] could be really helpful, but I'm not really comfortable sharing the details right now. I wanted you to know that [topic] has happened, but the details will need to come out when I am ready."
4. Remember that you are the one in charge of your life. No one has a right to have info that you don't want them to have, even a T. Not all T's agree with that, but many do. Actually, there is some published research how clients w/ secrets actually do just fine in therapy.
Hope that there is a shred of something useful in there. ;) Please let us know how things go w/ T3 (that keeps making me think of the thyroid).
Best,
EE
poster:Emily Elizabeth
thread:576676
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051107/msgs/576693.html