Posted by Dinah on November 21, 2005, at 22:23:39
In reply to How long do you stay in therapy?, posted by sleepygirl on November 21, 2005, at 19:00:01
My therapist says that therapy can be different things to different people. And that support is a fine reason to continue therapy if it helps you function better in life. He's perfectly happy with my description of him as my therapist/mommy (though he usually changes it to therapist/mom) and my descriptions of my image of his milky breasts. Believe it or not. And even when I said the other day that I wondered if it was ok to feel comfy-cozy in therapy, he said he thought it was perfectly fine to feel comfy-cozy if I thought it helped the rest of my life go better.
Not all therapists are ok with long term supportive therapy, but if yours is, I don't think you need to feel bad about it.
Every once in a while for us, it seems we go through a patch where therapy is *about* the therapeutic relationship, and at those times it doesn't really seem helpful to my entire life. It may even seem disruptive to the rest of my life. I think the idea is that even those times are helpful because you're having the same sort of troubles with your therapist that you have with others in your life. And learning to change your interactions in therapy can change your interactions outside therapy.
I'm not sure that's always true.
poster:Dinah
thread:580988
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051118/msgs/581076.html