Posted by daisym on December 22, 2005, at 22:35:54
In reply to Re: Gift Giving » daisym, posted by orchid on December 22, 2005, at 21:09:07
My therapist has often admitted to encouraging my attachment. He dislikes the word dependency because it has negative connotations...he talks a lot about people being interdependent. We spent a lot of time this week talking about how necessary a strong attachment is to do the deep work we are doing. And only by doing the deep work will I eventually heal. This came up because a close friend was questioning the length of time I've been in therapy and motivations for continuing.
It helped me to talk about it because often, like you wrote in your post, people tend to think negatively about strong feelings in therapy and regard dependency as a bad thing; worse, they think a therapist is being destructive by encouraging or even allowing it. The prevailing attitude is that a strong independent self must be the theraputic goal. I believe that unless you've had this kind of experience you just can't fathom the depth of it and the enormous and powerful feelings that rise up.
It has taken me all week but I've moved to a place where I am willing to defend my attachment as necessary for me. It won't last but it feels nice right now.
poster:daisym
thread:591406
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20051216/msgs/591461.html