Posted by wishingstar on May 8, 2006, at 22:51:40
Have any of you ever had to deal with a T who just wont stop talking? I'm not sure what the deal is lately, but jeez.. she sure has a lot to say! There have been moments where my mind wanders off to completely unrelated things as shes talking because she just gets into these monologues. Theyre usually about insight and understanding, connecting experiences, stuff like that.. the inner child thing too.. and insight is one area where I definitely dont need help. In fact, it'd probably be good for me if she just told me to be quiet whenever I tried to launch into cognitive insights. It's my defense. And we've definitely talked about that fact.
But the question is, how do I deal with this? I think she may have recently started feeling like she has "figured this out" and knows how I feel/what I need/etc.. and now it just needs to be tramsitted to me. I feel like there have been more "yes, but.."s after I try to explain why I think I act/feel some particular way. Sometimes (like today) it seems the session is focused mostly on her trying to convince me of her theory and me disagreeing (like the darn inner child thing). In fact, I mentioned that different language might help me connect better to the inner child thing today (like you all suggested), but she didnt seem to hear it because she kept right on with the same words and soon after, tried to get me to let the inner child write in my journal and bring it is. Argghhh. I've responded a lot lately by just saying "I understand" or "I see what you're saying" in a matter-of-fact voice in hopes it'll hit her that she's doing all the talking and I'm just "agreeing". But I've also definitely expressed to her that I dont necessairly agree with her explanation. I told her today that I dont feel like therapy is helping, and it's only maintenance, if even that... she just said it's like a flower growing, its growing all the while underneath but you dont see the change until one day it just pops up.. that's what she thinks is happening for me. I dont know.
I really dont think I'm at a place where I could tell her she's talking too much. That would feel WAY too confrontational, even in nice words. I'm planning to mention how it seems like she "has it all figured out" at my next session... but by the time next Monday comes around, I may have changed my mind. It's really hard for me to hold onto emotions for the entire week.
poster:wishingstar
thread:641585
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060505/msgs/641585.html