Posted by Tamar on May 31, 2006, at 15:07:08
I'm exhausted...
I had a really tiring but useful discussion with my therapist today. He apologised many times for forgetting, and he took complete responsibility for it. And we had a long chat about how theory relates to practice. And he said it was a good sign that I'd told him how I felt and maybe we can repair things between us.
He asked me what I thought might put it right and I was SO tempted to say, "How about a hug?" But I would only have been messing with him.
I also vented a few related frustrations, like how I hate the language games we play in therapy and how hard it is to express myself naturally. I said I wished we could just have a normal conversation.
He said that therapy has a unique language because it's a unique relationship, and I said that lots of contexts have unique languages (law courts, classrooms, hospital wards etc). I guess I still resist the 'therapy is unlike everything else' idea.
One thing he said was particularly interesting: he asked me if I thought I was in competition with him. I was quite surprised. I'm not a terribly competitive person, and I said I didn't see how we could possibly compete in therapy since there's no field to compete on. We're coming from very different perspectives. But there's obviously something going on that prompted him to ask the question...
So now I'm really tired and just about ready for bed.
And by the way I really like all these letters people are writing to themselves. Maybe when I'm feeling more awake I'll try that...
Love,
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:651085
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060526/msgs/651085.html