Posted by Nathan_Arizona on August 8, 2007, at 7:59:15
In reply to Re: HOLY CRAP!!!!, posted by sunnydays on August 7, 2007, at 14:31:02
While I may disagree with your position in this particular case, I think you bring up a good overall point:
When DO we cut our therapist some slack vs when DO we seek help elsewhere?
It's a tough call no doubt.
Especially because there are usually a lot of reasons to stay (time with T, knowledge of history, having to start over w/someone else, financial reasons etc...).
Now add to that, there may be some significant "transference" issues, issues of trust, and resistance issues on our part and sometimes it is really hard to see clearly the right thing to do.
In my therapy, there are times when my T has screwed up royally, we worked through it and we were able to continue our work. Sometimes the decisions he made to push my progress set me back a good bit.
However, one thing he never has done was to bring his own personal issues into my therapy space. In my mind, that would have been absolutely toxic to my recovery and grounds for termination.
I think we have to be able to trust that our therapist will remain as neutral as they possibly can be. We need their decisions about our therapy to be based on their professional competence and experience rather than their personal issues.
For instance, in my fourth year of therapy, my T's mother died. I had no idea until another client told me weeks later about having read the obituary.
Now I have some god awful mother issues and despite what he must have been going though, he didn't even bring it up or into my time.
I think we have a right to expect this level of professionalism, but I am interested in other's thoughts on the matter.
Natie
poster:Nathan_Arizona
thread:774336
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20070807/msgs/774748.html