Posted by Dinah on November 12, 2007, at 10:00:29
In reply to Re: The Phases of Therapy » Daisym, posted by seldomseen on November 12, 2007, at 8:35:34
I'd say that roughly my phases were the same as seldomseen's. There was certainly overlap between them as well.
I think my Initiation period was different. I wasn't really an emotional dumper and in fact I think I relatively deliberately misled him in some things when I first started because I didn't feel comfortable admitting them (probably as much to myself as to him.) And since he does a lot of CBT work, the first several months were spent with the "Anxiety and Phobia Workbook" and learning relaxation skills. He also tried to work with my cognitive distortions, but I wasn't too cooperative there.
Then it took five years to trust him, another two years for him to trust me, and at ten years I trusted my trust in him. Who knows where it would have gone if it followed the natural progression there, but it didn't. We were really doing very important work at that point, although I don't now recall what it was.
I have a hard time identifying where I am now. There is a better understanding of what he can and can't be to me, which left me both more trusting and less trusting. And he doesn't seem as magical. There's a warm comfort. I reflect a lot on how I have changed, and wryly accept those areas where I still need to change. I almost always know why I do the things I do. I sometimes recognize that my priorities have changed and that what I wanted in the past is not what I want in the present, and that my change in priorities really needs to result in a change in how I spend my time and money, including my therapy money.
But in reality termination is not even on the horizon, although where I'm at may sound like a termination phase. It's just not going to happen.
poster:Dinah
thread:794498
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20071105/msgs/794571.html