Posted by JoniS on January 24, 2008, at 9:50:59
I'm seeing love in therapy as such a normal healing thing. And, I'm even believing love from therapist is very real, very healing, and very human (with all it's human faults). When we have a well- trained, very ethical, very open therapist, we will be in the best position for healing.
Susan Baur:
"many forms of intimacy weave their way through the intimate hour, and not everyone will have the same feelings or use the same words when it somes to describing them. The most problematic are feelings akin to romantic love. At their worst they presage the end of therapy and a precipitious flight into a complicated relationship that for many reasons is not likely to bring either party contentment. At their best, however, feelings of love between doctor and patient represent a special kind of impossible love -- a pure intimacy-- with multiple attractions and prohibiitions and with passionate attentiveness on both sides. The doctor-patient relationship is not supposed to be an ongoing adventure the way a marriage or a love affair can be. It is not supposed to be the relationship within which doctor and patient work out the most intimate knowledge of themselves and of another person in the course of a lifetime, although certainly therpy has occupied this most central and importantplace even when neither person has so much as touched the other's hand. But in the normal course of events, the affectionate bond that develops between doctor and patient represents an initiation, a turning point on the path to a more satisfying life that, onece negotiated, is left behind. Each patient comes in needing a different initiation, and each has a different way of leaving old fears and habitual constrictions. As this happens, a therapist is asked to love and support these people in many ways before finally doing "the hangman's work". For most therapists, one uncharted journey or another proves to be dangerous. I have discovered that almost every therapist has a love story. The vast majority of these attractions are not played, but that doesn't mean that the relationships don't bring great joy and great heartbreak."CS Lewis: "Hell is the only place outside heaven where we can be safe from the dangers of love."
Fascinating.
poster:JoniS
thread:808704
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20080114/msgs/808704.html