Posted by backseatdriver on May 6, 2008, at 11:05:15
In reply to What is the whole point of therapy?, posted by friesandcoke on May 2, 2008, at 19:22:33
Maybe another way to think of it would be, by seeing your therapist, you're caring for yourself. She is there, too, helping you to do this, because we can't do it alone.
I sometimes think, my therapist cares about me, over and above the payment issue. What I pay him for is something different: his time, and his openness.
By sitting there with me for an hour and responding to what I say, he gives me limited, indirect, but still useful access to his inner life, which during the therapy "hour" he puts in the service of clarifying my communications to myself, to others, and to him.
But his caring for me, that's over and above. I don't doubt that he does care. But that's not what I feel I am paying him for.
poster:backseatdriver
thread:826890
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20080423/msgs/827482.html