Posted by raisinb on July 22, 2008, at 23:53:45
I've been thinking about something I experience when I'm in therapy. It probably sounds weird and I don't know if I'm expressing it clearly.
Do you guys ever feel like you and your therapist pass emotions back and forth? I'm not sure how to say it, but I often feel very intense stabs of emotion that don't feel like they're coming from me. And sometimes my therapist makes sudden, exaggerated movements, or says she can "feel" my sadness, when I am feeling very intensely, but hiding it. Like she is acting out what I am not showing, or vice versa. Or she says I sense her emotions. And sometimes it's like I go in feeling one way, but I am overwhelmed with something completely unexpected as soon as I sit down. And later it feels strange, like something I wouldn't necessarily feel on my own.
Is there a name for this? Projective identification, maybe--that I need clearer emotional boundaries? I know that people with my type of issues are supposed to have that defense, but I haven't ever been able to get my head around it. And from what I read, it's an interpersonal process that happens outside of both people's awareness.
I would like to understand what is happening, because it seems like a big part of my transference with her. But it is very murky. Anyone experience anything like this?
poster:raisinb
thread:841545
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20080709/msgs/841545.html