Posted by Dinah on November 24, 2008, at 20:29:20
I wish we could get a Babble therapist convention together.
Can you guys describe your therapist? What is their best quality? Their worst? What is uniquely "them"?
My therapist is a large man. Very tall but also broad. He has that deep voice that large men sometimes have. He makes me feel small, which helps me a lot to access the less defended part of me.
I always described him as very receptive and open, yet with a very firm inner core. He describes himself as very even keeled, but not necessarily stable. :)
That quote from Monk really describes his therapy demeanor. Unflappable.
"At least I never dug Trudy up and stuffed her." "I've always been proud of you for that."
There is nothing I can say that can seriously throw him off balance. I used to try a fair bit.
The flip side is that he's terribly disorganized and always late. He almost never calls me back before ten after, and later isn't unusual. He barely can remember a thing. Although that isn't all bad, because I can tell him something over and over again and it's all interesting and new to him.
I have the impression that he can be self indulgent at times. Yet he works harder than anyone I've ever known. He's full of contradictions really. Yet he's also perfectly predictable.
He almost never tells stories about his other clients - past or present. I like that about him because I trust him not to tell stories about me.
He's ridiculously optimistic. Both about himself and about me. That annoys me. I think he doesn't see trouble until it's upon him. Not bouncy optimistic. That I couldn't take in a long term therapist. More deluded optimistic.
He's not really warm and fuzzy, even if I do compare him to a Newfoundland. He's not overly sympathetic. He stays in his chair, and doesn't thrust his psychic presence on others. He doesn't overwhelm me. But I suspect there are those who would find him a bit distant. I can count on one hand with fingers left over the number of times we've run over time. But I've totally lost count of the number of times he's shorted me on time. I've only seen him look really emotional once, when we put the down payment on the house in another city. He's certainly never cried.
He has dreadful taste in friends. But his taste in clothing and furnishings is nice enough to intimidate me at times.
He can be incredibly dense and say very foolish things at times. Yet... He's so grounded in some ways.
Well, I've written a book. Did I capture his essence? I'd love to put a word picture together for everyone's therapist. It would help put posts in context, I think.
poster:Dinah
thread:865092
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20081120/msgs/865092.html