Posted by Wittgensteinz on December 2, 2008, at 13:52:04
In reply to Re: Dealing with a blank slate T?, posted by rskontos on December 2, 2008, at 11:07:16
A couple more things...
Firstly, I can relate to what Rsk said. When I started seeing my Dr. S (!) I was in a crisis - I needed to get started with a good therapist and quick - I found him through an analyst/psychoanalytic psychotherapy institute, so I knew his orientation, but I didn't think to ask about his background, experience, specific professional interests etc. After I'd seen him a couple of times I looked him up through google and read his page on a university site and that gave me a better idea.
I think it can be quite a brave thing to do to ask ones T at the start what their credentials are - I would find this difficult, so you shouldn't be hard on yourself for not doing so earlier. I still think it's fine to ask these questions after 2 months and I hope she answers them fully.
The other thing... when I think about my therapist and my pdoc, my therapist definitely discloses more about himself than the pdoc. In fact I don't think my pdoc has ever disclosed one single detail about himself (I've seen him 5 or 6 times, so not that long). He is also an analyst, and although I see him just for meds, we do also 'talk'. What is interesting though is that to me he is far warmer and compassionate than my T.
I should say however that I have a much closer bond and more trust for my T than pdoc, and I'm glad things are as they are (the pdoc tends to trigger me by being overly direct with his questions and observations, which is fine once in 3 weeks but if I saw him twice a week that would be too much). What I'm trying to say though is that disclosure doesn't necessarily mean that the T is warmer - one doesn't necessarily have to know a lot of personal details about a person to know them as a person - to know their mind, their personality.
Witti
poster:Wittgensteinz
thread:866019
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20081120/msgs/866282.html