Posted by Dinah on April 22, 2010, at 8:45:06
In reply to Re: Today he was more himself, posted by BabyToes on April 21, 2010, at 22:44:11
I'm really glad you have something that works so well for you. It sounds like when it works, it can be very powerful and add a lot to the therapy process.
I am willing to try again, and thanks to our conversation, I think I'll be able to try with less resistance and less irritation towards my therapist. Thank you for that.
I know you don't necessarily have positive feelings for him. But I have a tendency to post here when I'm confused or angry, and my perceptions (as with this time) may be a bit askew. Babble can help me straighten them and understand things from a different perspective. Whatever I may lead people to believe, he has ironclad boundaries where it counts. And he is truly extraordinary in many ways. He's not perfect, but I always find that extreme gifts rarely come without flip sides. I can't imagine any other therapist I've ever seen being able to change my point of view the way he's done. Not even the most "professional" of them, T3. I think I respond to someone who is more flexible and willing to think outside the box, and who is willing to be brave and take chances and invest themselves the way my therapist has.
I'm not an easy client, as you might guess. I can be stubborn. I have idiosyncratic points of view. And while I don't press boundaries outside the therapeutic room, I press hard inside the therapy room. I press him to be real and genuine and reveal himself to me. He says it isn't easy to be in therapy with someone whose radar is constantly on. I imagine he also means someone who follows up on that radar, and demands that he be fully engaged and present and vulnerable? I'm not sure that's the right word.
I really feel regret if I haven't adequately conveyed how really gifted he is, in his own way. A way that very much uses who he is. He's one of the bravest therapists I've ever read about or known. Sort of like like Irvin Yalom in that way, though not at all like him in other ways.
Besides, a perfect therapist would be dull, and intimidating, and would have no chance to role model being a human being who sometimes needs to step back and apologize.
(In that light, I apologize if I got heated on this thread. It was directed to my therapist in absentia, not to you.)
poster:Dinah
thread:944014
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20100405/msgs/944503.html