Quote:
Originally Posted by Pomegranate
... MY T CANCELLED MY APPOINTMENT THIS MORNING... I feel fragile, jumpy and a bit paranoid. (Did he do this on purpose??) What if he's sick of my depression and negativity?
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In this part...
Quote:
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I feel fragile, jumpy and a bit paranoid. (Did he do this on purpose??) What if he's sick of my depression and negativity?
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...you're sharing what's coming up for you,
including the thoughts you're having such as "did he do this on purpose". Although you're not doing it by formula as we might have in the workshop ("I have the thought that...") you're still making it pretty clear that you recognize these as your own thoughts. Thank you for sharing them (and you're invited to continue).
In this part, though...
...you've switched to telling a story about yourself. Certainly in the workshop, and I suspect in DBT as well, you could expect to have that pointed out to you and (if you didn't still get it) to have "********" called on you. Get the distinction?
This is neither the workshop nor DBT, so I'm sorry your T cancelled.
I'd be very, very surprised if it had anything to do with punishing you for negativity; that wouldn't be part of any legitimate therapy that I know of.
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Another tangent or two, if you don't mind. What Linehan (the lion-cage lady) is up to is not so much doing DBT herself, as training therapists and those who support them. She says, for instance:
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 Some therapists do not want to hear about dysfunctional behaviors of their patients. Such reports might threaten their sense of competence or control as therapists, or remind them of behavioral problems of their own or of people close to them. One therapist I supervised told me that she didn't like to hear about "weird" behaviors from anyone.... /
Interestingly, many therapists are also reluctant to discuss patients' therapy-interfering behaviors directly with the patients. In my supervision experience, many therapists put off discussing such behaviors with patients until they are burned out and it is too late. These problems are brought up in supervision, but not easily with the patients. Generally, these therapists seem to believe that "nontherapeutic" responses to patients (e.g., feelings of anger, burnout, reluctance to continue treatment) are indications of their own inadequacies. By contrast, DBT approaches such responses as indications that there are problems in the therapeutic relationship -- that is, therapy-interfering behaviors are going on. With very few exceptions, such problems are discussed with patients in a direct, problem-solving manner.
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(From the book, pp. 183-184)
It's been a while since I saw this other part, I can't find it right now, and I may not be remembering it accurately. Still, I remember Linehan saying something to the effect that if, after participating in DBT for a while, a patient insists (or demonstrates? I don't remember) that it's not working for her, the therapist needs to point out that it would be unethical for him/her (T) to continue doing a therapy that's not working for the patient -- so what should they do now?
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The bottom line, looking from here anyway, is that therapists don't cancel sessions arbitrarily and that if (when) they have therapy-interfering issues with their patients, they also have supervisors to help them spot those early and clear them up. The idea is for the patient
not to have to second-guess the therapist or the therapy, and to be able to proceed safely until instructed otherwise.
Hope you're feeling better, Pom
More later.
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Malady recently started calling me "FooZe". I found I rather liked it, but I'll cheerfully answer to "FoolZ" too. 