Here is a problem that I am working on (and having a fair amount of trouble with):

When my T wants (as he does) to stop me talking about some things (let's say expressing the "wrong" things), how is he different, and how is he the same, as my mother?

How does my T's (and it's not just his) need to control things manifest itself? By talking, instead of listening. Commenting on what I have to say. Objecting that there is some better way of my coping. Instead of listening to what I am saying or doing, trying to get me to do what I should be saying or doing.

All therapists that I know of want to "correct" their patients, want to make them "well". I know none who are willing to let their patients be "wrong" -- even temporarily. (And I am talking about being really wrong!) How many are willing to deal with their patients or clients without wanting to "change" them? After all, isn't that what therapists are supposed to do, "change" their clients?

Isn't that what much of the impulse to medicate comes from: it is, of course, only for the good of the patient. Isn't it? After all, all we are trying to do is "help", isn't it?

So, it seems to me that the impulse to "correct" or "control" is the same in my T (and, I think, in many, if not almost all) as with my mother. How are they different? I have a hard, hard time figuring this. Maybe it was just that my mother's need to control led to a more, shall we say, "active" form of control than my therapist's? Maybe my T will not try to control things to the same extent as my dear mother did.

How can I be sure, if the impulse is there?

In spite of what I imagine many of you responding, I don't think this is a problem confined to my particular T.