I love this thread, I keep thinking of ridiculous things my T said.

(To be fair, he doesn't say this kind of thing all the time. Overall I think he's a good therapist. Very good at delving deep and coming up with insights. Maybe not so good at relating, though.)

Sometimes I try to attribute motives to other people, in an attempt to figure out why they've behaved a certain way toward me. T will say: "So you're going by what, here, your gut feeling?"

It takes me a while to catch my breath after that. Really baffles me. Like, okay, what else can I go by? I can't read people's minds.

It's especially surprising to me that a therapist would dismiss me for having, or trusting in, my gut feeling. I think I've suffered hugely for having ignored my gut feelings in the past -- my whole history has been one of failing to get away from untrustworthy people, accepting emotional abuse because I wasn't tuned in to what it was doing to me, caving in to others' wishes habitually or out of fear of self-assertion, etc. I'm just now coming around to being able to take care of myself enough to listen to my gut, and to trust my own responses in a profound way. And here T is, telling me that it's not good enough.