(((((Elysium))))),

She really doesn't sound like the right therapist for you at all. As you said, she's on the faculty at the local Univ.....sounds like her therapy sessions are just an extension of her classroom but on a one to one basis & costs a whole lot more.

I had a psychologist that did the same thing you were just describing right after I had gone through the trauma with my mother when she was dying.....she minimized the whole trauma I went through telling me that "the same thing happened to her.....when a bottle of wine was stolen from her mothers home from the home care person".....not anywhere close to being the same. We don't pay to hear stories about themselves. Heaven knows, they charge so much anyway, but then to sit there listening to them talk about themselves & the worse is that they do it under the guise of teaching us something.....Not, no way is that the way that a good therapist should work.

I went to a new psychologist when I first moved here.....well, it was the second one I tried.......it was like I can have you better in 10 sessions & feeling the things you feel are not even optional......needless to say, I never went back. Called & said that it wasn't going to work out, that I didn't feel it was a good match on my voice mail to him & that was that.

Since then, I have found a wonderful psychologist at the local community care center that costs me almost nothing. I felt comfortable with her first off & have been able to talk through so many more things than I ever have with any of my previous psychologists.

I truly believe that we know almost immediately if there is a good match or if there is any possible way of working with their personalities. This new psychologist of yours sounds like someone who loves to talk about herself & does nothing but use herself as an example. Sorry, but that would turn me off immediately & there would be no way I could connect with someone like that.

I think your feelings about her are absolutely right on & it's not just because you are comparing her with your last therapist who was so good.....this one might know all the information about trauma & dissociative disorders, but knowing isn't treating.

Personally I think you are just throwing your money away with her. Definitely have a consultation with this other T, is sounds like no one could be worse than the one you are seeing IMO from what you have said.

Wishing you the best in all of this. I know how difficult it is to find a new psychologist in the first place, then finding one who you can relate to is even harder especially when you have previously had such a wonderful one you have related to......but don't let those things force you into taking the first psychologist you see there.....there are many other good ones ever if they seem to be hiding.

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving.....know how it feels to be alone on Thanksgiving, but hope you can feel some happiness.