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Originally Posted by sunrise
What you described is not psychotherapy. It sounds more like he is giving you advice. (And you don't want it from him.) Is he charging you for psychotherapy?
If he again raises questions about your isolation, living situation, activities to do, etc., you could thank him for his concern and tell him that you are working on building your social resources and support with your therapist, and things are going well now in therapy, and so on. Try to draw a line with him on the topics he gives input into and reassure him your therapist is doing a great job with you.
What does he say when you ask him to stop? It can be confusing for a client to receive psychotherapy from two different people. You might mention that also. Perhaps your therapist could phone him up and reassure him that you are making progress and that she is following these issues with you.
The length of time you spend with him tells me he probably is billing you for psychotherapy services. He may even think you want psychotherapy from him since you are paying for it. You could tell him that you noticed you were being billed for both medication management and PT and you would like to focus on meds with him, since you have a T. And next time you schedule an appointment with him, choose a 20 minute appt. Then he will focus on that and bill for med management only.
No, use your communication skills! Don't just sit there and say nothing. Tell him you don't want PT from him and if he pushes, that his approach is ineffective and you have a T. Nothing will be solved by sitting there and saying nothing. He would probably consider it just more sign of dysfunction. Be assertive and communicate your wishes. Might not be a bad idea to ask your T for advice on this. Good luck.
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Hmm I don't know if he's charging me for psychotherapy? He goes over his time with patients a lot. Not just me. They say "your appts at 10" but really that means noon. Sometimes my morning appts turn into 3 oclock appts, but I just ignore it because I figure that there are some people out there who can't even see one at all and I should be happy for what I have. If he charges me, it goes to my insurance company. I never see it.
My therapist and psychiatrist work in the same office, and they're very much buddy buddy. Which makes it even more difficult to explain to one that I don't prefer the other. I have mentioned it to T and he tells me "I'm having a hard time trusting".
But I guess I could be more upfront about not wanting psychotherapy to him directly. I'm just worried because he insists that medications don't treat PTSD and I just need therapy. So why am I seeing him?