I did that three sessions ago (somewhere a long ways upstream in this thread), and it worked out very well. Then two sessions ago I didn't have to ask--when we sat down he immediately closed it. I loved that he remembered to do that. Then this last session he forgot and left it open and I thought well I will try to make it through the session, I can get past this, but at some point I decided it really was bothering me enough to ask, so I did. I guess I am trying different things to see what works and how each feels. I would really like it if he remembered each time and I didn't have to ask him anew. Having to ask him each time feels bad to me, like I am correcting his behavior or something, as if he is my child. I don't want to be in that sort of position with my T. He is not my child! He is an adult and should be responsible for his own behavior.

I also think that it is really not good practice to have your laptop sitting open next to you when you are a therapist. To me, this goes beyond me and my specific hang-up about my ex-husband. I think it is wonderful when a T can give his/her full attention to the client. I think it sends a "feel-good" message to the client: "you are important, I care what you say, I am listening to you, you matter." Those are good things for a client to hear, IMO. I guess I would like to tell T this, but it seems none of my business how he runs his practice--to speak beyond my personal experience. I have told him how I feel about the laptop but I've seen that he does the same thing with other clients. I saw that when I walked in his office and he had the laptop open beside him after doing a couples session. So he must think this is just a weird quirk of sunrise's and doesn't generalize to other clients. I think he's kind of dense on this, myself. Or maybe I am just too sensitive to this.

I hope he remembers next time without my having to ask. The first time, I actually asked him to move his laptop to his desk, away from where we were sitting, and you would have thought I had asked him to turn off the heat and the light in the room or something. I saw very clearly he did not want to do this and I was asking too much. So I then asked if he could just close it but leave it in place next to him, and he agreed.