Yeah, I've had therapists and family members either say or imply that I was therapy-resistant (in so many words) and really they just couldn't get where I was coming from, and some had SO much ego invested in the process of helping me that they got really inappropriate and critical of me, when really they had NO way of putting themselves in my shoes. I had one therapist who was brilliant-like-out-of-conTROL!!! She was the very embodiment of empathy and the LAST thing she would label me with is "therapy-resistant". I gobbled up her every WORD. Therapists are human, and I think the thing that's SO corrupted about the system (the SYSTEM, I'm saying - the therapists can't help it - they're working in a corrupted system - and there's probably a better word than "corrupted" - it's just all messed up. But the problem is that they are obligated to present themselves as all-knowing. And sometimes they're WOEFULLY ill-equipped for certain clients/patients. And the system is not set up - culturally or economically - and CULTURE is HUGE in this field - to admit it. I've found I really started healing when I started very doggedly pursuing self-help. Books are always there, they don't get moody or cancel, you don't have to wait a week to engage with them, their tone is CONSISTENTLY upbeat, and they don't get threatened by you for ANY reason. And I wouldn't have become so convinced (and convicted - and thus HEALED!) if I wouldn't have studied social work, and saw it all from the inside. EEEEEEK - what a set of discoveries. TheByzantine, you're SO smart - I hope you can see that balance of power for what it is. If someone implies that you're hopeless, it really has nothing to do with the truth, just like mean people on literary sites I complain about (and sorely) arent' the BOSSES OF LITERATURE and HOW TO DISCUSS IT (my god!). They're just threatened. Or they have a point and they're not expressing it constructively. Or we're terrified of the kernel of truth in their point, and so are they, and a smoother, sager person could say it in a way that doesn't hurt in the least.