How did you feel when you switched therapists?
I quit therapy with one therapist because it was no longer helping. I didn't intend to find a new therapist as I figured all therapy would be the same. So about 6 weeks after quitting when I went to see a new therapist at a friend's insistence, I immediately felt he could help me where the first had not been able to. I felt HOPEFUL. That was huge.

Do you ever try to NOT repeat the same mistakes with your new therapist?
I don't believe I made any mistakes with my first therapist. She helped me for a while but then she was unable to help me with the really big stuff. She just didn't have the skills for what I needed. The fact that she couldn't help me doesn't mean I made mistakes. (I think it's kind of strange to assume that clients who move on to a new therapist must have made mistakes with the previous one!)

When you try not too, do you ever still repeat them anyways?
No. My therapy with my current therapist has been completely different from therapy with my first. I have never felt a need to repeat work I did with my first therapist (old business) with my current one.

Did switching therapist effect you at all or we're you mostly okay with it?
It affected me in a positive way as I was with a new therapist who could help me. That gave me hope and made me feel like there was a way out of my problems. It gave me a first glimpse of "the other side." I've told my T several times that I sensed at our first session that he could help me, and that was why I glommed onto him as I have. A number of months later, I felt kind of bad about just leaving the first therapist like that. (I didn't intend to quit with her but just never went back.) In retrospect, I wish we had had a closure session where we reviewed what we had accomplished together and talked about my future. Also, I could have got the chance to thank for what she had helped me with. It just seems kind of rude that I left that way.

How long did it take you to stop thinking about your old therapist and move forward?
I didn't really think about her much at all. I moved forward immediately. I was not attached to her at all and we did not connect in session like my current T and I do. I remember early in therapy with my new therapist, I had this daydream once where I speculated that my previous and new therapist met and I was there with them. The three of us together. It was on a sidewalk. I don't know why I had that daydream. Maybe it was my trying to connect the two therapy experiences--make sense of it all.