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Old Mar 02, 2012, 08:00 AM
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PreacherHeckler PreacherHeckler is offline
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Member Since: Oct 2010
Location: Close to the Adirondacks but not close enough
Posts: 578
Quote:
Originally Posted by Squiggle328 View Post
My therapist told me that she has never worked with anyone who has experienced transference. She went on to say, at least not with anyone who admitted it to her. I think she is okay with talking about it, but I don't know how much she can help me with this. I am thinking I won't bring it up.
Hmm... to some extent, we all "transfer" feelings and beliefs from the past to new people we meet, but some T's aren't trained to recognize subtle forms of transference. It can be especially tricky with positive transference because sometimes a patient's fear of conflict -- either conscious or unconscious -- can prevent him or her from expressing negative or sexual thoughts and feelings in therapy, so all that's expressed are positive thoughts and feelings, leading the T to believe that there are no transference issues at all. That's not at all uncommon, and unfortunately the patient's fear of conflict is never exposed and therefore can never be dealt with and overcome. But then there are also T's who blame all conflict in the relationship on negative transference and the patient is left with a different unresolved problem.
Dealing with a patient's sexual feelings is undoubtedly difficult for many T's. Some will immediately refer patients to other T's which in some ways is unfortunate because it adds to already existing abandonment and rejection issues, but at the same time, if the T is clearly that uncomfortable, there's little chance for a successful outcome anyway. And there are probably some T's who unconsciously project their own discomfort in ways that make it difficult or impossible for patients to even acknowledge sexual feelings toward the T, so the T may believe he or she has never encountered anyone with those issues. I don't know if your T would fall into that category or not. Obviously she has no experience in dealing with it since she said she's never worked with anyone who experienced it or even admitted it to her, so I guess under those circumstances I'd probably be just as wary as you are about bringing it up again. I'd like to tell you to take that risk because it's the only way to have an opportunity to understand it and work it through, but that's easy for me to say because I have a T who is skilled in that area and who knows how to handle it. If I were in your situation I don't know if I would take that risk because I'd be worried about rejection and I'd be concerned about my T's ability to help me, but I don't know your T and until now you've been able to be very open and honest with her, so maybe you can take that risk anyway.
__________________
Conversation with my therapist:

Doc: "You know, for the past few weeks you've seemed very disconnected from your emotions when you're here."
Me: "I'm not disconnected from my emotions. I just don't feel anything when I'm here."
(Pause)
Me: "Doc, why are you banging your head against the arm of your chair?"
Doc: "Because I'm not close enough to a wall."

It's official. I can even make therapists crazy.