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Old Mar 19, 2012, 10:22 PM
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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 Chopin99 View Post
No...they are definitively my problems! Just because she might have issues with boundaries doesn't mean I didn't already have issues with boundaries.

I have never had boundaries of my own and I don't respect the boundaries of other's. Or if I did, it was out of fear...not respect.

I believe everything happens for a reason. All of this did. If it got me to focus more on myself than on my relationship with her, all the better.
From my perspective you still seem to be doing this work out of fear, because you are afraid of losing the relationship with your therapist. I still see your focus as being primarily on the relationship -- on making sure you comply -- so that she doesn't refer you to another therapist.
Several years ago I had a therapist whose boundaries changed, and I was always the one who was blamed for not respecting those boundaries, and I tried very hard to comply because I didn't want to lose her. But the rules changed arbitrarily, and sometimes she broke her own rules "for my benefit" and other times one rule contradicted another, so if I followed one rule I was inadvertently breaking another. What you are doing reminds me very much of my own process when I desperately wanted to salvage the relationship. The problem is, it never worked because the therapist was the one who couldn't keep consistent boundaries, but somehow I was supposed to be able to respect those boundaries even as they kept changing.
You are working very hard, no doubt. But you'll never be on steady ground unless she stops shifting it beneath your feet.
__________________
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.
Thanks for this!
CantExplain