I have a number of things that I say over and over:

(1) Are you just saying that because you can't think of anything else to say? Do you really know what you are doing?

(3) Am I frustrating you? Getting on your nerves? Bothering you? Driving you nuts?

(4) Do I really need to be here? Is there anything we are doing that is helping me? Am I wasting your time and my money?

She often just responds with things like:

How are you feeling about this? What are your concerns? Where is the anger coming from? Do you think you need to be here? What do you think we are doing in therapy? Do you think it is a waste of your time? Why do you keep showing up?

And then, "No, I am not frustrated with you. You are not getting on my nerves. You are not bothering me or driving me nuts."

I hate it when she responds to my questions with another question. She keeps telling me that ultimately the decision to stay or leave is in my hands. She reminds me that I am in control of my therapy.

When a session is intense, I may say "You are making me a nervous wreck!" or "Can we please change the subject? Surely there is something else we can talk about!" or "This is stupid. This is dumb. This is ridiculous. I hate this. This makes no sense. I don't act like this in RL. You are playing mind games with me."

I know this all sounds like our sessions are harsh. Sometimes they are, but most of this is done in sarcasm. My husband doesn't get this at all. He thinks I should go in there and be all nice and sweet and accept this help. He just cannot understand how a therapy session really works. There are a lot of "sides" to me that come out in a session. Lots of times I end up emailing her to tell her "I am sorry for being ugly in our session."

She always says that she does not take any of that personal and that I am doing what I need to do to heal. Ane then she adds, "Good job!"