Quote:
Originally Posted by Apteryx
I've been struggling a bit with this myself. Not sure if my thoughts are at all helpful, but my guess is that connection might mean that the therapist actually understands what you are saying and can re-tell your experiences in a way that makes them make sense to you. I sometimes feel that I'm getting rote responses from my therapist, that don't really apply to my situation. I guess that what I'm after is more understanding of how bad it feels - even though nothing is wrong - because that might help me understand what's going on, which might in turn set me on the path to get better.
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Thank you for this post!!!
This is a lot of what I get from my connection to my therapist. This week he proved to me that he understands me well enough to repeat back things that I have told him. He gets it enough to retell my stories (correctly) back to me. Then I can see things with the added benefit of his professional view. I don't need him to suffer along with me, I need him to understand enough that he can help me see the same aspects of my life in a different way.
I also noticed that I'm the one who dismisses myself. I caught myself being unsatisfied with part of our discussion, so I led us right back to the same topic. He hadn't dismissed it the first time; I had redirected. I'm in charge of the conversation & he just follows me. I realized that I tell him when I don't like what he says, unless it is something that is hurting my feelings. When that happens, I clam up. My shame was dismissing me, not my therapist.