Does anyone else experience the seeming attempts at empathic statements as adversarial or pointless?
I have been reading books on therapeutic communication and the exchanges between therapist and client they give as examples are quite interesting to me. I never would respond the way the sample client responds-I don't even know how the statement by the therapist would lead to the sample responses. Finally in a couple of the books, they have talked about how sometimes a client will find the empathic responses to be painful or adversarial. And I agreed. I do find them useless and adversarial. At best they are just stupid and at worst they are harmful. I do not feel like I am not worthy of kindness or anything like I am lesser or not deserving of something - it is a different response than that. It is that I do not experience it as kindness or connection or hearing me or whatever it seems they are going for.
I am just asking if anyone else has this response.