I had an experience with a psychologist that I was seeing. I was at the bottom of my feelings & was very suicidal. It was so bad that my pschologist was continually admitting me to the hospital because of what I was going through. The other part of my life was enjoying my horse dressage training. I went with my trainer to the local dressage club & joined it. Afew meetings later, my psychologist showed up. That was a very uncomfortable feeling. I didn't want anyone knowing what I was going through. We said hi, & after the meeting, she let me know that it was ok as long as we didn't discuss anything except horses & dressage. It ended up working out ok but was still tough on me because I was constantly dealing with my suicidal feelings.

Since then, I changed pdoc's & psychologists, but last year, I needed to find a psychologist to help me with the PTSD issues fror the trauma I went through because the psychologist I was seeing had some medical problems & couldn't see me for quite a while. I searched & searched for a psychologist that I could work with. I was desparate, so I decided to call up the psychologist I had seen before who knew me. She was willing to take me on as a patient. I was way over any suicidal feelings which was great, & we still had our horses in common. After the first experience of seeing her outside of the office, I realized that there was nothing wrong with that. While seeing her the last time, we ended up running into each other at a dressage symposium & chatted a bit about the symposium. It no longer feels that strange any more to see them outside of the office & there isn't anything wrong with that.

I don't know how it would be to see someone outside who I might be interested in as possibly more than a friend, but there is usually the 1 or 2 year law & after that, it is just like being with anyone else except that they know about the rough part or your life. It's up to you as to how comfortable you feel about that, but being friends is a good thing if you like the person.

Debbie