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Old Jan 07, 2014, 11:59 PM
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RTerroni RTerroni is offline
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Member Since: Sep 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 5,751
Quote:
Originally Posted by learning1 View Post
I'm confused. If you and the therapist have opposite points of view about whether it is okay for a therapist and client to interact outside of therapy, then it seems like you would be trying to change the therapist's point of view. I'm not sure. Is that what you mean? You want the therapist to agree that a therapist and client could interact outside of therapy?

I don't think they can. I don't know if I can explain why. I think you want to be able to interact outside of therapy because you like the therapist, almost like a friend. There's nothing wrong with wishing the therapist could be a friend.

But they can't really be a friend because they are paid to talk to us, so they act differently than if they weren't paid. When they are being paid, they try to help us the whole time. They don't tell us their problems because that would distract us from being helped with our own problems.

If they weren't being paid, they'd have to decide if they like us and want to spend time with us as a friend. They'd have to tell us their problems too, the way friends do. Then once we got to know them, we wouldn't be focusing on only our own problems anymore, the way we are supposed to during therapy. It might seem like you want to help them with their problems too, but that's not what therapy is supposed to be. It's supposed to try to help you find someone else, not your therapist, to do things with.
No I am not saying that your Therapist should be your friend at all but if you were to attend an intimate gathering together than you are both there for a very specific reason so you should embrace it, basically you take the Therapist and Client glasses off when you get there and put on other glasses (obviously I don't mean this in a literal sense) that are appropriate for the gathering, and when you leave you put the Therapist and Client glasses back on. It is not about discussing anyones problems but rather about embracing the unique lifestyle that you both have (which is why you would be at the gathering in the first place)