Hi Olivia,

I was interested to read your post, especially since I once made a comment in my journal to remember when my therapist called me by name during session. For the most part, he never does. Maybe about 3 times he has -- it's been when I've said something that was somewhat self-derogatory or else just generally depressing about my life. I feel very shy when he suddenly says my name. I do feel like he says it when he's suddenly particularly worried about me. But I'd say he's only used my name maybe 3 times in more than a year. After all, there's not that much use for names when there's only 2 people involved. But I'm glad you like your new therapist saying it. Did you tell her so?

On a side note, I recently started group therapy and found that all the other group members call my/their therapist by his first name. Whereas I call him "Dr. ____." I felt weird about that and now I almost never address him by name at all since I'm too shy to mention that I felt weird about it. Maybe I should have called him by his first name to begin with, but it never occurred to me. (Generally if I hire someone in a professional capacity, I call them by whatever their title is.) I'll probably feel like a dork if I ever mention it to him. :-/ I probably should though -- he'll notice if I suddenly start calling him by his first name. Blah.

Sidony