i've read some stuff on the significance of clients seating decisions. i've also read something on the supposed significance of the client taking what is fairly clearly the clinicians chair. hmm... what did they say... i'll admit that i don't remember what was said so much as being fairly shocked that someone would do that!

i think there were a few notions. one was that it could indicate that the client had difficulty grasping social norms / conventions (lol). another was some kind of power tactic to throw the clinician off course. but then of course there is simply playfulness (my interpretation of your desire) lol.

i hate the first session because i hate trying to navigate seating arrangements. actually, i hate navigating all arrangements really. selecting a chair in the wait room. then how the little ritual of going down into the office is going to go (please lead because i don't much like you walking behind me trying to give me directions when i can't walk forwards and look backwards at the same time). and sometimes there are strangenesses like them leading the way then standing aside kind of gesturing me in the door. i'm a little unsteady on my feet (leg injurys) and i don't much like them seeing me bouncing off the walls (sometimes i'll put out a hand to help steady me).

and then the dreaded navigation of the seating arrangement in the therapy room. cringe. doesn't help that i'm anxious (seeing them for the first time) and so my brain is whirring even faster than normal running through different takes on the significance of various decisions. sigh. (lol)

the first time i saw my t was in the public service (and i haven't been back to that room). i took what i thought was fairly clearly the most obvious seat for a client to take. he seemed surprised. he was kind of half way through a speel on how i could sit 'anywhere, anywhere you would like...' but i had sat down already. and he seemed kind of surprised. and cut short. he was like 'are you sure you want to sit there?' and he looked quite anxious. i have no earthly idea what was up with that...

the second time i saw my t was in his private practice (where i regularly have sessions). fairly much the same thing happened again. there was a desk chair by his desk, a chair by the window, a couch fairly much next to the chair, and a chair over kind of behind the door. the two chairs were kind of angled towards each other from opposite corners. the couch was closer to the chair by the door but the chair was kind of at an angle to the couch. he was kind of hovering around the door (and i wasn't going to push him aside to take the chair by the door) so i planted myself right in the middle of the couch. it is a two-seater so i don't think he uses it for couch work unless he has some midget clients.

and once again he seemed really surprised. he was kind of half way through a speel of how i could sit 'wherever wherever you like' and something about how 'most clients start off in the chair by the window and then move to the couch sometimes' and about how 'you can move around during the session too you don't have to stay put'. but i was planted on the couch already. and he seemed kind of surprised and anxious.

so i don't know what the hell he has been reading about the significance of clients seating decisions.

i lean forward so my arms are resting on my knees. sometimes my arms go all numb because i guess they are 'resting' there with quite a resolute pressure really. part of that is about my being uncomfortable (in general) with sitting unless i'm slouching (back injury) and part of it is about my being uncomfortable (emotionally) with sitting upright without something (like a bag) on my lap.

he leans forward to kind of mirror my pose, i guess. though he has started leaning back sometimes. maybe so it is more significant when he leans forward. also when i'm defending, i guess, he will kind of lean back (so as to convey uninvasiveness i guess). and when he says 'our time is almost up' or whatever to indicate that we are moving from the hard stuff to the reality stuff (to help re-orient me so i'm okay to leave) then he leans back and the pitch of his voice changes.

what i would most like...

would be to be able to lie down on the couch (i don't care if i have to hang my legs off the end) and he could sit on the chair next to the couch) so he can't see me. but... i'll never say that in one million years lol.

i'd like to try free association. don't know how i'd go at it. what i'd really like to get my hands on would be a few transcripts of clients free associating. mostly because i've heard there are about as many styles of free associating as there are clients who free associate. but i'd like to see something of the scope of that. i'd really like to do that. but even if it wasn't free associating... i'd still really rather that we didn't look at each other (not that i look at him anyway). but i'd really rather... he didn't look at me either. and that body posture etc wasn't an issue.