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Old Mar 14, 2007, 10:49 PM
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sunrise sunrise is offline
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Member Since: Jan 2007
Location: U.S.
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There are two couches facing each other in my T's room, I'll call them Couch A and Couch B. Then T has his own special chair, a swivel type desk chair on wheels, which has a back support he has strapped on. He mostly sits in this and wheels between the couches and positions himself where he wants to be to interact with the client. The first time I visited him, I sat on Couch A on the far left side. When I returned the next time, I sat there again and he asked me to move to the far right side of Couch A. I figured out this is where he likes clients to sit who are going to do EMDR, because the EMDR gadgetry is on a low table next to that position. And since we did do EMDR our second session, this was appropriate. But I have continued to sit there even when we don't do EMDR. I like it there. It is next to the window, which has a nice view. T moves his chair really close to me if needed, in that "I'm giving you my energy and warmth" kind of move I've described before, where he pulls his chair up really close right in front of me, so we are almost knee to knee, and projects all that positive energy, warmth, and affection right at me. Some days, he will sit on the couch across from me, and I think his back is sore from a full day in his chair. Sometimes he will swing his legs up on the couch and kind of lie/sit there in profile to me. I figure his back is really bugging him then. It all seems to work. Sometimes I come in his room and I can tell the people there before me have been sitting on Couch B and that weirds me out! I see their indentations in the couch and T's chair is pulled up facing that couch. I feel like, how can they sit there, when he specifically told me to sit on the right side of Couch A? I feel like they are breaking the rule or something. I guess they must never do EMDR.

Other things about the room: it's very interesting, with lots of "props" and decor. I like it and feel really comfortable there. It's very masculine, but comfortable, and kind of earthy. Lots of dark colors.

When I first started going there, I had this "thang" about the lights being too bright in the room. I was always asking him to turn off various lights. He obliged to a point. I remember one time he said, "that's the last light, if I turn off anymore, it will be pitch black in here." Hey, that sounded kind of good to me! I guess I was thinking that at first I was kind of shy around him, and the dim light let me "hide." Later I realized it was because of this kind of "forbidden" dream I had about T between our first and second sessions (can you say early transference?) in which the room was very, very dim, and I was trying to recreate that. After I realized the connection to the dream, I stopped asking him to turn off the lights, lol.

For my former counselor, she had her barebones straight backed chair sitting across from 2 other such chairs. I always sat in the righthand one. I asked her once where most people sit and she said 90% of her clients sit in the lefthand one. Yay, I'm special! I like to be on the right as I don't hear well out of my right ear, so this maximizes what my left ear can hear.

Wow, I wrote a lot on that! Cool topic, pinksoil.
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