Quote:
Originally Posted by peaches100
Hi Petra5ed,
Yes, part of what made it so hard for me to accept was that my t changed her boundaries after a long time of me getting used to having email support. It felt like intentional deprivation of something I had come to rely on as an important part of my therapy.
My t apologized for changing her boundaries like that. She told me she wishes she had set better limits on email at the beginning. She knows it has been hard for me to adjust to not having any more contact outside of session.
I agree I need to examine the underlying issues about WHY emailing was such a big deal to me, WHY stopping it has felt so devastating, etc. The more I think about it, the more I believe that my t not wanting to reply to me (or not doing so promptly) . It triggered alot of old stuff from my childhood, such as getting in trouble for calling my mom so much at work because I missed her, or being sent to bed with a promise that she would come tuck me in, and then waiting and waiting for what felt like endless amounts of time before she actually did. (I can recall one time when, by the time she showed up to tuck me in, I was in tears thinking that she didn't love me or want to tuck me in.)
Of course, I know my t is not my mom, but I think the whole situation of reaching out via email and then not getting a response is a huge trigger for the underlying stuff from my childhood that I really need to work on and resolve in my t sessions.
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Holy smokes!!! How freaking weird, I was just replying to you at the same time, LOL.
Yeah, I get this. I had the same experience with my T, getting a prompt email response but then when I emailed in crisis suddenly no response for a couple days. I realize now that it's probably because those replies took him more time and thought, not to mention the time he probably spent trying to wrap his head around what was really going on with me LOL, but it does suck! I'm not sure what kind of transference I really have, but likely a lot of paternal transference. In my mind I really want my T to fill that roll of dad, among other roles. The sad thing is when something goes wrong I don't have a dad to fall back on, and my T cant be that for me, nor would I really want him to really I guess...
It won't be easy but I think if you just keep going like you are trying to do it less you'll see it gets better with time and in the end it will be to your advantage. I'm still suffering a bit from lack of contact in between sessions, but it is much less then I was suffering, and I have less contact now