Hi Mandala,

Your post really resonated with me.

I can definitely understand the immense difficulty along with the enormous energy expenditure it would take to orient all parts to a temporary office change by your therapist.

Perhaps I am projecting (and please forgive me if I have this all wrong)...but I would think that the energy required to communicate this temporary change to all parts would be enormous, along with the fact that nothing in the temporary office would be part of the "grounding (and hopefully very safe feeling) landscape" that I bet you've probably worked extremely hard to aquire over your course of therapy with this individual.

I could see 'just' the process of communicating information about an office change taking weeks, if not longer, dependent on the level of internal communication you have with parts/timing of the presence of different parts ect. And this is without even trying to address (to all parts) questions or concerns such as where did all the "normal/regular" possessions of your therapist go, or does this change signify the potential for other bad changes??? Geesh, you could potentially be back in her original office for weeks before the internal communication "caught up" with the fact that there had been a "move" and all of the questions answered.

I don't know about you but, each week when I go in to see my therapist, I (and probably a few parts ) look for any changes that may have occurred both with my therapist specifically and with her office. One of the things that I specifically look for is a crystal dolphin that I gave her. This dolphin is part of my "grounding landscape" and has significance in many different ways. I know that if I met with her and it wasn't there, (even if it's absence was due to a temp change in office space) I would have to take the time and the energy to explain to certain parts why that the dolphin was missing. And I'd probably have to spend some time reassuring parts that it's absence didn't indicate other potential ("bad") changes to come.

Also, dependent on how chaotic your childhood was, I can readily see the need for every aspect of stability possible in a therapist's surroundings. I moved quite frequently as a child and even the hint of "moving" would bring up quite a number of issues for me. I can't even imagine the amount of internal dialoging I would have to do (and the time it would take) to deal with this.

I'm sorry that you had to postpone seeing her when you have lots of stuff going on....I do think that potentially the good news is that you probably "scored some points" internally with parts for taking gentle care of them. I hope that instead of feeling bad about "not being able to do something such as be seen in a different office" there is the realization that this was a very positive step and showed care and understanding to parts who were feeling distress. I think there is a lot to be said for a person chosing their battles....recovery takes so much energy...and I think it was pretty wise to postpone seeing your therapist for a few days (hopefully the a/c issue will be quickly resolved) by which time she be re-established in her own office, without subjecting yourself to the battle that this temp move would potentially elicit.

Hmm....can you tell that right now, one of the major things I am working on in therapy is feeling/showing some compassion to parts that were hurt and have had to carry the "burden" of the abuse so that I could function...this can prove quite difficult at times due to the presence of some less than compassionate introjects... but I'm honoring those too

I hope your next session goes welll !

Your name is really neat btw

S