I'm another one that can make eye contact fine... as long as we're talking about something that I'm fairly ok with. As soon as it becomes overwhelming, scary, embarrassing, or just too much - my head goes down and I'm looking at the floor (or sometimes T's feet, but not on purpose!)

Sometimes if I need a break from eye contact I'll look at the books on the shelf behind him, or off to one side or the other. Last session, T noticed me looking at the speckled wall paper, and invited me touch it! I thought that was odd - but I did - and loved it (it's fuzzy! So perfect for a therapy room!) And I'm secretly a kind of tactile person - so "oooh fuzzy!" and now I'm kind of looking forward to getting back in there and finding an excuse to touch the wallpaper again. (Sorry I know it's so silly, but it's STILL bouncing in my head.)

At my 3rd session, T tried to get me to make more eye contact. He kept asking/telling me to look at him. It was weird and kind of awful in a way... I'd look up, get embarrassed and immediately look down, and we'd repeat. UGH. It felt like a leash. But, I googled around a bit and apparently eye contact is important for bonding (go figure). So I assume he had good intentions. Thankfully we've backed off that a bit... as I seem to need a little less intensity to not be completely in freaked-out-land.