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Originally Posted by ThingWithFeathers
I'm just curious about others' ideas and experiences.
In my therapy, the focus is on building safety, developing coping skills and, eventually, trauma and relationship work. There's definitely no explicit focus on re-parenting or transference and so forth - it's just safe trauma work.
There are however a few things my T does that, to me, have a re-parenting aspect to them. I suppose the most obvious is that she ALWAYS responds to my emails and phone calls. She's just so reliable when I reach out.
I wondered if it's because my trauma is of an interpersonal nature (ongiong and multiple types throughout key developmental stages in my childhood and youth) that she takes this approach to responding to me? Or do all long term therapeutic relationships have an aspect of re-parenring, in whatever form that may come?
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I'm not sure it's an "all" thing. I think part of it has to do with a therapist's therapeutic style, and part of it has to do with the need of the client. I experienced my therapist as you're describing. For me, "re-parenting" might be a little strong. My therapist simply took on a nurturing role, in a very therapeutic way, and it worked very well for me. What it did, was it gave me another template for relationships that re-wrote the flawed template laid down by my parents. That's the easiest way for me to see it, anyway.
And really, what you therapist is doing may simply be her way of earning your trust.