ok... "Other." My therapist really does "get" me. She doesn't get everything though. It's been a process. I don't know that it's possible for anyone to wholly understand anyone else. I think it's all about communication. Starts on day 1. What my therapist definitely did is work to understand me.. understand what I was trying to tell her one way or another. There were moments when she said something that surprised me - something I hadn't realized that showed great insight into what was going on inside me. But the whole process of her "learning" me was very therapeutic - taught me a lot about how relationships should work. And there was one issue that ended up being a huge deal. Over her stupid cell phone. Chronic problem. Took a long time to get it resolved. So there were times early on in that thing that made me feel like she didn't get a single thing. But it turned out to be good that it was so difficult because I successfully used things I'd already learned in therapy to finally get her attention. I overcame my reluctance to keep pushing. I got ahold of a smidgen of "stopdog-power" and demanded that she pay attention to the problem I had with her stupid cell phone going off.

Turns out she worried that she'd forget to turn it back on. I finally told her that she needed to figure out another way to deal with that problem because her phone was not welcome in my session. She finally 'heard' me and I could really sense the sudden awareness she had and the shame she felt at how all that affected me. But she immediately took great care to make sure it was turned off whenever I was with her.

And that was all good, because it served to show me how I will actually not be annihilated by my complaint. That I won't be rejected and hated, and that it can actually work out well! So my voice is okay after all :-) I may not have figured that out if we had not had that problem. But ultimately, she did indeed understand.

So I think the whole "understanding" thing is fluid.