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Caramee said:
I don't say much about my T b/c his boundaries have been very loose with me, and someone who doesn't understand the situation could easily find reason to criticize it. I think he has loosened standard therapeutic boundaries to adapt to my needs. If it had been solely a blank slate, one way relationship, I never would have stayed in therapy nor would I have ever opened up. I needed to see his humanness. To that end, he judiciously uses self-disclosure and admits his reactions and emotions to what I am saying/doing so that I get a two way "real" experience.

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Hey Caramee,

I might have this all screwed up, but isn't that just a difference between psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy? I think the analysis one is where the therapist is a blank slate (Pink, you might want to jump in if I'm messing this up).

My therapist isn't the blank-slate type either. He definitely uses self-disclosure, though also judiciously. And he has also disclosed emotions to me before (once said he was sad when I said I couldn't talk about something that had embarrassed me in one of the sessions). Like you, this is the only type of therapy that would have been helpful to me. I remember being very surprised by the emotional aspect of therapy. Guess I just thought someone would give me advice or something. I really had no idea what I was getting into.

(Pink, sorry for temporarily hijacking your thread!)

Sidony