Quote:
Originally Posted by lolagrace
By that same token, my therapist has a skill set, a knowledge set, that I don't possess, so I do learn from him, use what seems to make sense to me, throw out some of it, modify/personalize much of it, etc. I see our relationship as collaborative though, not authoritative. I see my pdoc similarly. He certainly has the expertise and knowledge and skill with meds that is often beyond my comprehension, but I make the final decisions and wouldn't have it any other way.
Edited to add:
So, perhaps this is about knowing really who is in power and over what.
It is okay to allow people to have a certain amount of power when they really do have the authority and we need their expertise, but we have to be wise enough to know who really does have the authority and only give them the authority over what they really need to be in charge of. When we give people power over things that we can control and manage ourselves (and probably should be), we are giving away our own power to someone else, and in a way, that creates that feeling of our own powerlessness and can really create a vicious cycle.
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I agree on the collaborative piece. I think you and I have similar experiences with our Ts. One of the things that perhaps I've taken for granted is that when we're discussing approaching an issue to work through, my thoughts on how to approach it are taken valuable. I remember once he really thought I needed to approach one problem and we went back in forth (in mutual discussion) over a few weeks. Eventually I pointed out that with my depression the way that it was, I wasn't sure that chasing this other issue was worthwhile at the moment. I called it navel-gazing.
We chatted, he saw my point and we decided, mutually, to table it until later. It hasn't come back up although we've touched on a few surrounding issues and with my depression mostly handled, I'm more open to revisiting it and will likely bring it up with him in a few months.