Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyscraperMeow
Client and therapist share power in the relationship - right up to the point the client becomes emotionally invested, at which point the power is immediately transferred to the therapist.
The only power the client ever has is whether or not to remain a client. The therapist gets to choose time, place, fee, how much support they will offer, whether or not you can call them outside sessions, whether or not they will take off for two months on vacation, etc, etc, etc. More importantly, the therapist is never, ever as dependent on the client as the client is on the therapist if emotions come into the picture.
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Was just reading through this thread, and glad to see someone made this distinction. You can almost divide all therapy relationships into two categories -- those where the client has become exposed emotionally (or invested as you say), and the rest. Two totally different animals. Even the decision to remain a client or not is, as some have noted, not within the client's power if they things have progressed to dependency or addictive clinging.