Quote:
Originally Posted by atisketatasket
It's not my experience at all that I'm viewed as broken. But I think that view, whether therapists or clients acknowledge it, is at the heart of the profession. It started with Freud, after all.
That view may not be present in any given individual therapist-client relationship, but it is what has informed the whole history of psychotherapy.
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i see what you are saying, ATAT, but people generally show up to therapy (that isn't court-ordered) because SOMETHING is wrong, something is bothering them that they can't seem to fix on their own. My T has NEVER implied i am broken and need fixing. Really, it has been me that has been "I don't even know why i am here!! I don't actually believe i am depressed. I am fine!" To which she has said "Velcro, I think you are depressed, and need help," but that is ONLY because I was so adamant against it/in denial (still am). She also prefaced that statement with "I usually am not so direct, but..." She knew I needed to hear that it is ok to not be ok, if you know what i mean. She wasn't saying I am broken, and doesn't go by that philosophy anyway. She said if she could just "magically fix" people, she'd be a millionaire, but she can't. She can't tell me how she got better (she had an ED when she was younger), because she knows that won't be how I feel better.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stopdog
That is not why everyone goes to see a therapist. It isn't even why all therapists say people should hire a therapist. It may be a reason to do so - but not everyone who hires a therapist will fall into this type of reason.
I don't see it as a mismatch between ordinary skill vs extraordinary difficulty for all people who see a therapist.
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I agree with you on this
Quote:
Originally Posted by BudFox
Every therapist I have met either gave instruction or advice, or had a manner that suggested it was coming at any moment, had I hung around long enough. I have also never met a T who didn't at least in some small way project an air of superiority, with the implication that I must be more broken than they.
I find general life advice to be almost always an insult.
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I sort of blathered above, but my T has always sat back, and let me lead whatever comes out of my mouth that week. We have spent 7 months on me not really believing i am depressed or should even BE in therapy. She does not seem annoyed or upset by this, even if I am, and she doesn't portray an air of superiority, like she is just sitting aroudn waiting to help me. What she does say is that she isn't going anywhere, despite my fears that I am awful and annoying and frustrating, and that as long as I am willing to show up, she is willing to listen. She doesn't expect anything else. In fact, I expect much more of myself than my T does!