In my session a couple of days ago I needed to tell my T about an assault that happened a long time ago. Feelings and thoughts have been coming up recently that I thought were buried, triggered by a related situation in my family, and I'd never spoken to anyone about what happened.

At first we were talking about something else and I clumsily changed the topic. I was reluctant to tell her, mainly because I felt so uncomfortable, but I really wanted to. I just wanted reassurance from her that it was okay to say. I kept saying, "I don't know if I'm allowed to say this." I just wanted her to say it's fine. But it felt like she was discouraging me from talking. Maybe it was just that time was running out in the session (I ended up telling her with 10 mins left). But she kept saying things like "I understand you're not sure if it would be better to say it or to not say it" and "Let's just talk about the feelings involved." And kept saying it was okay if I didn't want to bring up the feelings, but didn't really encourage me from talking about it.

Well, she knows now, and I kept minimising it and saying I don't know why it's so distressing for me after all this time. Would a T discourage someone from talking about a traumatic experience? Or does she really think it's not a big deal? Later on when we were organising a new appointment I said either next week or in three weeks and she said "Let's do next week - not because it's major but because it's on your mind." I guess I'm not sure if she's minimising it or blocking me or doing it out of concern.