Quote:
Originally Posted by BudFox
I find the topic of therapist self-disclosure to be utterly bizarre. In other close relationships, disclosure and vulnerability and openness arise spontaneously. In therapy the professional seems to be constantly battling to suppress their natural impulses in favor of some highly speculative theoretical model.
The defense of this is that it is an "art" and not a science. Still, it's all so convoluted. Therapy seems often to strangle all normality out of human interaction.
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I think I have experienced this 1st hand . And I feel that most of the progress I've made in this relationship has been when each of us are authentic . I don't think being genuine or authentic is a breech of ethical standards . When my therapist adopts a technique or a skill he has learned in graduate school it is so clearly an operation that it feels like we are acting out a formula with a prescribed solution and I feel like saying , oh , come on , you don't have to do this . Lets be real . But I don't and it's then that I feel like I want to play this game to protect his ego . All the while I'm thinking , oh he must be tired / had a bad day / or his last client is still on his mind and he can't be present right now . He must be stuck . For as much as we have talked about not being responsible for another persons feelings at that moment I want to give him an A for practicing what he was taught .
This gets to the root of my problem . I really like my therapist - for who he is -and I think he likes me . But we can't be friends . That wouldn't be therapy , right ? So maybe this is just how he reminds me of that fact . Now I'm stuck . Really . Can anyone see where I'm coming from ? Should I move on ? Have we reach the limit where he can be effective in treating me ? Help .