Quote:
Originally Posted by awkwardlyyours
I am curious if countries other than the US use the term 'abandonment' the way it's used in the US (in therapy or in other emotional situations) -- I knew what the word meant before I landed in the US but the (emotional) range of connotations were totally foreign to me (and perhaps still are) for a long time.
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I used to live in an English-speaking country in Europe, and my therapist had to end prematurely with me. I did not use the word "abandoned" but he did- i forget precisely what he said, but he used the word abandoned and indicated that he felt that was what he was doing to me. I was ok about it, however, though it was sort of helpful to see he felt bad about it.
The question of whether a client may or may not actually abandon a therapist is kind of less interesting to me than whether a client feels she or he has abandoned a therapist. I think that's an intriguing issue- how the client might feel that they are abandoning the therapist. And I do think it's entirely within the range of possibility that a therapist would feel abandoned by a client.