Quote:
Originally Posted by SummerTime12
I've always seen female therapists previously (I'm female) but I just switched to a male therapist. A lot of my issues relate back to past sexual abuse and less than ideal situations. I know I'll have to talk through this stuff quite a bit to resolve things, but have no idea how to bring it up or if I even should yet. I chose to see a male therapist so I could work on trusting men and feeling safe with them (I only feel 100% safe with my husband). This therapist seems nice so far and doesn't give off any creepy vibes, but I still don't know how he'd respond. I don't want to make him uncomfortable and I wonder if I should wait til I've been seeing him longer to develop more trust, but at the same time I know it will prob be awkward no matter when it's done. Any advice appreciated, thanks!
|
I felt weird about bringing up sex in front of our male marriage counselor. I think I said that I felt awkward talking about it, and he was like, "I'm a psychologist! I've heard everything. You can talk about anything." So that made me feel better about it, but I still find I stare at the carpet and can't look at him if we're talking about anything sexual. And since it's marriage counseling, that's a topic that comes up from time to time.
Maybe you could just start by saying you wanted to bring up some issues related to your past, but you feel weird doing so with him because of what they relate to. And hopefully he'll get where you're going with that, or can help guide you. Or if he asks why you feel weird, say it's because he's of the opposite gender, and then he should get what sort of thing you want to talk about. Or if you can't say it, write it down/type it and hand it to him.