Quote:
Originally Posted by Thalassophile
I'm similar with self-disclosure. A part of me loves it. My T used to rarely give me anything. This has changed over the past year and I now get much more from him although still all well within good boundaries. I don't know if it's a technique, a change of approach or if he just finds himself more relaxed with me and lets things slip a little easier. When he does it I enjoy it. I want to know more but I find myself almost not knowing what to say in response. I don't want to ask questions for fear he will stop giving anything. I want to respond but find I end up just changing the subject which is so not how I would be in the outside world. It's a really weird scenario and confusing.
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Hm, interesting--how long have you been seeing your T? Mine seems to have started giving little bits of self-disclosure on occasion (certainly not every session) once I hit maybe 9 months or so (though some of that was twice a week). I also wondered if he'd become more comfortable with me. He also mentioned to me months ago how sometimes with clients he's been seeing longer, it's like he can momentarily sort of forget that it's a T-client relationship and be talking to them more like a friend for a bit, then catch himself and go back to his T role. So I wonder if some of that could have happened here (and at other random times). Especially because we were discussing something that we have in common.
And I know exactly what you mean about wanting to ask more but fearing then he'd realize what he was doing and stop. Part of me also thought I could have talked next session about how his self-disclosure made me feel, the mix of feelings, but again, then I'm kind of afraid he'd be like "Oops!" and stop doing it. So, yes, definitely confusing...