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Old Apr 24, 2019, 09:20 PM
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LonesomeTonight LonesomeTonight is offline
Always in This Twilight
 
Member Since: Feb 2015
Location: US
Posts: 22,040
What do you believe are appropriate expressions of feelings and emotions in therapy?
In general, or for me? I think sharing feelings is OK, but no threats or any actual violence. Personal attacks, like say about the T's family would also be crossing the line.

What are your therapist’s boundaries? I am particularly interested in the negatives.
I know mine terminated a client who physically threatened him (I think he felt in danger during the session, as he called the police). At one point he said if a client belittled him, it wouldn't be OK. He's said he doesn't feel it's OK for a client to share every possible feeling with him, that some things do cross a line, that he could be personally affected and wouldn't just accept them.

How does or would your therapist respond to expressing anger towards them?
I don't think I've really expressed anger toward my current T. The one time I really expressed anger at ex-marriage counselor (in a text then phone call), he expressed anger back to me, became very defensive, and told me I'd have to reduce contact. This rupture ultimately led to us terminating with him. I had told him before that he'd hurt me and he generally handled it OK (though also some defensiveness), but it was like he couldn't deal with the anger. There was clearly some countertransference going on there...

Have or could you tell your therapist you hate them?
I never have. I suppose I could. He might say it bothered or upset him that I said that, not sure.

Is raising your voice in session acceptable?
To some extent, yes. But I think if it hits a level where it seems threatening, it's less OK.

Do they allow angry phone calls between sessions? Angry emails?
Not sure on angry emails, as I've never sent one to current T. An email saying I'm hurt by something he said or did, yes, but that's different from anger.

Have you ever accused your therapist of hurting you? Or not caring? Or not being competent? Could you?
I've accused both ex-MC and current T of hurting me--over email with both (including a bulleted list of ways he'd hurt me once for ex-MC), on a voicemail with T (sorta, I said I was upset by something he'd said, or actually, that he'd refused to say), on both voicemails and actual phone conversations with ex-MC, and by text for ex-MC. I think at some point I said I felt that they each didn't care--I know I did with ex-MC. I'm just not sure I used that exact language with T. I told T that other people didn't think he was competent (he was OK with hearing that) and that I wondered at times because of what they said.
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Thanks for this!
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