There’s a post on IST about needing to feel connection during therapy sessions that I thought was really interesting, but I didn’t want to hijack that thread and thought it might be worthy of its own thread.

A couple of people mentioned needing to feel connection with their therapist during a session, otherwise they leave feeling dissatisfied. I hadn’t thought about it that way, but that’s definitely going on with me. In fact, if I leave feeling connected I sometimes want to skip the next one (which is often the next day as I see him twice/week) so I can hold onto that feeling of connection a bit longer. I worry that if I go in, I might lose it. And if I leave the session not feeling connected I feel disappointed. I’m not even entirely sure what it is that brings on the feeling of connection. It might be a comment or a look, but I’m not even sure what it is which means I don’t know how to consistently get it. I feel a bit guilty because I’m not sure if that’s a valid reason for going to therapy. It kind of feels like I’m sneakily trying to satisfy some guilty pleasure and perhaps I shouldn’t. Anyway, it’s complicated. Just wondering what others think.