Thought I'd update this a bit, as the move is now at the end of this month.

It's been difficult at times. One being when he informed me a few sessions ago that the couch I sit on would be gone the next session. That he realized it wouldn't fit in the new space, and he found someone who needed it. So my literal seat was being taken away, more than a month before I thought it would be. I mentioned wanting to take photos of his office before he took everything out, so he suggested I just do so then, though he didn't want to be in any of the photos. So he stepped to the side while I took a bunch, and we were sort of joking and laughing through that.

The couch also had significance to me because, when he first returned for good after the pandemic, in March (I think?) 2022, I had to sit in a chair further away from him, due to the whole 6 feet thing. It was months before he let me sit in my usual spot on the couch (maybe 3 feet from him? 4?). So I think it took on greater meaning due to that. I asked if he could put one of the chairs near my usual spot for our next session and didn't expect him to remember. But he did, and it's felt generally OK.

Then, two sessions ago, he let me know that he'd be chopping up he palm tree in the corner (which he'd already said would be too big to come with him) after he left, and a few other sickly plants might have to go, too. Something about the thought of him cutting up the tree sort of triggered me. But it felt OK seeing it gone the next session.

Dr. T and I have been discussing the move quite a bit--realizing ways that it ties into things from my past, for example. And also how my own home has been in a bit of turmoil after a mold remediation. Plus, someone broke into my car in front of my house and ransacked it a couple weeks ago. So it's like my "safe spaces" (his office, my home, my car) either no longer feel safe or will be going away.

He also shared a thought that maybe I feared that whatever energy enabled us to work through conflicts and ruptures in his current office might not be there in the new one. Which resonated with me. He did his best to reassure me that the relationship would stay the same.

I did ask last session whether, for our first meeting in the new office, he'd be willing to walk in first (usually I go in first), so it wouldn't just be me walking into this new place, that he'd be there. He said that was fine. And I asked if we could shake hands at the start of that session, too. After confirming it was a one-off, that I wouldn't want to be doing that at the start of each session (we already do so at the end, and he confirmed that wouldn't change), he agreed to that as well.