the first session after vacation

my therapist is on vacation, and i have like a week and a half before i see her again. i'm struggling with it, but i'm hanging in there..

but now i'm starting to worry about when she comes back, how our session will go. i'm nervous that we will have been apart for so long (not really at all, it's like 2 weeks total, geez) and that we'll have lost our connection. i'm also worried that it will be awkward and difficult to get back into the groove. i'm sure we've gone for longer than this without seeing/speaking to eachother, but for some reason, this issue is really coming up for me now.

so.. to those of you that survived your therapists vacations: do you mind sharing how it went when they returned? what was that first session after vacation like? any positives? any negatives?

(((((((((((((((seventyeight))))))))))))))

I just had my post-vacation session with T yesterday, and it was really nice...connected and friendly and intimate.

Earlier in therapy, it was a lot harder for me to reconnect after a vacation (and it still is sometimes). A lot of times, all of the feelings I was avoiding while he was gone - missing him, feeling lonely or angry, feeling sad - would come rushing back. I remember one time I just went and laid on the couch and cried for an hour (!).

It seems like the more I will allow myself to FEEL while he is gone - feel that I miss him, feel that I love him, feel the connection - the easier it is to reconnect when he comes back. When I shut down to get through his absence, it's harder.

The good thing is that no matter HOW the first session back goes, we always find our groove again eventually

I'm glad she'll be back soon. Vacations are hard!

I often had similar anxieties to those you describe when my T returned! It took maybe 5-10 minutes at the start of the session to get feeling comfortable and relieved again. You might look out for some lingering anger that T went away in the first place :-) It's all good though and talking about it briefly helped me.

Hey 78,

So far, I've always been ok when T comes back.. I actually feel relieved that she is back and feel like I have a lot to tell her when 2 weeks go by without seeing her. I do get super anxious before these sessions that happen after breaks, but the connection ends up being there despite my fears. I'm not sure how I'm going to do after this current break with my T (more than a month without my T ) but short vacations have always worked out fine.

When I was used to going weekly, I would feel very shy when we got back together. I would not know what to say and just felt hard to get started due to the shyness. I told him once that it was hard to get started because I felt shy, and he was quite charmed. He said there was no rush and we could just sit in that shyness for a while until I felt ready. I just tried to honor my feelings, not feel bad if I wasn't able to plunge right back in, and take my time. Maybe we would chit chat a few minutes or even longer instead of getting right down to the work of the session. Get used to each other again.

Now that we have been together longer, I don't have that problem. And I really enjoy the first sessions back because they are like mini-reunions. It feels good to be back together and feel that connection. It doesn't go away. If it was there once, it is still there. Just have to allow it to come out again.

I wouldn't post except that you asked for both positives and negatives.
My T rarely is away, but the first couple of times I spent most of the time missing her.
The next couple of times I disconnected mostly and coped really well. Until she came back, and then it was as if all the missing feelings and the worries I pushed away so I could cope would come rushing back after the first session back. But then all was good again

I am resurrecting this old thread. I was Google searching about my anxiety about my upcoming session after the therapist was gone for a month.

I don't feel like going to therapy and I coped fine while she was gone. Does this mean I'm over therapy? Before she left, our relationship was great, but I didn't miss her too badly.

I really appreciate hearing others' experiences!