T'isms...all those fun phrases your T uses

I agree Improving, repeated scripted phrases drive me crazy. My old T never had any repeated phrases.. I can't think of anything she ever said a whole lot. My new T said one thing again and again in our last session that kind of irked me -- "And how does that fit in with you moving toward your values?"

I think she said it like 3 or 4 times in the one session! I like her and all but she seems less natural than my last T. Oh well.

okay, this vis-a-vis thing is kind of making me laugh too. not because it's inappropriate to say, but because until today, i had no earthly idea what it meant. i had to laugh because i'm constantly sending my kids to the dictionary to look up words they ask about, but today i had to send myself! i had no idea that all it meant was face-to-face.

I use vis-a-vis but with another meaning. I had no idea it also meant face-to-face. I use it to mean "compared with" or "in relation to." I guess I'm a bit of an egghead so maybe I use this phrase even though it's not that common?

LOL.. I wasn't sure what it meant at all because I never use it. I thought it was an art term and it turns out it sorta is. Thanks to Dictionary.com for the below meanings of vis a vis:

–adverb 1. face to face: They SAT vis-à-vis at the table.

–adjective 2. face-to-face: a vis-à-vis encounter.

3. Numismatics . (of a coin) having two portraits facing each other.

–preposition 4. in relation to; compared with: income vis-à-vis expenditures.

5. facing; opposite: They were now vis-à-vis the most famous painting in the Louvre.

–noun 6. a person face to face with or situated opposite to another: He offered a cigarette to his vis-à-vis.

7. a date at a social affair: She introduced her vis-à-vis to the hostess.

8. a person of equal authority, rank, or the like: my vis-à-vis in the Louisville office.

9. a carriage in which the occupants sit face to face.

10. Furniture . tête-à-tête ( def. 2 ) .



I guess I can understand why she was using it. Maybe it is gentler than saying "face to face" and less threatening ?

I think she was using it with the "in relation to" definition that I typically use. Like, "how are you doing vis-a-vis me?" = "how are you doing with regard to me?"

I know this is kind of a silly discussion, but it's helpful to me. I will someday have clients and I don't want to be using phrases that many people don't understand.

my t just says "are we ok now?".

Yep, if my T asked me something like that I'd be giving him a blank stare.
(but then I don't have problems with my T emotionally, just communicatively so he'd never ask how I felt about him unless I said something to him)

Your going to be a T someday?

No, another health care profession.

my T likes to fall back on the same metaphors in regards to some issues, and she ALWAYS ends the sessions by sort of patting her legs and saying "Anyway...we need to stop" I can almost predict exactly when it will happen if i am watching her...which isn't often though.

But I can't think of too many things she has as catchphrases, but I'm sure she does. Everyone has their own linguistic patterns they fall back on I feel.

Every once in a while, my T tries to "covertly" look at his wristwatch to see how much time we have left. I always find that sorta funny just because the thinks he is being super-covert about it

LMAO!!!! That's funny!

ok, not until this thread had i ever in my life heard the term "vis-a-vis." i've never seen it written anywhere, or heard it spoken..

well, would you believe that my therapist actually said it today?! how crazy is that, since we were all JUST talking about it?!

i couldn't believe it.. i was SO distracted and even wanted to say something, like "are you just magically tuned into the universe or something, how on earth would you know to say that (and know that i now know what it means)?!?!"

so crazy, and i had to mention it to you fine people as i thought someone on here would get a kick out of it

weird!

Weird, or your therapist is reading PC....

LOL nah! I doubt that.
The last thing a T would want to do (if he were sneaky) is to let on that he was doing it, lol.

Three things jump into my mind....

My old, old T would ALWAYS say "Go with that" while we were doing EMDR. It drove me absolutely nuts!! It made me feel like I was officially being "shrinked". I noticed that someone else said their T said the same thing to them during EMDR and I wonder if that is a phrase they are trained to use?

She'd also say "Where did you go?" when I would drift off during therapy.

My newer old T would often ask me "Did you ask inside?" because I have DID and she was encouraging me to dialogue with my parts.

I like this post!!

Yeah I can TOTALLY tell when my T is "shrinking" me. I also think I m very perceptive and in tune to every.single.feeling going on in that room.

I believe you, but careful Velcro my friend,

you may get jumped on in a minute by the "no-mind-reading" crowd...

Not jumping

Oh I KNOW i am guilty of mind reading, and hardly ever bring up to her what I think she thinks because its too scary!

(((((((((((((((((((( Echoes )))))))))))))))))) happy Thanksgiving dear

and to all of you. I am giving thanks for T, and also for the PC community. you folks are the best

I am so thankful for my therapist as well. She has really been good to me over the past 9 years, even agreeing to keep seeing me when I moved out of the state. She's simply the best.

When I say something bad about myself and run the perfection game on myself, my T says, "That's your father. Remember... he wasn't right." I love her for that.