[sittingatwatersedge]

what to do? When session is coming up fast, and it's possible that just NO WORDS will come out - because although you have been working on what you talked about last time, and you're still doing so, you don't have anything to report, no AHA moments, no questions, no insights?

maybe it's resistance?
a safety device?
Maybe underlying anxiety to "perform" for the T to "earn" a little positive regard ?

[BlessedRhiannon]

When I feel like that, I usually tell my T that I'm not sure what needs attention today, and ask her to prompt me. She will ask me some questions and that usually gets me thinking enough to talk.

Will your T prompt you with questions if you ask her to?

[missbelle]

Don't worry now about it......it will be as its meant to be. Sometimes just being there helps. You are giving yourself stress you don't need too.
Thinking of you!

[sunrise]

If that happens to me, I remember what my T said to me once, "you don't have to come here and perform for me." That let me know his expectations were different for our sessions than mine. He had much more low key expectations. That took some of the pressure off. If I am feeling like that now, one thing I might do is decide I would just go to the session and let whatever comes up come up. I would take the pressure off myself and just try to be in the moment and be open to whatever arises. Some of my best sessions have been this way, and the things that came up were sometimes surprising! I don't think my T expects me to report on my insights and accomplishments. That would be hard to do every time! (Maybe I just have a low work rate?)

Good luck with your session.

[sittingatwatersedge]

Originally Posted by missbelle

Don't worry now about it......it will be as its meant to be. Sometimes just being there helps. You are giving yourself stress you don't need too.
Thinking of you!

I am, I know it - but it seems like a waste of her time.
and yet I have a sensation that I am really pushing down on something, maybe I just don't want to go, don't want it to come up.

Maybe its a little of all three things?
I like the idea of asking T to prompt you a bit. Maybe that would help?
What if you wrote down some things that you needed to say?
Sometimes its just hard to get words out. I understand that.
Hope things go well . Let us know how it goes, okay?

[sittingatwatersedge]

Originally Posted by BlessedRhiannon

Will your T prompt you with questions if you ask her to?

Don't know, it's never been like this before, In the past if I said nothing it's because I refused. not like this.

Tell her what you said in your first post, that you've been working on this, but you seem to have hit a wall with it. I'm sure that will be enough to get started.

You know that I went through a terrible mute stage recently. I can tell you that it was probably one of the best things that could have happened to me. I sure did NOT see it as beneficial to me or to her when that was going on. Now that I am on the other side, I have had fabulous sessions the last few weeks.

Is this the first time this has happened?

((((((((SAWE)))))))))

When I am in that place, I try to trust that when I see T, whatever needs to come up will come up....and it usually does.

Your therapy is not ever a waste of T's time. Even when you are floundering and don't know what to say. Sometimes my T tells me, "you are exactly where you are supposed to be right now".

Be gentle with yourself. Your therapy is for you, to use however you need to, even if it's just to say "I feel like I'm pushing something away" or "I feel anxious about this".
to you!

[sittingatwatersedge]

If my T reads PC, she will surely recognize me now...

I told her recently, when I am not actually in here, and I think about this place, about the work we do, about you, I fear you. I fear your power, your tremendous power, you could just grind me to powder... but when I come in here, and I see you, i'm not afraid of you; I fear some of the things we get into around here (she nodded), but not YOU.

maybe that's at the bottom of it, who knows. All I know is, my stomach is clutching already.