Ask T. to suggest topic

My T. always asks what do you want to talk about? Well I've switched to every other week and so I feel like I have things neatly packed away and don't want to open it all up again. Also I know the T. has said numerous times,,,we'll have to talk more about that later...and stuff but later never comes... I'm just wondering if I should ask my T. if there is something he wishes I would talk about that I haven't..

Have any of you asked your T. to suggest a topic for therapy? What was the results?

I have asked my T to suggest a topic several times. Her response varies. Sometimes she will, sometimes she won't. I think some of it has to do with how I approach the request...if I genuinely don't know what to talk about, she's willing to help out. If it seems like I'm asking her so I can avoid something, then she won't. Once, she just said she didn't feel like picking - she even told me she wasn't sure why she felt that way, but that she felt it was important for me to choose (that was when I had two topics I wanted to discuss and couldn't decide where to start, so I asked her to pick).

I know what you mean...I often have trouble coming up with a topic. And I try to get T to suggest, but I think she's generally pretty hesitant to do it. Sometimes if I'm really stumbling around and getting nowhere, she'll pick up on whatever tiny bit of nothing I've said and try to turn it into something by asking a few questions. Sometimes it works, but mostly not.

I think many Ts are reluctant to try to tell us what to talk about. Sometimes it might just take us a while to realize what we need to talk about, and they want to give us the space to do that rather than telling us what to think about. And even if there's nothing to talk about, that might be important to discuss!

And it's interesting to me...it sounds like you do have things to discuss. (Otherwise, what would have have needed to "pack away?") If you're hesitating to bring those issues back out, why? That's probaby exactly where you should start with T!

Often I have the opposite problem. My T tells me what we are going to talk about or at least, the method we will use. She likes EMDR a lot, and suggests using it for issues that she's written down that I've told her about. But she is also willing to go wherever I need to go. I always have so much to talk about I never need her to suggest a topic! There is TOO much and we never seem to finish anything.

My T would just turn it back on me since it is my therapy and, allegedly, I'm going for my own purposes/reasons/to help myself.

My T almost always directs the session...I go blank and am rendered mute when asked what I want to talk about. But usually when he pokes and prods a bit a good topic comes up.

Sometimes my mind goes pretty blank when I sit with T. And then I can really think of nothing at all. Trying to think of anything just leads to frustration because there is no thought to be caught.
When it gets to bad he might start with some suggestions or questions to get us on track but most of the time I do come up with something.
I have never asked him directly though what we should talk about.

Sometimes I say "I need help talking" and he asks me questions or starts me on an easy topic to get me going.

Thanks for your insight. I've packed away things because I've told my T. that after the new year, I am no longer continuing T. I've run out of $$. I've switched to every other week at a reduced fee but it still is too much $$. I'm not in panick/chaos mode anylonger and I know I will survive even if I haven't dealt with everything ... I sent T. an email telling him tonight about ending T. and asked him if there was anything that he felt I needed to talk about, anything we said we would get back to but didn't, anything he wrote in his ipad he wanted to discuss...

I know he will read the email but I"m not expecting a response. If he has a topic I will find out about it Thursday night. If not, I have some current day issues to discuss... cause I'm not "unpacking" the past...its too exhausting.