messy t's office

Is anyone else bothered by an unorganized t's office. Last week my t had three extra items in her office (a table, a box and her laptop), and it really bothered me. I couldn't focus on what we were talking about. Then I went to see group t, and his office was a disaster...stuff everywhere. I couldn't see his desk and he had boxes full of stuff everywhere. Just wondering if I am the only one bothered by this.

I probably would not notice. And I have piles of stuff all over my office. I know what is in each pile and there is organization, but to others it could certainly appear messy.

do you see the mess as a reflection of the therapist? like if they can't take care of their environment how are they supposed to take care of you?

I'm okay with a few items out, a little messy. What bothers me is when there is so much stuff, even if arranged neatly, that it makes me claustrophobic.

My therapist's office is always pristine but cozy and comfy to where you feel at home. Her office is really lovely and sweet. In addition to seeing my therapist I go to a mental health center every few weeks for medication and there was a social worker there who's office was a complete mess. Her desk was full of papers and odd, empty boxes. Her hair was always in disarray, and her bangs would be plastered to her forehead because of her intense sweating from weeding through her garden of junk.

When she would go to look for my file under this enormous, messy pile things would fall off of her desk and she'd get so scatter-brained and out of sorts to where it bothered me enough to request another social worker, which I did receive.

So, yes, I completely understand how you feel. You can't focus because you're staring at all the chaos in the room. Then, you think, "Well, if they can't handle their mess, then how can they handle mine?"

I'm a bit on the claustrophic side, so too much mess just feels really uncomfortable to me. I keep my classroom pretty clutter free, and just hate being in someone else's room that feels piled up with crap. Fortunately, my T is pretty fussy about his office. It feels calming to me.

I think that part of the reason it bothered me was because it was different. All of my past t's and pdoc's have had very clean organized offices, and so it just felt very odd. I didn't realize it would bother me until I experienced it. My own disorganization and piles of stuff don't bother me but theirs did. I did feel a bit clostrophobic in my group t's office which made it really hard to concentrate and answer his questions. It also just could be me giving myself an excuse to be distracted and not engage in therapy.

My t keeps her office very neat and tidy. I find it very calming. And knowing that her organized office makes me feel calm, I tend to want to keep my own office and house neater because I recognize that organization helps me stay balanced.

Yep and I did some cleaning... just small stuff no vacuuming.
Probably was the first client to do so. I admit I did that to try to get him angry.

Now I just organize his table. I've promised myself I would stop doing it but when I'm stressed out I tend to forget. I've explained, apologized but he 's OK with that- whatever gets me through. One virtual hug for my T.

I've never had a T with a messy office, so I don't know how I would feel about that. But I totally notice when things are moved in the room. Sometimes I mention it. But then it doesn't distract me from the rest of the session.

Glad it's not just me. I notice when things have been moved also. T had to re-angle her desk when they started scheduling on the computer so clients couldn't see the screen. I asked about that. The other week another chair appeared in t's office. I didn't ask about that and it was bugging me the last two sessions.

I also noticed that they still had Christmas decorations up in the waiting area in February and it drove me nuts! I wanted to say something, but figured that would be rude.

I think it is easy to wonder if the T has it "together" enough to be a good therapist when their room is a disaster (my word, not yours).

My therapist's room was very cluttered. With necessary things, but it seemed that all surfaces, save for the one small parson's table between us whose purpose was to be the tissue holder, had a multitude of things on it. A six foot stretch of shelving had kids' stuff on the shelves (one shelf was cockeyed for several years) and also on the top shelf. Dozens and dozens of little figurines for play therapy. A doll house sat atop there or a low filing cabinet. Her vertical blinds had one missing slat that had fallen off and laid on the floor behind her desk for months and months. Her purse, soft satchel-style briefcase (with files shoved in it), and any shopping she had done, all lay under the desk in the kneehole. If she had a child patient before me that day, the paintbrushes would be soaking on her desktop.



Sometimes it was overwhelming! It bugged me a LOT at first, and especially the kids' "fun" stuff. I told her after several years that it bothered me, and that I wanted to sweep my arm across all the surfaces and clear them. Another time or two I shared how there seemed to be things 'everywhere' in there. The room was painted once and the clutter improved but not by much.

So last spring she moved to another room. She added a nice modern desk with a hutch on top, reorganized the kids' shelving and added nice brown wicker baskets to hold a lot of the stuff. No more stuff under the desk. New nice horizontal blind on the window. I must have told her a half dozen times how much I liked her new room! Once I went further and said how the room feels so nice because it isn't cluttered. "Yes", she said, "The office manager had some suggestions, and you did too." I was tickled and embarrassed too. Embarrassed because at that point in therapy, I didn't realized what the relationship was; I didn't realize that anything I said like that was taken to heart or taken personally. Allll about me.

At home, too, I am bothered by clutter. I feel SO good when things are orderly.

I'll surely be upset by it, or by any new thing or new stuff in t's office. I would probably get use to it but I appreciate t's clean office, always looking the way it looked the week before...

I can't describe the therapist's office at except that she has a chair to sit in and clients do not - only a couch. I don't think I would know if there was something new unless a chair I could use appeared so I would not have to use the miserable couch. Knowing me, I might not notice if it was a different couch.

I'm very bothered by my home being messy-because it feels out of control and chaotic, but not so much T's office. Normally she has a bunch of tea mugs lined up on her desk along with papers everywhere. One time I walked in and her desk was in order-I asked WHY it was so clean. Hahahahaha. To each his own.

I'm trying to picture my T's office and honestly, I can't even picture it beyond his chair and mine, his desk and a couple of other chairs. Unless there was a huge new mess, I doubt I'd notice it.

It must not be too messy, though, because I'm bothered by clutter. I make my bed every day, just because walking past an unmade bed makes me a little anxious.

No, I am not. My T's office is kind of messy, but I am too, so this makes me feel like we are similar in that way. To me what counts is not this superficial stuff. Even though his office is not ultra organized, it is clean, which is more important to me. I don't mind neatness to a degree, but I wouldn't like going to therapy in a total neatnik's office.

I also see a PNP, and her office is very neat and sterile. It just is not personalized at all. I believe this is because she rents the office for just part of the week and another provider uses it the other days. So they can't let stuff accumulate because it would impinge on the other person. The furniture is also rented. Very nice, but so impersonal. I liked it better when I saw her at an earlier location. She had a cubbyhole of an office, but it was hers.

My T (male) office is very neat and tidy which is a good thing because clutter would drive me nuts - I would want to jump up and clean it for him. Also his office is very calm and inviting - couches, rugs, bookshelves, soft lamps, warm lighting - very cozy.

My T appears to operate without paperwork.
I mean, I'm sure she has files and a computer, but they are not on show.

My T definitely has paper files, because he has mine out every week, but now that I think about it, I have no idea where he keeps them. He doesn't have a filing cabinet, and he only has one file drawer in in his desk. Surely not all his files fit in there, because I know he sees a lot of clients. I wonder what he does with them?

My T has become increasingly cluttered over the years. The bookshelves keep looming higher!! But he still has objects that I have given him over the years on those shelves.

The one thing that bothers me is when it gets dusty/dirty--then I feel like he is out of control in his life. He has a sick parent a few states away so I know his time is stretched. The dust feels like neglect to me.

Are you sure it is your T's office? We used another T's office (which was pretty small and messy) and since it was the same office each week, I just assumed it was my T's.

I would comment on the clutter :-) It might make an interesting bit of conversation about order and disorder and which you prefer, etc.

In the other T's office, my T would look through the other T's stuff to find a random piece of paper or magazine and use it to put her feet on on the second chair she used as a foot rest (so she wasn't putting her shoes/feet where someone else would sit later) and I asked her about how she knew the piece of paper she chose of someone else's was not important? It was a fun discussion.