[mrmanatee]

What kind of therapy are you in and how is it helping you?

Also is it wrong to have two therapists? I was thinking about getting a second one. A week seems like a long time to go without talking to someone and maybe they would address different issues

[critterlady]

My T uses primarily psychodynamic therapy. It's helping me understand the reasons behind a lot of the issues I've struggled with most of my adult life. Plus, my T validates or challenges my thoughts on a lot of it. He gives me new perspectives on things that I probably never would have come up with.

I don't know that therapists are big fans of clients seeing more than one at a time. I know when my previous therapist was leaving, he wanted me to get established with a new one before he left. When I went to see her, she was more than a little put out that I was still seeing the old one until he left and told me that she didn't usually work that way, but she would make an exception because she was friends with my old T. It ended up that she was not the right T for me anyway.

[stopdog]

I think the one I see uses psychodynamic/eclectic. It seems like no real plan is going on.

They often do not like it if you see two. The one I see knows I go to others, but telling me not to would not work, so either this one really does not care, or she does not care enough to tell me to stop. Which for me is good, because I would not. I asked this question once on a forum where there were a lot of therapists who identified as such and were there as such, and their answers were no because it would hurt their feelings, it might interfere with what they wanted to accomplish, and there was not enough client love to go around and the client would like one therapist more than the other. (I am not kidding or making this up). Another Q/A forum had a therapist saying it was a violation of ethics (it did not say whose ethics) for a client to see two at one time.

[unaluna]

Originally Posted by stopdog

Another Q/A forum had a therapist saying it was a violation of ethics (it did not say whose ethics) for a client to see two at one time.

I read that on a canadian psychotherapists' ethics website. would you see two lawyers or two doctors? you know what I mean, like for the exact same thing and not tell the other. it would be unethical of them to give you more meds, for instance, without consulting the other dr, no? why would talk therapy be any different? unless you think they truly don't "do" anything. but they ARE a licensed profession.

Clients have to have ethics? Or what? We loose our license to be a client? I'm pretty sure I never signed anything like that.

[stopdog]

Originally Posted by lucydog

Clients have to have ethics? Or what? We loose our license to be a client? I'm pretty sure I never signed anything like that.

I think they put you on double secret probation.

[stopdog]

Originally Posted by hankster

I read that on a canadian psychotherapists' ethics website. would you see two lawyers or two doctors? you know what I mean, like for the exact same thing and not tell the other. it would be unethical of them to give you more meds, for instance, without consulting the other dr, no? why would talk therapy be any different? unless you think they truly don't "do" anything. but they ARE a licensed profession.

I go see more than one md if I need stuff too. My body, my sanity, my risk.

OP - you might want to check with the first one before you get attached to see how they will react if you see two. They can be big babies about stuff.

I don't know about lawyers- I've never seen one. But I'm a doc, and my patients sometimes go see other doctors (if their insurance allows). I don't mind. Second opinion and all that. What's the worst that could happen? That the other doc is right and I'm wrong? I wouldn't be upset about that because my ultimate goal is that the patient gets the care they need. From me or my colleague, I don't care. Even if I was hurt (and I would not be), it is hardly an ethical violation on their part. They pay me money and if they have enough they can pay someone else too.

[ECHOES]

I am in psychodynamic/psychoanalytic therapy. I see my therapist twice a week and feel many times like I could see her 3 times a week, but I could not afford that.
I've been seeing her for 5 years.

Therapy has helped me feel much less anxious, more hopeful, more autonomous, settle into my new job/position at work, have less paranoia, and feel a bit better when alone. These things have all improved, and we are still working on them.

I can't imagine seeing another therapist at the same time. I don't think that would work for me at all. In therapy, anything and everything can be talked about, so I wouldn't need a separate therapist.

What about seeing your current therapist more often, mrmanatee?

[Chopin99]

Eclectic. My T has done CBT, DBT, a touch of psychoanalysis, some faith-based principles, Rogerian, and has talked recently of doing inner child work.

I'm with echoes, can you see your T more often?

[CantExplain]

Originally Posted by mrmanatee

What kind of therapy are you in and how is it helping you?

Also is it wrong to have two therapists? I was thinking about getting a second one. A week seems like a long time to go without talking to someone and maybe they would address different issues

There's a column by Steve Martin where he laments that his two therapists disagree. "I have a call in to my third, tiebreaker shrink."