Being pushed

Talk therapy seems wildly different from T to T. Many say they are ecclectic but that is wide open too! So many styles, and you never know if it is right until you are already too attached to leave.

"Third rock from the sun" version of John Lithgow is pretty obnoxious...grandious and easily affronted, hurt and miffed, that is sometimes my T too. At least I know I can get under his skin! You can't get mad if you don't care!!

I expect to make progress. Just that it has to be the progress I want and not that of the therapist. The idea of progress is not always the same.

For me, pushing can be very helpful or very detrimental. I think that it has to do with the way parts of my FOO would push me when I was little (and this is an insight I only had now when I read this thread--it goes straight onto the list of topics to raise with T--thank you for starting the convo!)

Fundamentally, I think, I interpret pushing in one of two ways: either it's "You won't be able to work out what to do, so I have to tell you and tell you and prod you to do it", or "I trust you to be able to do this thing but I know that right now you are not able to do it without a bit of prodding." The difference being that in the former case I interpret it to mean that I am fundamentally flawed and need to be corrected, and in the latter case I'm just not able to do something without a bit of help right now. The difference lies in the attitude of the prodder, and also how much I trust him, I think.

Sort of. I guess that might be simplifying it, but as I say it's a new insight for me