Momentum between sessions

This is more aimed at folks who don't have contact with their t between sessions, but anyone is welcome to chime in.

I am just wondering how you keep the momentum between sessions? How do you keep that desire to open up and share with t alive inbetween sessions?

I had a very exhausting, but good session on Wednesday. I feel really good about threapy right now. I won't see t for another 12 days. I am having tons of metal breakthroughs since my session and really wish I could share them with t RIGHT NOW. Usually journaling is enough for me, but it's just not cutting it right now. I am so afraid of losing that openness I felt this last session. Too much journaling bogs me down in my own thoughts.

Any ideas of things I can do?

Edit: I do not have phone or email contact with t between sessions. I've never asked about it. She's never offered it.

This is a problem for me too, but my T does not allow contact between sessions. We've discussed it. But I think it can really help sometimes, like with what you're going through now. Since you never asked, you don't know if it's allowed or not. So why not share with T via email? You can't be breaking any boundaries because no boundaries have been set. I think it's really important to try to hang onto that feeling of openness. So you could send an email and say that you don't know if it's OK or not but you felt it was important to share with her. Just be prepared that you might not get a reply, and if you don't it doesn't mean she doesn't care about you or that you've done something terrible, etc etc. My T is always bugging me about asking for what I need so since you need to contact T go ahead and do it!

I'm glad you're feeling good about therapy. It's such a nice feeling - try to keep it going!

I wish I could email and test the boundaries, but I don't even have t's email. The website only offers a general email. Maybe I will just start writing her letters that I can keep until I see her in 12 days.

My therapist does not provide email, and I can only call to schedule/cancel appts. She's married with kids, so she has a full life in between patients, which I understand. One nice thing about her is she's now doing it on her own schedule, so if I needed to see her twice in one week I could do that. And believe me, I've wanted to numerous times, but finding someone to take me that often is not easy.

I try to talk to those I trust with my stuff--my bf, certain friends (in fact, I don't know if anyone does this or has tried it, but I have a long-distance friend whom I call and leave voicemail messages to, and she does the same for me. We never actually talk on the phone, just vent in message or share good stuff, whatever, and if we want feedback we let the other know. That has been really helpful for me when I just want to get something out, but don't want to hear what anyone has to say.) Also sometimes if I'm having a particularly difficult time I will call the CrisisLine--someone's always there, they don't know me, and they listen. Some will talk with you, some will just be an ear.

Sconnie, I used to feel very shy with T when I would see him after a couple of weeks, after we went from weekly meetings to every other week. It would be hard to dive in and talk about meaningful things, much less go deep. We started spending much more time in small talk because I felt so shy, and this ate up our time. Finally, I told him the trouble I was having and he suggested longer sessions, but still two weeks apart. So we did 90 minutes and that helped immensely!!! Now I gotto therapy every 3-4 weeks and we usually do only 50 minute sessions. I just got used to it after a while and became better able to stay connected despite the interval. I think it is a skill and I finally learned it. Yay! I would suggest that you tell your T the difficulty you are having and see what she suggests. She may have some great ideas--ones you have never even thought of. (Like you, I don't phone or email my T between sessions.)

I do a lot of writing in between sessions - poetry, journal, and sometimes just the rambling stream of consciousness kind of thing. Also as I confessed in another thread (lol) I have imaginary conversations with her between sessions. I don't have contact with her between sessions either, well she's always said I could call if I need to, but I've never asked her to define need so I don't.

That was going to be my suggestion - write her letters or emails that you just don't send. Stick the emails in a draft folder or something. Then, bring them with you to session.

Even though my T allows between session contact, and I do email her about once a week, I often have lots more that I want to tell her, but don't want to actually email to her. I tend to type out draft emails to T and then just save them off. I don't want to abuse her time with tons of emails, so I try to limit myself to actually sending just one or two between sessions. So, I keep a draft email going, and I just type my thoughts to her there, then save it off, and update as needed until my next session. Sometimes, I'll even imagine what my T might say in response to some of the things I've typed.

I go 2x weekly. I think it works better with regular consiststant appointments. Such a big gap as 12 days would be hard to have a containment feel to it. Can you go more often?

I'm not sure I'm understanding the question.

My sessions are rarely continuance of the previous session, which I kinda like. My therapist doesn't revisit old conversations--not unless I bring them up. Sometimes when I say something "profound", she'll say something like, "We need to work on this." But we rarely ever do. I don't know why I like this. I guess it's because I don't like living in the past? Or giving significance to things that probably aren't that important? I don't know, but I don't think I would like it any other way.

When I go in on Monday, she will probably ask about my appt with my shrink, and I will spend a couple of minutes talking about that. And then...I have no idea what we will do. But we're always talking about something, and I will no doubt leave feeling better than I did when I came in.

Sometimes I think most posters here work harder with their therapy than I do.

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

I don't have insurance coverage, so every other week is all I can swing right now.

My sessions rarely continue a previous discussion unless I request that. Actually t puts me in charge of the topic each session. Her first question is how are you, and her second is what do you want to talk about today. This is more about carrying over the feelings of trust and openess we had last session.

I guess why it feels different this time is it's not a crisis. I am not in a bad place. I am actually in a really good place and just want to share the happiness with t. Maybe some of this stems from a few sessions ago when she told me her biggest wish was that I would find joy in my life.

i am also not allowed any contact between sessions but i do a lot of journaling .about 3 or so hours a day.probibly too much.so i stay connected this way.i also have a T journal that i write things and thoughts in that i would like to share with her.i never have exsept for one picture a few weeks ago. i also write her letters but i am not allowed to send them to her.but i do call heer if i need to if i am upset about something. i am allowed to call

Have you asked her if she has any sliding scale stuff? I believe my T regularly charges like $50 or more, but when I told her I was on disability/not working she lowered it significantly. What also helps is that she works out of a church (churches usually have low rent for groups that need a place to meet), so she doesn't have the overhead costs she did when having her own private practice/building. Maybe she would be willing to work with you money-wise so you could see her more?

She does give a reduced rate to me. I am very grateful for this.

That sucks you can't see her more. Though I'm in the same boat for a different reason; I have to find a ride there. And sometimes those are few and far between. I'm working on finding out if we have a cab service here (small town), and doing it that way.

I am sorry transportation is an issue.
I feel very lucky that t is only 3 minutes from where I work.
Usually I am okay with the two weeks. T even hinted that longer times between sessions might be approaching. I feel like I often show t all the bad stuff and for once I'd like her to see the good stuff too.