[JonB]

OK - so I'm really trying to get something out of this therapy thing. I like my T, we get along great. Just doesn't seem like I'm really making any progress or that anything is changing. Of course, the obvious solution seems to be to say this to T which I do and then we sort of go round and round and round not doing much or accomplishing anything until I bring it up again and then round we go again. I'm sure this is my problem, I just don't know how to fix it.

As an aside, do you ever feel sort of like a dog being trained in regards to therapy and your T? Sometimes I feel like he's trying to lead me to some reaction and that I'm supposed to be responding in some preordained way unknown to me - but, good dog, when I get it right.

Just rambling...

Sorry I don't have the answer to your main question.

I just had to say that this here--- </font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Sometimes I feel like he's trying to lead me to some reaction and that I'm supposed to be responding in some preordained way unknown to me - but, good dog, when I get it right.


</div></font></blockquote><font class="post"> I couldn't have said it better - it's just how I feel!!! Wish he would just let me read that mystery/invisible book where the correct responses seem to be-- so then I would be a "good dog" all the time!!

[Bleufacez]

I'm with you... after 6 sessions my T is still trying figure out "who" I am or the type of person I am.

So... we all are just as lost as you are.

I have no blog entrys on this topic wrote so there is NOT a link in this post -

WARNING...

There is nothing that - I - would consider triggering in this post but know that this is

MY experiences with MY therapy program..

and if you do things differently then that is ok.

and that you have the choice to read this post or not so I am NOT responcible if some words within this post such as the word - co consciousness - are a trigger for anyone that CHOOSES to read this post...

BY continuing to read my post you are taking responsibiliy for your own trigger reactions...


What do - I - do when therapy stalls?

That depends on why it is in a "stall" sometimes I keep therapy at a standstill on certain issues for many reasons for example this plan of mine to use relaxation visualizations (hypnosis) to work on my nightmares. Having 19 different therapists I know saying hey Im using hynosis - therapuetic Dissociation (co consciousness with relaxation visualization hypnotic techniques) to locate my repressed memories and Im going to do so with or with out you. So when SKR and I gave up therapy time together in favor of a friendship relationship I kept the issues related to this nightmare on hold for over a year while LL and I got to know each other and develop a trust in each other and so that She could get to know my therapy program at a pace that was comfortable for her. When I knew she was using relaxation visualizations during a depression management class that she was teaching and I was attending I used the time to learn to focus on following her voice and then when I was sure she was ready and I was also ready at the same time I disclosed that part of my therapy program to her and we started adding doing relaxation visualizations to our sessions Then we took it the next step by using the sand try while relaxing to that therapeutic dissociation (co consciousness level of thinking) and it worked. I took myself back into that area of co consciousness at my last session with her when we were at a local community center playing at the piano.

There are other times when my therapy has been stalled for example when SKR felt I was moving too fast she would use various techniques to slow down things and keep me at one place for a bit.

As for the times when it just happens well that doesn't happen because I don't give it a chance to happen I always carry things to my sessions - journal entry, drawings, art projects, charts or workbooks that I am working on. If I get in the room and things feel like they are going nowhere I open my backpack.

[JonB]

Myself -
It sounds like you really know what you want to get out of it...I think I need your backpack. I'm impressed that you've managed to get so much with having had so many different Ts. I've only had two - one a few years back and the one I have now. Even when I click with the T or doc, it seems to take me awhile to get into a groove and figure out how they work. Do you have a system for breaking in a new T? I'm still working on coming up with my own bag of tricks. I'm sure I would spend less time going round in circles with T if I spent less time going round in circles in my own head

[prismatic9]

Personally, I have gone through many therapists over the unorganized years....but about 10 years ago, I got lucky and found one who was certified in EMDR. We used that to deal w/ most of my PTSD problems & it was always very fruitful. But in the past 6 months he has been giving me this "Physician Heal Thyself" attitude. NO MATTER WHAT I ask him, he counters it w/ "What would you tell one of your clients?"
and I find that within the past month, I make appts. and pace around on the morning of the appt. day & then wind up calling and cancelling out. I am just so afraid that if he uses that line ONE MORE TIME, I will lose it! There have also been some old PTSD issues that have re-surfaced, but w/ his attitude as of late, I don't feel as comfortable about doing it with him anymore.

I think I need that backpack too---but he'd try to fill it with more self-help books!

My therapeutic mack pack/ bag of tricks boils down to -

1 70 page (one subject) notebook
at least 2 pens for one is bound to not write when I need it.

then After sessions I take a few minutes to write a quick summary of the session. I Include the questions that my therapist asked during the session.

Then I Journal more on the session later including challenging myself to add more details then I did during the session.

from there it is a matter of using various modes of expression - drawing and other artwork, writing, making a collage and other crafts based on what my journal entries contain.

The night before my sessions with my therapist I reread my journal entries to see if anything that happened during the last session or in journalling about the last session that I want to tell my t herapist or just general things that may have happened between the last session and when I am rereading my journals that I want to tell her about.

I look through all the artwork and projects that I have done between sessions to see what I want to put inside that backback and take with me.

Getting so much out of therapy? I didn't until I finally realized that the therapists couldn't fix me that I had to fix myself and started doing the work needed to fix me by practicing and using what I was learning during therapy at home. Out of those 19 I only benefitted from maybe a handfull of them. the rest I was too closed minded to try the things they suggested and so on.

Figure out how therapists work? as in DBT, CBT and so on? I don't worry about all that. I know what has worked with me and wh at hasn't and so I just tell the therapist and regardless of what type of therapy process they usually do they do things by what I need and want to do. thats what therapy is - the clients problems and the clients goals and what best works for the client for the end result of accomplishing those goals. As long as I let the therapist know what works and so on they can gear their end of the sessions according to what I need. so I don't worry about what type of therapy. Instead I get to know them as a human being th at may just have some great ideas on what to do for my problems.

System for breaking in a new therapist? LOL I don't "break them in" I teach them about me is what LL and SKR have said to me. basically I take the time to let them know what works for me and so on. theres no sence in doing something the same way that I already have tried and didn't work.

Hang in there it will work out.

[Perna]

It sounds like a perception thing to me, Jon. I still remember when I went through a session and felt like we were talking about the "wrong" thing? I mentioned this and my T got thoughtful for a moment then said, "I agree." With that the session was over! I was blown away, I think because of my unconscious idea she was "in charge" of the therapy thing.

It's 100% your therapy. You are the only actor, the only one doing anything, your T is just along for the ride, kind of an advisor. You have to figure out what you want, what you feel. There are no "tricks" it's just uncovering and being who you are.

What's scary for you? What don't you want to tell your T? How do you work? My T and I figured out I was like a car travelling on the highway and when I'd get to something "difficult" I'd take the cloverleaf off then come back up later You have to put yourself into the emotional situations that you don't want to be in, think about the things you're trying not to. That's the only way to get anywhere in therapy. You have to take risks and see what happens and deal with what happens, etc.