How do you feel about T's office?

Here are photos of therapy offices. I do not like the stark white clinical one:
The Holding Environment: Photographs of Psychotherapy Rooms | Documenting Medicine: A Program for Physicians

And here is the FLICKR version. Same thing, bigger photos!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/3162883...7630020175249/

I miss my t's office sooooo much. It had a big cozy couch with blankets and pillows that we would cuddle up with. It was my only safe place. I cant wait til she comes home again and gets an office again.

First time around, my T was at a clinic so she shared a room, and we floated between several different ones. Now that we're getting ready to resume at her individual practice, where she'll have her own room, I'm very curious to see how she decorates it, and how it may or may not reflect her personality.

T doesn't have "her own" office and varies between two rooms.

The main room isn't all that lovely, but its very homey. A couch, a chair, a desk, a full bookshelf, an end table for the chair and one for the couch, and a window. Its pretty small, and I much prefer it that way. It's very cozy. I love this room. I immediately walk in, toss my shoes off and curl up on the end of the couch by the window.

The second room, for my 'off' days is a bit more light and spacious, and I didn't like it. I told her this, she offered to ask another T to switch with her, but I wouldn't make her do all that. Now, it has a bit of an incense smell and she knows to turn the lights up bright. It's not as "safe" as the main room, but i've learned to adjust. It also helps that she doesn't sit far away from me even though there is plenty of room for her to do so.

I loved my T's office last year, despite the fact that it was in an old building. It had a certain comfortable, intimate atmosphere. This year, my school's counseling center moved to a newly-built space across campus. It looks ultra modern and isn't nearly as cozy or comfortable. I miss the old space, probably most for its distinct smell. It always made me remember the feeling of being cared about when I came in. This new building has no smell at all that I can associate with it. I am starting to get used to the new room though.

CBT T and I don't meet in his main office (a town away)---we meet in my medical clinic so the room was never meant for therapy but it looks like he does ad hoc therapy there on occasion, not just me.

Behind him is a bookshelf with a blanket, books and games plus a little pottery bowl with stickers in it. Just as I'm wanting to fish around the sticker bowl, I notice the ominously named books and games for child clients. Does "calm down time" sound fun?? Or, the "feeling thinking and doing game"??? No, sir not fun at all!!!!

I love T's office because the painting she did, and the photos that she took, are on the walls. I never remember the colors except the couch is beige, and very comfy. She has plants and bookcases. She has a lot of little things and I'm not even sure what they are, like her rocks (I think she took them home though), a toy that you link together (one of those stress buster things), and some other artistic type things. One day I want to look at everything more closely. She has a candle and a candy dish, and a cabinet with nuts and I don't know what else. Art supplies are somewhere too. Of course she has my collage on her wall, and now the card I gave her is sitting on the counter (not really a counter but I'm not sure what it is), and the stuffed bear I gave her is there, too. So is my book, One Child, among other books. It sounds cluttered, but it's not. There's a window, too. The best thing about the office is that T is in it.

My T's office is cluttered with books and papers everywhere. But there are two large windows where I can see the train and outside, that's nice and comforting. It is much better than his other small office he used to have.

It's fine. She only started working at the college earlier this year, it's not a private practice, so I don't know how "her" of it she made it. It's very neat and tidy though. The colours are nice. It's small, but not too small.

One of my Ts has an awesome office...the furniture is fun and modern, and the colors are very warm and inviting. I love the paintings on the walls and the overall artsy feeling to the space. My other T has an uncomfortable couch that is orange (circa 1970-something) and a huge tree that sheds leaves that he never picks up...plus a bunch of random papers around that he never seems to move. I so wish he would update and straighten!

I like my T's office a lot. The only thing I don't like is the painting that hangs on the wall directly across from where I sit...and only because it's always slightly crooked.

Other than that, it's fairly small, and looks like an office, but sort of has a "homey" feel to it. It offers plenty of seating to accommodate families etc, or if you're the type of person who likes to sit in a different spot each week. I am not one of those people. I have sat in the exact same spot every single time but once, when I was literally soaking wet from rain and I moved over to be near her space heater.

Interestingly, I realised yesterday that there's a couple of details about T's office that I've been misremembering when I picture it to myself. Including the ceiling, which is what I am staring at while I'm on the couch! It is high, with rafters, but not as high as I imagine it. I wonder why I misremember things like that...

Mast, I have some persistent spatial mis-perceptions, too. I suspect it has something to do with the strength of memories of emotionally charged sessions, some involving dissociation, which over ride other memories without the distortions. I recognize how my perception differs from reality, but I still remember those moments in the spatially distorted way.

I remember the first time I felt a sense of safety in T's room. Which in itself is pretty basic. A white box room with one wall full of books.
I've internalised that sense of safety now so I don't really notice the room. But it just goes to show, it's not the decor etc that crate safety. It comes from inside. We only believe certain decoration, colours Create feelings.
I guess that's why the rest of T's house is just white. Walls are the screens for our projections.

I thought of this thread when i went for my session yesterday. She had changed things in the office and it really threw me. She had taken away 1 chair (there were 3, now just 2) and had new blankets and a few new bits and bobs around the place.
I never thought this kind of thing would bother me..but it really did!

I think that would bother most people - you're used to your T being consistent.

One I see completely (according to her) refurnished her waiting area. All new furniture and repainted a different color and so forth. I was only in the waiting room 5-6 times and never for very long (a minute or so until she opened her office door except one time when she was 15 minutes late) and usually I was pacing around. She was surprised (she stated "I am surprised") when I made no comment on the changes and when I stated I had not noticed them, she went down the extensive list of the changes and told me every other client she had did comment. It was an odd exchange.

I wish my T had an office, waah. We do therapy online, which is totally awesome in many ways, but lacking in that physical sense of shared space.

However, since I began therapy, which I do from my home office, I have redone my office to make it a warmer, more affirming place, and I LOVE it!!!

It's painted a warm shade of primrose, with images I find empowering, colorful artwork from my daughter, a sun-lamp, and it's very cozy. I have grounding items, and many little things of significance to me in here, so, really, I've turned it into an almost perfect therapy office, complete with futon for when I need a post-therapy nap, haha.

I'm not a fan of my T's office. It's pretty generic and almost stark. The lighting is overhead fluorescent and I sit in a leather desk chair, which isn't very comfortable.

But it's my T's office and it's my safe place, so it's good.

the first thing that comes to mind is the bear lamp on her desk. that orb like sphere type thing on the end of the lamp string, always draws my attention. lol

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I really don't like my T's office very much. Stark wrote walls, fluorescent lighting, and a Thomas Kincaide painting on the wall. Good thing I adore T and can overlook these things.