[Mactastic]

I started therapy to work on my relationships, fear of dating, and attachment issues. It's going really well. I have turned a corner in my ability to trust him and we're working openly with my transference and I'm feeling hopeful.

But I have the nagging feeling I need something else from him, help with my fear of the dentist. Truthfully, this goes beyond a fear and I think it's safe to say it's a phobia. I have gone to the dentist maybe twice in 15 years. I have horrible memories of my childhood dentist and I have never once had a positive experience.

How on earth do I bring this up? It's killing me. He welcomes email, so I could start the conversation that way, but it's still scary. Has anyone veered away from your treatment to discuss something your therapist "never saw coming?" I've thought about terminating with him when I'm ready and then finding another T to work on my phobia, but we already have a relationship, why not work with that? He's mentioned he does phobia work with other clients, so I bet he could help me.

Lastly, my fear is very embarrassing to me. I hate talking about teeth, the dentist, everything. I'm ashamed of my inability to be an adult and just GO. I get anxious even looking for a dentist online

[stopdog]

I imagine I say stuff to the therapist all the time that she never saw coming.
Every so often, with something like a fear of the dentist, I will start it out by saying "okay today I need to see if you can be useful in a practical way ..."
It does not seem to throw the woman off at all.

[Elektra_]

ur therapist is there for EVERYTHING u wanna work on. u can add that to ur treatment. its what his there for. since ur embarrassed u can email him telling u need to talk about other prob u would like to work in sessions. but ull have to feel comfortable talking in person about it. no need to be embarrassed at all.tc

[HazelGirl]

I started seeing my T for depression. We are now, 2 years later, in the middle of trauma therapy. Yeah, you can work on other things, too

[A Red Panda]

I got put with my T after being diagnosed bipolar - he's never had to work with me to manage my bipolar symptoms. We work on anxiety and abandonment/trust issues as well as a bit of family trauma.

My t and i discuss everything under the sun, and i do mean everything. Nothing is off limits, and some of the weirdest stuff comes up.we talk about anything and everything going on in my life to groceries to what i pack for lunch to stuff going on in our families to...whatever!

[sweepy62]

Hell I ended up talking about climate change lol I think it was a defense mechanism.

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[growlycat]

It's perfectly fine to ask your T if he/she can help you with additional issues. The worst that can happen is that they would refer you elsewhere if not something they deal with. Sounds like your T can handle phobia work so why not?

I started seeing CBT T for health management issues and he ended up also helping me with a driving phobia. It just sort of came up. I also told him way more than I thought I would--my psychodynamic T handles most other stuff.

But, yeah, bring it up if you can. They never push beyond what you feel you can do.

We spoke about everything under the sun. No topic was off limits. Though therapy was painful at times, I had a ball.