Are some things too embarrassing to tell your therapist?

I've really had problems with this. Does anybody else also have that problem?

Do I need to get over my embarrassment and tell them?

Yes, a lot of things I tell my T are too embarrassing. The way I got over it is by repeatedly asking her if anything was TMI, (too much information) and each time she answered "no". It was still hard. I blushed, looked around the room but not at her, and blurted out what I needed to. Or, as an alternative, a few times I drew pictures or wrote words on a paper in the office and then showed it to her. I gradually learned that I could trust my T with anything I had to say, no matter how embarrassing. It takes time, and sometimes you have to just grit your teeth and say it, or write it in an email.

I have this problem with my T also. I think it is magnified by the fact that he is a Christian therapist and talks about God so much.

You don't just "get over" things. That's one of the worst things to tell someone. What you should consider is whether it is necessary for them to know something or not. For example, let's say you have a thing for boiled eggs and go all "Cool Hand Luke" one weekend.

Does that apply to why you are seeing them? Did you eat them because you were depressed or have an eating disorder or is it just because you were really, really Jonesing for boiled eggs? If it applies, then is it really important for you to get past whatever is bothering you? (Like the eating disorder or whatnot.)

You can go through this scenario and see how it may or may not be important for them to know. Once you can get things sorted in your head, it's not quite as embarrassing to tell someone something they need to know so they can help you. Kinda like telling a mechanic that your radiator hose blew. It may be embarrassing that it blew because you were drag racing, but he needs to know so he can fix it.

Same type of thing, that's how I approach embarrassing subject. Does the therapist need to know so I can fix my problem? I may get all "Oooo, no, no, no ..."

But it's the only way I'll get better.

There have been a bunch of things that I was initially too embarrassed to tell my t. As I've gotten to know him better and trust him more, I can tell him more things. For some things, I've just had to come out and tell him that I needed to tell him something, but I'm really embarrassed and could he help me? In those cases, he's always gently helped me get them out.

There's a line in a movie (We Bought a Zoo) that someone here once pointed out to me and it's been my mantra ever since: "Sometimes, all it takes is just twenty seconds of insane courage." Twenty seconds. I figure I can tolerate almost anything for twenty seconds.

I love Webgoji's advice.
I struggle greatly with finding everything about this process embarrassing. It's made it hard to know what to say, or not to. Just know you're not alone, Lobster Hands.

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Yes, There is a lot of stuff I want to tell my T but I haven't got the nerve to tell her yet, Some things are just so embarrassing to tell my T, Maybe one day I will.

Definitely, but I also think they've heard it all. That doesn't mean it's easy to share. I have something really, really trivial I want to share but I'm too embarrassed.

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Me. Too.

I'm embarrassed to talk about things, I'm embarrassed that I'm embarrassed. The whole process is hard and awkward.

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I tell her everything. She knows all my flaws.

I figure that if it's important to the therapy, they need to know, no matter how embarrassing it is...but putting this into practice is rather complicated, because sometimes I don't know if certain things are relevant to the therapy or not. I feel like super embarrassing stuff I would never ever talk about, specifically related to sex, probably actually is relevant because it relates to larger themes of shame and disconnect from my body and stuff that happened when I was a kid, but I would still never, ever say any of that stuff out loud to anyone, and part of me tries to rationalize that I'm not going to see T to talk about sex; I'm going to see T to deal with anxiety and resolve past trauma...so I don't know.

I also tell my therapist everything, but it is also sometimes painful, sometimes embarrassing, sometimes anxiety-inducing, sometimes just terrifying.

After disclosing though, I usually end of feeling some relief. Sometimes, I feel the relief almost instantly, other times, it takes days or much longer for me to recover from opening up so much.

Yes but I think that is a good thing because it shows that she is a Human Being who I might not want to tell my most personal things to.

thanks For Answering Guys...Maybe I'll Feel A Little More Comfortable Next Session.

Love your handle BTW!

both t's have said that nothing is TMI…that is very reassuring.

I was embarrassed to admit to my T that I was bi-sexual, but one day it just came out. I'm happy it did though.

YES!
And a big one is a huge therapy-needing issue for me!

Not necessarily embarrassed, but there are some things I just don't think my Pdoc needs to know about, because they're not relevant. Recently I did struggle a bit with bringing up a loss of sex drive, which I felt was impacting negatively on me by making me worry about my husband's feelings. That was awkward not because of the subject matter, but because it was something that had never come up before and not something we'd really been working on. It felt awkward, because it felt so random. Once I bought it up with Pdoc though he was his usual helpful self and referred me to another clinic, that unfortunately had undergone some changes and no longer took on patients for relationship type therapy, so instead I found a support group online and found out the lack of sex drive was most likely related to long term use of Tramadol. I told my Pdoc about this in an email, and went on to say I'd been doing some recommended exercises involving mental and physical stimulation. Now clearly that meant erotic fantasy and masturbation, but he didn't need to know every blow by blow detail regarding exactly what I was doing or how I was doing it. Same as discussing sexual problems in the first place, things have recently started to gradually improve for me in that area, so I'll probably share that with my Pdoc next session, because I like sharing positive things with him, but it's not like I'm going to go into graphic detail about who did what to whom, and what positions did we use, and did we use any toys, etc etc - that stuff is none of his business.

I have avoided telling my T embarrassing things. Recently though, I told him one. He was so unaffected. Here I thought it was such a big deal and to him it was tragic, but nothing he has not heard before and he told me why it happened and helped me begin the healing. Wow, I have so much more I want to tell him (but, will take it slow)

Be gentle with yourself. It's hard!

Start small, take little steps and gradually increase your comfort zone perhaps?

Most definitely.