[SoupDragon]

l won't go into details, but things are not great for me right now, overwhelm. My normal pattern at times like these is to send "I'm not coming to session" emails. My T and I have battled this out and T has made it clear it is not acceptable for me to skip sessions. So today, l made myself go.

l tried to "snap out of it" and be upbeat and engaged, but my brain was just feeling too slow and unfocused.

T asked what would be helpful and l said not to be in the session. l found T's questions overwhelming and instead of distracting me from negative thoughts, focused on them.

We spent time looking at distraction techniques which was ironic as the biggest distraction technique would have been not going to the session.

So here l am saddled with the negative stuff, but now also feeling bad about myself in the session, that it must be so tedious for T STILL having to deal with these times with me.

So back to my title, this seems like an occasion when going to T is not helpful.

[HazelGirl]

I think that if you allowed yourself to feel this way and be okay with allowing your T to see those feelings, instead of trying to be "upbeat and engaged", the sessions might be quite a bit more helpful in those times.

[Leah123]

I've definitely struggled with needing therapy to change 180 degrees to meet my needs in some cases. While a normal, talk it all out session often is just what's needed, it's been a worthwhile struggle to communicate to my therapist that sometimes I need something totally different.

I was so overwhelmed recently, that for a while, she just read me a story. Other times, she guides me in anti-anxiety exercises, positive visualizations, centering, body-oriented work, or we just share songs in silence, sometimes so I can just have a good cry.

It was very different than our norm, unusual for sure, but so soothing and helpful.

What can you imagine, if you think really hard, about what you need right in the moment. Usually, there is something we can gain from therapy to bolster us, if we can just pinpoint it. Took me trial and error, for sure and sometimes "it" varies, but it's good to get to know myself that way, to understand how different strategies are needed in different sessions.

[stopdog]

I don't fully understand about how a therapist can prevent you from taking off a week if you feel it would be useful to you.
Perhaps only schedule every other week for a while (or once a month or some scheduling change for fewer appointments) to see if doing some other stuff for awhile can help shake things up.
I am a big believer that breaks really are useful in helping focus and usefulness of therapy at times.