Blind spots and pairing

I found this to be an interesting psych today blog entry

Your Therapist Probably Has One of These Nine Blind Spots | Psychology Today

and then I started thinking about how clients can take on these blind spots too.
And how if the therapist and the client have matching or compatible blind spots, both might be happier about the situation.

A particularly nasty blind spot is T assuming she knows what the patient needs and ignoring what he says he wants. I'm surprised that wasn't on the list. But people who draw up lists have blind spots too.

Perhaps exhaustive lists are difficult.

I wouldnt mind lying on a coach 4x a week... is one of the harbaugh brothers available?

Thanks for this article Stopdog. I particularly hate the way ts use the somatic therapy on clients without asking them first. My first t and some of my tutors do this quite a lot. They call it focussing- where you scan your body for feelings, bloody hell...I was having a nervous breakdown when I went to see t1, the last thing I needed or wanted was for her to keep asking where I felt it in my body- EVERYWHERE. I needed to talk about what lead to my breakdown or how to stop it.
I think a lot of ts aren't trained properly enough and draw from a lot of different theories that they knew very little about and instead of just blind spots they are just blind to what the client needs and just charge in like a bull thinking they know how to cure everyone.

Thanks, stop dog--

Both T's occasionally have some of those blind spots

Main T/psychodynamic-- can put too much emphasis on interpretation

CBT t jumps to fixing cognition problems asap, when sometimes allowing myself to feel bad for a bit with someone who cares is enough for me to move on to more helpful behaviors

Exactly, I think this was the case with my last Therapist.

The only blind spot my T has (in my experience with her anyway) is that she assumes that I can jump out of "therapy mode" into "accounting/business mode" as easily as she can and remember when she tells me she's raising her fee (said blind spot is what preempted the horrible argument last summer that led to a bit of a rupture when I insisted we talk about said horrible appointment.) We did repair the rupture and have a stronger than ever therapy relationship now, thank goodness!

"Compatible" blindspots may make an alliance feel smoother, but ultimately it impedes progress, so it should become apparent over time.

The only issue I would have with this writer is the idea that a generalization is invalid if there exist any exceptions. All generalizations have to be scrutinized, but just because they don't apply in every circumstance doesn't necessarily mean they have no usefulness. And I think he leaves the impression that theoretical knowledge is more of a hindrance than a help, and I would disagree with that. Such knowledge needs to inform and infuse the process of therapy, but not be in control of the process. That's why I think therapy is an Art supported by Science, rather than a Science practiced artfully.

ETA: Although he doesn't address it directly, his flexibility hypothesis also supports the idea of benign boundary crossings as potentially pivotal moments of progress--and there has been a certain amount of research indicating the value of such moments of flexibility. His approach would seem to give more prominence to such moments as a frame.

Interesting topic, but to be honest I'm a little disappointed after having read the article. From the title, I was hoping for something about therapists' view of the world and how that can influence where therapy is going - sometimes where the client wants it, sometimes, unfortunately, not quite ... (not just thoughts about some techniques working or not, I mean I think there's no one-size-fits-all either way). I've seen therapists who have a directly relational what's-happening-in-the-room-between-us with anyone, no matter the issue, and I've seen therapists who try to forget they are in the room at all and act like they're not in the therapeutic relationship and like anything that happens comes from the client when that isn't true. I find both extremes to be as much of a blind spot.

It's making me think about my and my therapist's blind spots are, though, and how these influence therapeutic approach. I don't mean blind spots in the way the article means them, but rather like a sort of preconceptions, ideas about the world which don't necessarily have to be true. Now I'm thinking I should also write an article / blog post about blind spots in my view ... I like the topic. well, at least when I'm done writing what's on my writing list already.

Thank you for posting. It's good food for thought.

Other blindspots not mentioned in the article---issues that your T struggles with that overlap with your own, making them less helpful because they are "too close" to the issue

The other extension of the topic was how the therapist and client handle the blind spots besides the client quitting.
I have never found the talking from the first one (I guess she was trying interventions or interpretations) to be on point or useful. Now that she will listen when I ask her not to talk - she is useful because she stays back. She has stated that she is now less kind - I never found her kind before and it feels more kind to me now that she will stay back and not keep trying to inflict herself on me. = so although I think it is a blind spot - she is somewhat flexible to stop it even if not completely going into another sort.