Who should decide on the topics you talk about?

No problem, Stopdog. Let me see if I can explain. What response would I like? Some version of, "Hey, Crazy, are you taking your pills?!" or "I think that moving to Thailand and becoming a monk might be one of those Very Bad Ideas you sometimes have," would be appreciated.

Why would it be his place to say something? Well, for me, my T is a healthcare provider. When I get stuck in a thought loop or am struck with the inspiration of a FANTASTIC (read: Very Bad) idea, these are (at least in part) healthcare issues. So, yes, I want my healthcare provider to help me recognize and reality-test healthcare issues.

Why would it matter to me? I like my T. I respect his professional opinion. He's pretty much the only healthcare provider I listen to.

If I didn't like my T or go to him for health care, the story would be different.

between my therapist and I is split . she asked me what I want to talk about in my session with her. other times she would ask me to do an exercise in counseling with her that she and I can work together in counseling .back in November of 2014 , she and I worked a collage in counseling that represents who I am as person what are my dreams and my ambitions . other times we are working on dual awareness cuz of my ptsd .









Diagnosis: Anxiety and depression
meds: Cymbalta 60 mgs at night
Vistrail 2 25 mgs daily for anxiety prn
50 mgs at night for insomnia with an additional 25 mgs=75 mgs when up past 1:00 in the morning

With my T, I think it's a pretty even split. I may come in wanting to talk about X but we end up talking about Y because my T pushes it that way (Y is usually something bigger than X and something that I'm avoiding). Sometimes she'll say let's talk about Y and I'll say no, I don't want to talk about that, and she respects that in that moment, I don't want to talk about the subject and we move on. And some things can be avoided for years. I avoided really talking about my eating disorder for years before I was ready, even though my T had tried to bring it up multiple times. Sometimes a T can see what the client can't, and in those cases, I think that they should direct the conversation, but if there's something that's really on the client's mind, that should be discussed first, unless it's a safety issue.

We go very both ways...depending on a lot of factors if I come in raging mad then he usually will take the lead or if I was super upset during the week and emailed him the night before asking him to take the lead on a specific situation he's great on taking the lead for me and directing the coversation especially when I want him to help me with trauma work. (Especially since I get stuck there a lot).

I always start the conversation either with an intent to talk about something specific or to just see where the conversation takes us that day. It really depends. There was one session where I actually asked her to choose a topic and she was sneaky and did an exercise with me instead. The exercise was about my needs and values and that actually led to a really good discussion without her choosing something specific to discuss.

once in a while one of us will say "we need to talk about..." but usually we just see where the conversation goes.