attachment

I don't know how anyone can possibly know whether that's true. If you google something like "obsessed with therapist", you will find an endless stream of articles, blogs, forum posts, etc. Seems there is no shortage of evidence to suggest that it is the norm.

Even if the above poll is double what's out there, that's still 1 in 4, which would be alarming.

I think the reality is that therapy sucks people into a vortex of attachment, obsession, neediness, dependency. It's in the DNA of therapy. The client, however, will be told to look inward to understand this. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.

I don't know any more than any of us know since this forum is not a demographically accurate make-up of all therapy clients . . .

I am not so sure it isn't. I have a lot of friends who have gone to see therapists - and quite often they can't shut up about them. Students tell me about their therapists (and their meds - it seems all my students are drugged for some reason or another). I have found it harder for people not to talk about their therapy than to do so.

This is my experience too. I think it's not so much that we as a group are obsessed with therapy while others are not; we're just the ones willing to post about it. Even a self-selected group can be representative.

My T's spouse is also a T, so I think they probably both understand the fact that attachment happens, and is often a necessity to get the client where they need to be - to offer a secure attachment to those who need to internalize a healthier self-object. Attachment is a therapeutic process that therapists frequently want their clients to engage in, not for their own gratification, but because there's a therapeutic reason for it.

Really, that's a question for my T. He has a duty to exercise appropriate self-care as per the ethical code he follows.
I have no such responsibility to him, and I pay him to keep his stuff out of my therapy.

I am attached to my T.
I have gone though very intense erotic transference, and now I 'just' feel attached, but balanced. It has been very informative, helpful and healing to go through that process, but I didn't choose it, and couldn't control it. My T has always been boundaried and containing.

I don't think about the ramifications for my T, why would I? It doesn't have an impact on her other that I'm just one more obsessed client , and she always handles it ethically.

In response to the queries about whether this 'data' should be collected, I think most Ts are aware already that a large number of clients get obsessed/attached. It is, for some clients, and in some modalities of therapy, an important and necessary part of the work. Hopefully, to have a different experience of that attachment or relationship. It doesn't always work, but it's healing when it does.

I'm obsessed and wish I wasn't. I feel desperate for an attachment with my t, but equally fearful of it. It makes it very difficult for both of us in my therapy because it is almost impossible to find the right balance of attachment and separation that feels good, safe, and containing for me. If I begin feeling too attached, it freaks me out and scares me, so I step way back. If I don't feel attached or connected enough, I feel a painful yearning that is hard to bear. My attachment style is disorganized.

Do I think of the ramifications of my attachment to my t's career and persona life? I absolutely think about the effect on her career in terms of how often I contact her between sessions and request a reply. But I try to be very strict with myself when it comes to this. In the past, I felt a great need to have contact between sessions, in order to hold onto the connection with her. However, at some point, she requested that I email less and make my messages shorter. This hurt me greatly, even though I understood why. Since then, I try never to email her at all unless it is a last resort.

No, I don't think about the ramifications of my attachment in her personal life, because I don't believe it affects her personal life. I never contact her at home for any reason, either by email or phone. I never have. Regardless of the obsessiveness of my attachment, I would not cross that boundary, simply out of respect for her.

Yeah cause it's always the client's fault.....

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Collecting data on the frequency with which clients become caught in obsessive entanglements would not be for benefit of Ts. This data could be shared with prospective clients and the general public. It's the sort of transparency that makes for an ethical profession (yes, i am implying that the profession is less than ethical).

As for the idea that a client becoming obsessively fixated on therapy and therapist is "necessary"... seems that is overselling it quite a lot. I'd say at best it is unfortunate and dangerous and in some unknown number of cases is parlayed into something beneficial.

Voted "obsessed" but that's a thing of the past, thank God. I am very immune to getting obsessed with anyone at this point and I hope for the rest of my life, which feels very liberating.

I voted as if I were still seeing Madame T, because I haven't felt attached to anyone subsequent therapist.