[growlycat]

OK I need some funny.

When you have searched for a T in the past or currently, what funny deal breakers make you say "NOPE". (Too many cat figurines? Bad decor?)

plz make me laugh

[stopdog]

One of them spoke about themselves in the third person

One of them started telling me about their own abuse history in the first session. It wasn't funny but I ran for the hills as fast as I could.

[growlycat]

Originally Posted by stopdog

One of them spoke about themselves in the third person

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illeism

I just had to read up on why some people do that

[growlycat]

Originally Posted by lolagrace

One of them started telling me about their own abuse history in the first session. It wasn't funny but I ran for the hills as fast as I could.

Just WOW!

[atisketatasket]

Too many stuffed Eeyores. Seriously. I think I counted like 32, but some might have been hiding behind others.

[stopdog]

Yes - I saw one that had a very large collection of somewhat demonic looking teddy bears of all sizes and seriously - everywhere in the office. There had to be over 50 of the things. It was seriously creepy.

Another one had a two tier floor and her chair was on the upper tier and the client's chair was on the lower tier.
I left that one early as I recall.

Originally Posted by atisketatasket

Too many stuffed Eeyores. Seriously. I think I counted like 32, but some might have been hiding behind others.

Ha! I so a psychologist at one point who had like 50 elephant statues around his office, many of them on the round coffee table in the middle of the room. He was actually quite a good therapist, and I would have kept working with him, elephants and all, but I moved to another city fairly quickly.

The story behind the elephants was that he had gone on safari at one point and had purchased like two figurines while in Africa. Clients got the idea that he was into elephants and started giving him more figurines as gifts. Then it just kind of turned into a joke. My sister used to see him and told him that she believed all the uplifted trunks indicated that he had a phallic fixation. LOL! (They were actually really gorgeous figurines though.)

[growlycat]

Originally Posted by lolagrace

My sister used to see him and told him that she believe all the uplifted trunks indicated that he had a phallic fixation. LOL! (They )

That would have been my takeaway!

[Daeva]

I had one who would never look me in the eye and would suck on her teeth, and her hair during the sessions. I just couldn't.

[atisketatasket]

I hope Cinnamon makes a contribution to this thread. Because that story is funny, in an omg kind of way.

I thnk it was Pink who left a therapist who dressed in pastel leather dress suits and her husband, who collected some kind of figurines. Precious Moments maybe?

[growlycat]

OHHH I think I remember those stories!! Hope I'm not duplicating a thread!

[atisketatasket]

Originally Posted by growlycat

OHHH I think I remember those stories!! Hope I'm not duplicating a thread!

Meh. Threads get repeated all the time. And this one might afford us all some needed chuckles.

[growlycat]

Not hilarious, but I did have a T early on who kept cacti as his office plants, and they looked neglected. A nurture free zone lol I should have recognized it.

[scorpiosis37]

The T seemed normal on the phone but when I showed up, she was super hippie-dippie and said that all clients had to pass through certain "light levels"'and at the end all of the clients would meet as a group and share their trauma stories as a way of achieving the last light level. I ran for the hills!!

[Out There]

The disastrous T had a huge , strange piece of modern art on the wall like something from " Scream ". It looked really expensive as well. It was the icing on the cake on top of the plethora of other things that were wrong.

[Merecat]

I saw one who worked out of her home. She asked me if I liked cats as she saw me into her lounge to wait while she finished with her previous client (I was 10 mins late, so she was well over time). By the time she came to collect me she found one of her cats sitting on my head (I couldn't get him off me) and the other in my handbag. The room she worked out of had stuff everywhere - there was a pile of books above her head which looked like it would topple and fall at any minute. I got to the end of the first session and never looked back.

Found this on the meaning of Therapist decor
Therapist Office Decor: A Study On Its Hidden Meaning

[Luce]

I once had an initial session with a T who wore fishnet stockings, a black leather miniskirt and a red satin shirt with an inappropriately plunging neckline.
I did not return.

[awkwardlyyours]

I don't know if most (non-judgmental, read unlike me) people would consider this stuff to be deal breakers but I can't seem to get past them. So, can't deal with anyone who --

1. Emphasizes mindfulness, meditation, yoga, spiritual, the phrase "Eastern philosophy" (or spirituality etc) in their profile.

2. Has a list of questions in their profile about potential clients that go like "Are you depressed? Anxious? Looking to fulfill your life purpose?......." etc.

3. [Related to (2) above] Have stuff like "Clients tell me I'm warm, accepting....." etc in their profile.

4. Has images of flowers, candle flames, flowers + candle flames + random waves / rivers or other equally nausea-inducing stuff on their website / profiles.

5. Emphasizes some very specific type of therapy (E.g. EMDR etc) rather than broad training.

6. Has a photo that looks like it was taken in the 80s or something -- with the blurry, frozen, bad resolution look.

7. Includes photos of dogs, cats, pets or the therapist doing some random hobby.

And, this is all apart from other basic stuff like education, experience etc.

So, yeah, the more I look at other profiles as I think I should switch Ts, the more I find that my current T is one of the very few (at least going by PsychToday profiles) who I would actually bother seeing. Rather depressing.

Or, well, I should quit being ridiculously picky. Argh.

[Waterbear]

I have just been reminded that one of the ones I saw, the one with the very turquoise room and wooden chairs had a door that wouldn't shut properly and she had to barricade us in with a table!

She also looked about 20 years older than her profile picture and, before I had even said a single word, not even hello, had me filling in a questionnaire asking, amongst other things, whether I was suicidal or had ever harmed another human being. Oh, and the second session her flies were undone and I was like, seriously, who doesn't check for that when meeting alone in a room with another person, or is that just me?

She did seem quite nice just a bit (OK, maybe a lot) out there and certainly not for me!

[LonesomeTonight]

This was a T I saw a few times, so went a bit beyond the search, I guess. I was having really bad anxiety during my pregnancy. One of the things she wanted me to do, as homework, was make a collage with my hopes and dreams for the future. Here I am, in a state of constant panic, and she wants me to make a ****-ing collage?!? I mean, I understand art therapy can be helpful, but this felt more like an assignment they'd give to 5th graders or something.

She also kept suggesting that I get involved in some sort of organized religion. She was Jewish, I'm technically Christian, but it wasn't like she was pushing any particular philosophy on me. Just saying to go to some sort of religious service regularly. Which...I get that she wanted me to have other support, but not very helpful for my intense anxiety/panic.

I stopped going back after the third session. She was very nice, just not for me!

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by Merecat

I saw one who worked out of her home. She asked me if I liked cats as she saw me into her lounge to wait while she finished with her previous client (I was 10 mins late, so she was well over time). By the time she came to collect me she found one of her cats sitting on my head (I couldn't get him off me) and the other in my handbag. The room she worked out of had stuff everywhere - there was a pile of books above her head which looked like it would topple and fall at any minute. I got to the end of the first session and never looked back.

OK, that image of someone sitting there covered in cats is just too funny!

[A18793715]

Originally Posted by lolagrace

One of them started telling me about their own abuse history in the first session. It wasn't funny but I ran for the hills as fast as I could.

That happened to me a few weeks ago, first phone call, first contact. Everything. We talked for 30 minutes and I found out she was teenage mom and has a daughter a few years younger than me that she

--- trigger ----

That she was sexually assaulted by her dad as a child. Who says that in the first ever talking to someone?

--- end trigger ----

And random personal things. I didn't go back.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We don't choose who we get here. It is a referral system.

My CBT therapist had tin foil on the upper halves of the windows in her office (how ironic in a mental health clinic, haha). Turns out though that people from the building next door were looking in and she didn't want to darken the room by closing the drapes.