Do you feel like a kid again in therapy?

Sort of a counterpart to and inspired by the reparenting poll.

Do you feel like a kid again in therapy? However you define feeling like a kid. And regardless of whether they're reparenting you or not. And whether or not you have parental transference. Whether or not they treat you as a child.

Whenever I stay with my mother, I do feel like a kid. I don't in therapy. I sometimes feel like I'm speaking Russian while they're speaking Tagalog, but not like a kid.

Yeah I do sometimes. We play games and I get to hold a little bear. I like it, cause I feel safe with him. Like being able to experience those feelings and not have bad things happen.

I voted Other because I don't feel like a kid in therapy, but my therapist used to ask me how old I felt at particular times. I told her I didn't feel young when I was young, so how would I know what it feels like now. Besides, what child goes around saying, I'm feeling really five today. She is banned from asking that anymore and it's gone much better.

I didn't feel young when I was young, either. Mostly I remember feeling always like an observer, keeping a running commentary in my head on the world around me, like I was studying it.

I don't usually feel like a kid in therapy -- a bit surprising given that I usually feel like a kid (read helpless, incompetent, paralyzed etc) outside of therapy. But, that could just be current T's style of focusing on the cognitive.

Oh thank you for this poll!! I am so looking forward to reading responses. I am fighting issues about this exact thing in all areas of my life right now but in most all social situations I can keep it covered up but in sessions with t it is as if I can't keep the shell in place anymore and that younger person is getting more control (i never cried anywhere until several months ago in session and now it seems to happen most sessions and sometimes t even says he sees regression and asks how old I feel but he doesn't realize yet that the different ages happen constantly and I am just not able to control them as well around him).

I can't wait to see what other people experience. Maybe your poll can add insight to my quest for understanding this chaos.

Thank you so much for posting

Ditto, but yeah now i can finally relax. Playing was never my job as a kid. My cousins could be kids, but NOT MEEEEEEE.

No, I think even as a child I felt very old. Actually, it had less to do with age than with emotionally energy. I always felt very battle weary.

Once in a while I feel a mentor-ish dynamic in the therapy relationship that makes me feel like a teenager. I quickly put a stop to that nonsense by insulting or criticizing the therapist.

Well, now I want to start a thread called something like "what's the worst thing you've ever said to your therapist?"

I feel like an idiot - not a kid.

"I can do without your insincere platitudes, [insert aggressive use of t's first name]."

"Well, no ****ing ****, Captain Obvious."

"When I come in, expecting to meet with you, and you aren't there--well, [Name] It's rather like biting into an eclair only to find creamed asparagus on the inside--It's disappointing, [name], and it doesn't make any sense."

I like the first one best.

Again? Always.

This is a great idea for a thread.

I have actually said that I find her stuff cliched, banal and platitudinous (she asked me to repeat the last two -- my foreign accent etc -- which unfortunately took all the sting out of my having said it vehemently the first time around).

For good measure though, I have repeated the banal and platitudinous bits a few times -- she asks me to repeat "platitudinous" ever so often (ah, I now wonder if it's a sneaky thing she does to take the wind out of me). Sigh.

Very sadly though, the last time I tried saying them -- this time with a lot of force and in-the-moment (one of her favorite phrases) i.e., as soon as she said the particularly banal thing -- she immediately asked as to why I'd been "triggered". I actually should've replied saying the word 'triggered' is what triggered me -- like seriously, since when did saying that something was banal become a sign of having been triggered?

She did though end up catching herself later in that session when she started saying something and then said 'Oh that's a cliche' -- I was about to look at her with a hint of pride for finally getting it but since I had to remain in character with my sulky mood then, I didn't.

Somehow though, she seems to think that my not saying that she's maternal or nurturing is a greater insult -- she has encouraged me to tell her what I find banal etc but when I try explaining why I don't find her maternal, things go south very very fast.

Yes I did with my old T. A lot of childhood needs came up in therapy. With my new T, its so different that it doesn't happen.

Your wish is my command. It's up.

I have DID, so i feel like a kid a lot anyway. But therapy is a safe place for the inside kids to come out and express themselves, be vulnerable, and learn new things.

I feel like a kid in therapy when we go mentally or emotionally to places of my child grief or longing. When we talk about how no one ever let me ply or played with, I feel like a lost child who is desperate to be loved and accepted. I think this is one of the core emotions that lives in my soul.