Dear Client

Dear Satsuma,
I'm so pleased for you and I feel proud of you for how far you've come. It's really good that you are able to be more open with people. I know your life will keep on getting better and there are lots more happy things to look forward to in the future.
Oh and also you can keep seeing me for as long as you like, until you're old if that's what you would like. I have told you that before but I don't mind saying the same thing over and over again.
Love from T.

Dear ATAT,

You know how I said at our first session that the first principle of therapy was "do no harm"? Yeah, I was lying.

No. 2

Annie,
You're a piece of ****. All of your problems are you're own fault, but you think you can just blame them all on depression. You won't do any of the work I give you. You just want me to fix you. Well, I can't. You're helpless. Untreatable. You will always feel this way. Get over it.
T

c-
Just get the f**k out already
-t

i texted my T one time and said tell me to clean! he sent back CLEAN! and i cleaned

I wish you had come to me as a supervisee because I like working with you but you're toooo much work as a client.

Hmm maybe i should try that. I noticed how bad my kitchen floor looks last night but just couldn't make myself mop it...

Dear ATAT,

I'm SO glad we've finally bonded. I know you're skeptical, but trust me, we have.

CW

For ****'s sake, Annie, get it together. Your life is not that bad.
T

Art,

I know, I do.

T

Art - enough with the emails already. Please, just stop. Seriously. You should not be so needy of me anymore, and I need to take care of me right now. So just grow up already and get out of my hair. You've been a thorn in my side for far too long now. Get.Over.It. and go the f away.
T

Annie,
I can't believe you're delaying going home just to see me. That's sad.
T

I'm going to be here for you no matter what.

cr,

you did well for reaching out and asking for a replacement session this week. I'm glad that you didn't just withdraw and kept aloof, pretending not to "need" me. Now the next challenge lies ahead: Will you find the words (and allow yourself to speak them) to express your anger towards me?

I will and I can hold your anger, and I will not shrink back. Promised. If you remember - right at the beginning I actively invited you to bring everything - even your anger! And I still mean it. But YOU need to bring it into session with you. That is your part.

Love, T.

Take your meds, stupid girl

Dear LT,
Your e-mail did actually hurt me a little--but that's OK, and I'm not going to abandon you for it. It just made me think about how different I have been with my patients since then. I guess I didn't realize how different I'd been. I thought I was mostly the same, though maybe a bit more distant. Thanks for making me aware of that. And for waiting a bit to do that--if you'd said that to me a couple months ago, I'd have been more likely to have been defensive or lashed out. That was just the place I was in then.

I appreciate you being sensitive to my feelings and needs, though I'll tell you that you don't have to care about them. Because that's what I'm supposed to say. But it really does touch me that you care so much. So thank you. Maybe you are a little more special to me than some of my other patients. I suspect even if they knew what happened, many of them would say they were sorry, but deep down they wouldn't give a ****. You're perhaps too far at the other end of the spectrum--you care *too* much. And that can be hard for me to deal with at times, because it makes me have to think about my own emotions. It's easier to keep the wall up at work. But at least you seem sensitive to my needs around that and aren't pushing too hard for me to share.

So even if you can be a bit (or really!) challenging sometimes and can be a bit needy and demanding of my time, I'm really glad you're my patient. Because just as you've said I make you feel understood, you make me feel understood, too.
Love you,
MC

(what I hope)
Dear Art -
We will talk on Wednesday. You know better than to think I would use email for this discussion. Yes, I know that you care (and I appreciate it). It is who you are. I love that about you even though I won't tell you. Stop catastrophizing, because I know that's what you are doing, it isn't helpful to either of us.
- T

Dear ATAT,

I am so glad we got a chance to talk about our relationship today. I am also glad you want this to be as business-like as possible, because that's how I work.

I will try to be as helpful and supportive as your No. 3, without all her boundary-crossings.

CW

can you not tak a ****ing hint?

go away... for real. stop contacting me. just go the **** away

Dear cr,

so in the end you got what you wanted. An individual session with me ... Or should we call it farewell session?

Seriously: I feel it is important to try to wrap things up, to process together what has and hasn't been happening in the last few weeks. So you don't have to walk away defeated and desolate. At least I hope that we together can get to this point.

Maybe I overestimated your ability to deal with groups in general. And I defnitely underestimated how transference might become an "augmentor" to all the troubles that are there already.

So, please, be honest with me. Bring your questions. All of them. I will try and answer them as good as possible. And bring the rest of the things you might want to tell me as well. Even if it comes from your stroppy and defiant self (which I really like btw, even if you don't believe me).

Thank you for taking me up on my offer for this final session. to be honest, I wasn't sure whether you'd be up for it or not...

Love,
art T.

PS: If you want a farewell hug, you will have to ask for one...

Hi Lost,

You threw me for a loop today when you started talking about PTSD. That was the last thing I thought you would ever come out with. Proud of you, though...maybe now we can move towards you expressing your feelings? I'm with you, all the way.

Kindest regards
R

Dear Waterbear,

I am proud of you. So very proud of you and all of your achievements. I am also proud of how, even through the difficult times, you continue to work, strive, fight. Your determination is endearing.

I did get emotional today because hearing you talk, in words, of how you felt, of how in that moment you found your place in this world, was magical, and a testament to you and the work that you are doing here.

I sometimes do not know how to help you. I try my best to understand you, but as I have said before, you and I seem to think very differently and sometimes that causes me to struggle to decipher what you are saying or what you need. I am pleased to hear that this doesn't always upset you anymore though, because that is the last thing that I want.

I wish that you had had better. I wish that you had had people who knew how to interact with you. I wish that you had not been picked on, used, neglected, abused. I wish that I could have helped you back then, but I don't see how me wishing that will help you now.

I never know what I am going to get with you, and I find that interesting, intriguing, challenging, fun and, in a way, unique.

I am right here rooting for you. I am here whenever you need me, when I can be, and I am pleased that you know that now, that you can trust that, mostly!

I always look forward to seeing you, you know, and I am looking forward to seeing you and everything that you bring on Friday.

PS. I love you too, in a way that I struggle to define, but I feel it in my heart, and I trust it.

D,

No one will ever believe you. It's all made up in your head. Oh, your knee is hurting you? You feel desperate? I don't care. Stop whining and pull yourself together. You're an adult, act like one (that includes not crying on a train!)

And remember, noone is ever gonna believe you. No one will ever care, doesn't matter how hard you're trying to convince them. Even I don't believe you and I'm a T!

Go on with your plan and quit.

Dear Demunie,
Your T believes you and care. Other people believe you and care. It's true. As I know, you're a very nice person.

Please, believe your T too and discuss your possible quitting with him. I don't want to say he better knows what you should do, but I think you'll feel better after telling him. It's very difficult to fight with your own feelings alone.

Take care,
captgut's T