Couch 129: The Semiprime Couch

Ah - I thought it was a person in a movie -

The intake was very straight forward. I never did one before. She said can I contact your previous T , I said no. She said you have a right to your privacy under hippa but may I ask why. I said the simple answer is I don't want your perception skewed by any of her assessments. This is a fresh start for me and therefore you need to form your own opinions and I will tell you if I agree with them or not. She just looked at me. Haha. She asked why I'm there I told her a bunch of situational things I needed help with and I'm sure as we move forward other s h I t will come up. She looked at me again. Haha. She said... your very straight forward. I told her I can be at times and told her I want her to be all the time. Another look. She said and how are you functioning. I said well let me see, I already did 8 years of therapy, I know how to compartmentalize, I take care of somebody else's 11 week old twins for a living, and I know how to be an adult. I told her 8 years of psychodynamic therapy has taught me how to detect maternal transference and quickly move on from it and it's also taught me to know when somebody is blowing smoke up my skirt. Another look. Score! Jersey- 1 T-0. I think she got the impression she may have her work cut out for her. She's gonna earn her pay.

Heading to t and will hopefully play in the sand today. Maybe I'll ask her to join me, maybe not...

Oh and not dance, unaluna. Just play.

She rakes the sand, so it just sits there begging to be messed up!!

It's good you said that she seems nice because her line of questioning about contacting a former therapist sounds like, "You have a right to your privacy under HIPAA, but may I ask why you don't want it violated?" I've only had pdocs ask to speak to therapists. Never had a therapist ask to speak to a previous one.

I think she wanted her side of the termination. After I laid it out for her exactly what happened and owned my part in it-she said she wouldn't just not return a long term clients call for a closure session. I then asked her if she understood why I declined a release of information and she said yes.

Shelly or sandy is cute, but keep stopdog's suggestion of Albatross on hand for those times when things don't go well in therapy.

Ariel? I love the beach. It makes me think of mermaids.

Thanks for all the hugs today couchies. I'm home it was a long day capped off by a trip to hell on earth (Walmart) and now eating cold pizza and soon to go to sleep, whew. Run on sentences are my specialty. .

I see you and I think alike!

Jaws? Moby D i c k? Ahab?

(They need love too.)

I love mermaids!

Just got home from t shortly ago, poured a glass of wine, made a sandwich and heated up some broccoli for dinner. Yum!

Really good session again. (Most of them are, so I should never ever complain when they are not!) I just gotta tell you guys it is SUCH a breath of fresh air being free from my fantasies about the t relationship I just can't get over it! I never got to the sand because I went in there and sat down and I had brought my singing bowl this evening, so I got it out and showed her and played it a little, then let her try it out, that set a nice relaxing mood and then I said something like "OK today's session is brought to you by the letter 'A'. Let's talk about Attachment! I guess I can understand why I got attached to you, it's because blablabla...." and off we went. It's like, I'm free to say whatever the heck flies out of my mouth now, because it doesn't matter anymore what she might think about me. I'm not thinking about every little thing I say anymore, y'know? No more "Oh, if I say such-and-such it might hurt her feelings" or "This might sound stupid" and stuff like that. It just flies right on out there. About time, I'd say. And it only took 5+ years (ETA: and a LOT of hard work!) to get to this point... So after we talked about attachment for awhile then I shared a couple dreams, one of them was just meh but the first one was another of those 'big' dreams, an archetypal dream, that she said I should keep alive by working with it and drawing some of the images from, I did a short active imagination sitting there with it as well.

Yeah, really good session today.

my T kept talking about the UK and their government systems and healthcare and everything. i asked him if hes gonna move there. he said maybe. but its not as easy as just moving there.

O.M.G. if my T moves to europe i will prob still commute to see him every week

ya i know that sounds pathetic

Oh yeah and I told her how I was all freaking out about the tax form thing the other day, of course.

I just thought of another ocean themed therapist name. Dory if she is the kind of t that forgets stuff. All the time

I think it's time for a new nickname for my t. I'm kinda over the whole "Ninja T" thing. I didn't even notice what color she was wearing today.

I did, however, take note that there are no plants in her office! I suppose she doesn't really need them when she lives in such a beautiful country-like place, trees and flowers and stuff all over the place outside. She said that deer have been coming up on her porch and eating her flowers that she has in a planter, well they eat them, and spit them out. She replants them, and then they do the same thing again. Silly deer. She's like ""Don't they remember they didn't like them the last time?"

I think maybe the deer need therapy....

I agree, I think it is weird she questioned you on your previous T? I do see that maybe it was because you mentioned how the termination wasn't good? My T has never asked about previous T, except that she knows I have one, and I saw her for 5 years and wasn't ever very satisfied about it.

My T has had an orchid blooming in his office the entire time I have known him. I asked him recently if it was the same orchid all this time or if he got new ones that just look the same to always have one blooming. He said that it was the same orchid and it was always blooming because it is fake. I felt like an idiot. Now I have to kind of laugh at myself every time I look at the stupid thing and think about it. He saw me glance at it and grin a couple of weeks ago and he said, "it's still fake. Probably says something significant about me but luckily we're here to talk about you." Then we both cracked up.

Sponge T Square Pants! Or is that atats t with the Depends?

Eta - mkac, you can never tell with orchids, the plants last forever and the real ones always look fake!!

I think I have had squidward as a t in my past.

Your post reminds me of me. I walk into his office and ask him if things are new or if they have been here.

He has an orchid too. It must be a thing. His orchid, we actually made into my perfect mom. It's fake too.

Right after the election, MC was like, "So, we're relocating our practice to Canada, will that work for you?" H has Canadian relatives, so he was like, "If it's near [where they live], that should work!"

I have a million things on my to-do and am so stressed and anxious lately!!

Last week, I was backing up with my brand new car and my wheel well got caught on this little pseudo 18" tall guard rail thing that the sensors didn't detect because it was so short. I ended up getting my bumper ripped off my car. $800 later, I get my car back and it looks brand new again! Three days later, I'm stopped on a crazy busy traffic circle and this 21 yo girl from NH with NO Car Insurance side swipes me causing $3200 damage! Now I won't have my new car for at "least 2 weeks!"

I can not believe that people do not need car insurance in NH! And, I also found out that she's not supposed even drive out of NH, so she was 110% wrong. She has no money and her cell phone was just turned off. She claims she has no email and no one that can help her with the money. Luckily, I have insurance but I have a $1000 deductible on top of the $800 bucks from the accident a few days ago!

So on top of the million work things i have to do, I had to spend 1/2 the day today dealing with car crap! And to top all of that off, I have NO MONEY coming in since I'm 100% commission and we are in our slow time of the year. I'm relying on my savings which luckily I have some $ saved but still, Arrrrghhhh FUN TIMES!!

Would love a few hugs....

(((SoConfused623)))

So for plants, T recently moved into a new office that she shares with a colleague. It's much smaller. The first time I saw her there a few weeks ago, I was sitting on the loveseat, and on this tiny table with the tissues, there was this big plant. I tend to talk with my hands, especially if I'm anxious, and I kept hitting the plant, which was pulling me out of what I was talking about. T apologized, and said it was her office-mate's favorite plant (while sort of rolling her eyes--she hadn't had plants in her previous office).

When I saw her the next week, the plant was gone. She said her colleague had a client who also talked with her hands, and he said the whole session, he just kept nervously watching to see if she'd knock over the plant. So he took it home with him.