Curious Ts view of the workplace

I'm not sure about your situation but I feel most lay people are clueless about grad school and have very rosy views about it unless they have done it. Until classmates from my undergrad finished their PhDs I didn't realise how much politics was involved, for starters. And a gem they often hear is "It's easier in Ireland" in reference to difficulties getting lecturing jobs in UK (complete BS, it's harder in Ireland). I noticed similar things with my MSc where people seemed to think I could do 100 million things with my MSc (wrong, it's a specialist MSc).

Again unsure about the specifics but your T shouldn't be so crutched by her inexperience in your area, whether it be in relation to careers or cultural stuff. I once met a T that thought he had solved a career issue I was having within 3 seconds of the start of the session and as I re-explained specifics on my career he wasn't getting he started tutting about me as if I wasn't there, not bothering to hide his baseless contempt for me as I kept pointing out his errors. But my last 2 Ts were very good at not making thinking errors, even when encountering specifics they were not familiar with. It was like they'd slow down at the right moment and just listen, and the main one I used for a year would take notes and read up on what I talked about and took care to ensure old impressions of my career were buried (ie I rarely found myself mentioning an industry specific one week and find I had to re-explain it another week).

My therapist, while in private practice now, spent some time working for an organization. She told me about it once. She worked with high risk teens in a clinical setting or some sort.

We've discussed my issues with my boss and she seems to understand where I'm coming from and has given me some good advice on dealing with him.

I don't think this has to do with not having other type of work experience or not understanding the workplace. There are unreasonable, unfair, narcissistic etc people in every walk of life. I think good therapy would help with relating appropriately and realistically with the world regardless of whether or not it's at work.

No, my thread WAS about that. Unfair, unreasonable people are usually ones you can walk away from. I can leave my bf, disown my friends, find another book club, stop interacting with my family, find a new car mechanic, etc. You can't always walk away from your job-the dynamics are totally different. I don't need the other stuff for survival but I do need my job to survive. Not only that, someone of that nature can crush your reputation and impact future career opportunities which can really affect one's livelihood. I don't normally look to my T for advice, but as I mentioned before, Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are a token resource. There's really little help when you get into a situation like that. Crossing my fingers it doesn't happen again.

On a related topic-I'm really surprised no one mentions therapy impacting their work. I've missed work because of processing trauma in therapy and other times have concentration problems because of things going on in therapy. I work through some intense stuff in therapy and imagine other do too and wonder how it is not a problem for others? Makes me wonder about my therapy and what I'm doing.

Sure, therapy has really helped with close relationships for me, but it can be less helpful or even harmful when it comes to work issues of a serious nature.

I was having a very difficult time concentrating at work for several months from last October right into early spring. I was upfront with my boss (different boss than the one I have now) and told him that I could do the job, but that my ability to multitask was not up to par and that I was having a lot of anxiety. He allowed me to work a flex schedule (which I'm sitll working) and told me as long as my work got done he didn't have an issue. Luckily, much of my job realates to web design, and it's something that I can do even when I'm struggling with anxiety, I kind of go on auto pilot when I'm working on it. So, yes it did impact me, but I was able to work through it and although I'm not back at 100%, I'm doing much better now.

Glad things settled for you.

Outside of the issue I mentioned before, mine spiraled and became unmanageable since I started therapy. I would have never gone into this job and field had I known I would have these issues. It's a difficult job for anyone with these are any type of health challenges. Of course everyone knows in hindsight, right?

Well I have to say my t was clueless about the workplace. She really had no clue about workplace politics and that things aren't always fair and that its better to say nothing than to express an opinion that is not wanted.
T lives in her own little world that is full of other counsellors who live in a world that is surrounded by cotton wool and unicorns. It really used to frustrate me how she would give me advice and I would know if I had followed that advice I would be sacked or reprimanded. She didnt understand any of it so I just stopped bringing up work.

Haha-cotton wool and unicorns. I have a friend who works in mental health and it sounds like constant personal drama unlike the fields I've been in which are more political oriented, I suppose another facet of drama in a sense. Yours sounds like a reasonable strategy. I don't get involved with the politics and am not competitive at work, so my strategy is to let everything roll off my back and try to focus on doing a good job and getting the work done. Not the best strategy as a person has to engage in politics to advance in many careers, but it's all i can manage right now.

My T has been more supportive lately, so he can still listen and be empathetic about these issues. I think I have several different issues going on here; some I did not give enough thought until writing this thread. Therapy has weakened my career strengths, partly because I swung the other way and made myself vulnerable, which, in tandem with everything else, made things worse. At this point, I can't change some of my circumstances and feel helpless at times--it seems what I'm going through is analagous to continually treading water. I'm sure many can appreciate that feeling. Yet, there's no life preserver in sight. My T doesn't have one either, so I'll just have to accept that, too.