Saying You Don’t Wanna Talk About it

No — I consider myself naked in my shrink’s/T’s office. I can’t think of anything that I’ve said that has been too deep or too much.

I suppose if we started a discussion about — economics — I could say, “that’s really boring,” and she would respect my boundaries and move on.

I wish that I had a shrink well-versed in string theory, though.

Well..........I am going to have to say that for years I would always skirt around issues that made me uncomfortable and refused to talk about and here I am still in therapy. This guy will not skirt around issues I refuse to talk about because he feels hidden in those issues is the real issue and they must be laid out on the table and witnessed, sat with, explored in a safe environment in order for me to grow and heal.

He has been a very attentive T and has called me in times of issues and responded quickly to every email I have sent him. I am giving this tactic a chance as I can not stay like this for the rest of my life. You do not grow staying with in the safety bubble we create for ourselves.

This could be a complete disaster or a life changing venture.

I agree totally.

But like you've said, you yourself, have realized its time to open Pandora's box, and feel your therapist is there to guide you as you unpack it.

I commend you for doing so. Addressing our core beliefs is very confronting. I wish you every success.

Depends on what it is. Sometimes she pushes, sometimes she says she wants to push, and other times she respects my wishes. She's pretty good about reading the situation and knows when I get close to shut down mode.

They force me to talk about it anyways.

Next week I’m just going to tell him that it should be my choice and not his if I don’t want friends and I will not discuss it with him anymore.

What would he do in that situation?

There have been several times with several different T’s that this occurred. Some have pushed me to talk about it anyway, others have respected my boundaries. Usually they knew when to do what. There was one particular topic, though, that exT pressed and pressed for me to talk about and I completely shut down/dissociated every time she brought it up. Oh, and then current T decided to lecture me about having sex more often and I wouldn’t say anything in response and she was like “...not to make you uncomfortable, though...” I was like....really....she didn’t press too hard for me to talk though at least.

I've said it, and my T will respond with something like, "Okay, but I hope you'll feel comfortable enough to share eventually." Then we move on.

It depends on what we are discussing. If its something that is not a big issue, she will say “okay” if I dont want to talk. If it is a big core issue we are working on and I say I dont want to talk about it she says “ Oh yes we ARE taking about this!” and not let it go. She can be like a bull dog.

If i say i don't want to talk about something T respects that, always. Because of my history, he's adamant that i get to decide what we do or don't talk about, unless i ask him to raise something (i do that via email sometimes).