[stopdog]

What is your most predominant and frequent feeling at the end of an appointment?

[Echos Myron redux]

I selected I wish I could stay there all day. That's probably not exactly right but I do usually wish the session was longer.

[stopdog]

Mine were frustrated self destructive rage with the first one and bafflement with the second. The frustrated rage also contained bafflement.

[guilloche]

I chose baffled, though it's not exactly right, it's pretty close. Therapy just isn't working for me. And, I'm trusting the therapist less and less, which makes me want to talk less and less, which makes it even less useful.

Example: A couple months ago, I was trying to talk about therapy and how it wasn't working (to make it better). I've been seeing this T for about a year. T says, "I think you don't like me." What... the... heck? What made it even more weird was that I'd told her, very specifically, about how my very first T took stuff personally and thought I didn't like him (said, "You must think I'm a schmuck!") - and that it bothered me, and wasn't true, and was irritating that he couldn't get that my therapy wasn't about him.

Yet, here we are. Again.

This last week we were talking about how I think (re: neurofeedback report I just got back) and she tells me that, even though she knows I disagree, she thinks I have racing thoughts. Very frustrating, especially when I'm specifically saying I don't experience my thoughts in that way. I don't understand why she thinks she knows my internal experience better than I do, especially when I told her that most Ts don't seem to understand me.

So yeah, baffled I guess. And frustrated. And sad. And hopeless!

[Lemoncake]

"5 more minutes please." = so wishing I could stay there all day.

I said curious. I enjoy psychological/personal conversations in general, it can be very stimulating for me and I am pretty articulate, so when I had them with the Ts usually it triggered more ideas and a desire to discuss more of them than what fits in an hour. So I wanted to stay a bit longer to do a bit more (not all day though). This desire, for me, was not specific to therapy or the therapist at all - I tend to feel the same way when I engage in these conversations with friends, colleagues, relatives - pretty much anyone who has similar interests and has interesting thoughts/stories to share. It really is curiosity for me. I felt this way with my last T pretty much 100% of the time.

With the first one though, towards the end, I often also felt frustration at how limited, dogmatic and manipulative he turned out to me, so in that case frustration that I paid for it but the experience was very low quality and distorted. This is also something I tend to experience generally in everyday life when I invest into an interaction, look forward to it - and the experience does not meet my expectations or what I perceive as my quality standards. Not specific to therapy at all. I'm mostly okay with it in everyday life, for example many work meetings end up being boring and quite useless. Having the same in therapy was just somewhat more annoying given that I paid high $ for it.

[atisketatasket]

It’s depended on the therapist.

With 1 and 3, usually relief, not that the session was over but that I’d gotten stuff off my chest.

With Piaf, usually determination to do whatever we’d discussed.

With DBC and CW, frustration.

With 2, pretty much nothing. It was like I was just checking that appointment off my to do list.

With Info, a mix of all of the above.

[LonesomeTonight]

I said "warm and cozy," but could have picked "wanted to stay there all day" (or at least another half hour). But then after some sessions, I'm really sad, others enlightened, and some feeling hurt. And the occasional anger. Oh and bewilderment at times. And I often have realizations (positive and/or negative) in the car ride home or within the first couple hours after therapy that I want to share and/or with the T. So quite a variety, really.

I chose frustrated.

sometimes at the therapist, but most of the time at my self

as I don't think it's working for me, and I keep doing it

so get angry and frustrated covering the same things and not getting closure

[awkwardlyyours]

With Medea: Quite literally wanting to walk into traffic.

With Blondie: Mostly feeling calmer than when I walked in but also a sense of being bewildered as to how it’s supposed to help?

[nottrustin]

Other Emdr T I feel okay but wish I could ask her for a hug. Know that in a few minutes the connection will be gone

With T it was that feeling of being understood and wishing it wasn't a week before I could see her again.

[Taylor27]

Most of the time i feel relieve that i got it off my chest and feel understood. Sometimes i get so fustrated at him because he challenge me that it feels like he does not understand me. Sometimes i get so angry. So it can go either way depending on what was discussed in the sessions.

[susannahsays]

Good, you put enraged. That is definitely the most commonly felt feeling I have upon leaving. I often also feel resentful and ashamed, at times sheepish, and occasionally calculating.

[susannahsays]

I am amused that nobody has chosen empowered yet.

[WarmFuzzySocks]

I put other.

I often feel many of the above. Enlightened/empowered/curious/understood, or my head will feel full and my thoughts are tumbling over one another.

But mostly, I feel exhausted.

[growlycat]

Warm and cozy but left wondering if that’s even helpful.

[MessyD]

It's usually warm and cozy and often empowered and motivated to do things we talked about but that doesn't always last too long. I'm also often curious about new realizations. Lot of times I feel lighter or relieved if I walk in with a dark could over me. Only couple times I left baffled but that was because I didn't know what the hell was going on with me.

I selected other. I can talk about feelings fairly easily, but often express them in therapy whereas I don't elsewhere. So typically I feel emotionally exhausted. Sometimes I'm frustrated or enlightened, but predominately I have a terrible therapy hangover.

It may defeat the purpose lol but I chose "Other".

Most of the time, I feel warm and cozy. And I wish I could stay longer.

Except for other times when depending on the situation I might chose one or more of all the other ones!!

[RaineD]

I chose "other." There were times when I felt warm and fuzzy, times when I was angry or baffled, and then there were times when I felt relieved (not because I got anything off my chest but because the session was over and I could go get drunk). These feelings were often mixed with not wanting to leave.

These days, I usually feel almost numb when the session ends. The waves of feeling won't hit me until a couple hours later or even the next day. Because it's just so painful now. And I'm always afraid I won't see him again.

[MatBell]

Mostly I feel “spent” and some renewed energy.

[velcro003]

I put other. Many times I leave feeling more frustrated at myself bc I am stuck in the same hole and can never seem to find a way out of it despite my T's best intentions.

This may change, as I am coming to therapy with many more tools to get out of the hole-it is just if i utilize them.

[starfishing]

I chose "curious," since I pretty consistently find myself walking out of therapy with a lot of wheels turning, examining and speculating about whatever we've been discussing.

But depending on the day, I'm often also wrapped up in dealing with some painful feelings or difficult new realizations, and it's not uncommon for me to leave feeling a bit dazed, raw, or vulnerable, mostly just as an effect of recovering from the intensity of it all.

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by growlycat

Warm and cozy but left wondering if that’s even helpful.

Yeah...because it only lasts so long, right?

[stopdog]

Originally Posted by LonesomeTonight

Yeah...because it only lasts so long, right?

Or, for me, because that isn't what you hired them for and there is no connection between that and the reason you hired them in the first place.
And I never found any therapist warm and cozy.