Couch 177: I Get a Strange Magic - ELO

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After two weeks, as usual

His favorite question after every session is "What did you get today?"
Idk, I just enjoy seeing him

Hm, have you ever read this ? Your T might not be asking those things because he's annoyed but simply because his orientation tells him to do so?

What did you get - a connection to another human being, a safe place to be, maybe he made you feel a little better about something?

I honestly don’t know if most other people truly understand the therapist is doing at them and/ or how it is supposed to help with the thing the Client wants help with (not just some random crap the therapist decides the client should need or want) or if they just don’t care and so not knowing doesn’t bother them

Yeah, but he wants me to answer what did I get -today-, not "what do I get every session"

My T makes it pretty clear what she is doing/what she hopes I get out of therapy.

I would react with rage at any of those questions. They seemed designed only to mess with the client.

Oh this quote definitely makes the SD hall of fame.

Believe me; so would I

They seem very stilted and unnatural to me. I'm not sure I'd trust a therapist that talked like that.

Excellent! So what's the answer?

Oh Dear God...I think it's telling that this "T" orients her practice toward Pinterest.

Lulabelle quite awhile ago asked me "what brings you here today?" which I answered with "um, i have an appointment?" I found it an odd question after I'd been seeing her as long as I had at the time I was thinking hello... when I asked what she meant she said she was just asking what was going on for me that day. That would have been a much better way to ask the question...

Due to my ISP's filtering, I can't access the article - I'm intrigued by the questions, though. Can somebody fill me in?

A few sessions ago there was some sort of confusion on his end about how much he was supposed to charge me that day (apparently due to lack of sleep and over-caffeination) and he had to run my card twice since he undercharged me at first. It took several minutes to get all this sorted out and once I had paid and everyone got situated he opened up with "Okay, talk", which really amused me. Much better than "what brings you here today".

Last T session the receptionist filled out the time on my card for an hour earlier which happened to be the time of my PDOC appointment (they share an office with a bunch of other therapists and PDOC's) and my T (Tony the Tiger T) said, were you rescheduled or did I mess up the time? It was neither just a mistake at the front desk, but that's how my last session started. After several seconds of confusion and her trying to turn on her computer she kind of remembered who I was (I have only seen her twice) and then the session got going. It was pretty funny. I was trying not to show my amusement.

I would like "okay, talk" much more!

These days Blondie just looks quizzically at me if I don't start immediately and then goes "Soooooooo.......?".

Of course that is when she is not palpably concerned about my safety -- when I got back from my travels, she started with "You're back okay! You're safe!" and when I replied that I hadn't exactly been to Afghanistan, she went "But, still....".

In that vein, I am sure today she'll be very concerned about the flat tire I had on my way to her last appointment and if I actually managed to fix it (she was very concerned on how -- if at all -- I'd ever manage to fix it coz, I dunno, flat tires are rare, unique dangers that I'm constitutionally incapable of dealing with?). Especially since she posited that I "need TLC" after my recent speeding ticket.

Around the time of my actual hospitalization though.......

Perhaps Blondie has a transportation phobia.

Flames shooting out from under the hood--something to be concerned about; a flat tire? Blondie is a hothouse flower, isn't she?

We had really great music back then.

Hell yes--Jeff Lynne, ELO is touring US again! And Traveling Wilburys, even though they keep dying off...

Is it ELO. Or ELO2? Jeff Lynne has the original ELO plus the drummer and someone else and the other guy has ELO2 who dont get to sing any of Jeff Lynnes songs ie the most popular ones. It like Supertramp how they divided.

I saw a doco on Jeff Lynne and George Harrison organised the Travelling Wilburys after asking Lynne who he would most like to play with, but didnt want to ask any of them but later in the film Lynne comes of looking a bit like a dictator.

My understanding is that it's Jeff Lynne's ELO that's touring. I tend to take documentary portrayals with a grain of salt. When a bunch of equally talented people come together, there's bound to be egos on display.

Sometimes I think it helps for someone to be in charge of a band.

I am drinking a beer that was left over from my person. The best by date is 11/15 but I can't really tell a difference.

Well, darn.

I had a list of to-do when I got home, but the boys said they’d been invited to use neighbors’ pool (with neighbor friend) while neighbor mom runs errands if an adult comes along. So instead of cleaning the bathroom I am sitting by the pool. AND the boys promised to help with some of my chores when we get home. Win-win-win.

Well, you were in Greece. The mountains are still riddled by bandits and there’s no clean water plus mosquitoes killed Byron.