Do you take off your shoes for sessions?

This is the first I've read this thread, but seeing so many posts on the topic of shoe removal piqued my interest. I thought surely there must be some big issues being tossed around. But no, it's all about shoes.

Before anything else, i would love it, AY, if you could diagram your therapy office set up because I read your post several times and still could not get a handle on the different doors and procession of therapist/you/main therapy room. I love hearing about the foot freedom side of things you shared.


I don't take off my shoes because of the germs, but would otherwise love to do that. At home, I don't wear shoes and if someone comes over and asks about shoes, I say yes, please remove them. But if I don't do that, I will vacuum and wash the floor when they leave. I have cork floors and they feel like a hug on my feet, so I don't like them maligned with spit and other bodily exudate from the streets.

I will take my shoes off any place where it's made clear that people remove them, not because it's expected but because it's a treat for me to not wear shoes. And I don't even wear anything noteworthy, mainly tennis shoes.

I try to follow whatever protocol I can spot. If people clearly take their shoes off before entering their house, I'll do the same when I visit. If they walk around inside in their outside shoes, I keep them on. Personally, I slip into "house shoes/slippers" as soon as I enter my own house. The bottoms of my shoes that have been all over the MBTA do NOT need to be all over my clean rugs! We do have two dogs, though, and I simply have to turn a blind eye to whatever germs they're carrying around.

In therapy... I'm guilty of that dreadful socks and Birkenstocks look in autumn. And by dreadful, I mean wonderful. Socks will slip out of Birkenstocks quite easily. :-)

I always take my shoes off so I can put my feet on the couch. Always.

Your wish is my command, rr. Behold, for your viewing pleasure...

Also, I dunno -- we could compose an ode to the metaphysical meaning of leaving shoes outside therapy offices if that would help?

Geezus, it's like a labyrinth. I am now reminded of my door issue and the anxiety they cause. So you put your shoes directly outside the inner sanctum? The belly of the beast?

Yes -- I take though great courage in the fact that Blondie's a good 4-5 inches shorter than me and many many many pounds lighter.

It's pretty small though -- hard to get lost, not to mention a tad suffocating. At one point, I swear I could hear the therapist in the first office.......breathing.

Maybe Blondie's office walls are alive, and it's not an actual other human? For all her show of normality, Blondie scares me, in a Neil Gaiman story buttons for eyes kind of way.

That's a freakin' awesome description

It took me 3 years but I started taking my shoes off. I hate shoes with a passion and remove them as often as I can. It also makes me feel comfortable and I'm able to curl up on her couch without getting dirty shoes on it.