[nottrustin]

I am not talking about watching the clock for the start/end time. How do you make sure to fit what needs to be said within the time frame?

Often I go in with a couple with a couple of things I need to bring up and work through. More often than not, we stay on one topic and have a good in depth discussion but that is all we have time for. This can be frustrating.

This week I need to process some of the struggles I have been dealing with in regards to my son. There are new developments since our discussion last week. My mood is tanking and REALLY struggling with the loss of T. Plus there is there is the family issue we really worked on last week and I told her I would process something and we could talk about it this week.

Some chance we could discuss 2 of the issues. Likely no chance for all 3. Likely will skip my struggles with mood and grief because those del qith MY struggles.

[ChickenNoodleSoup]

If I feel we won't have enough time for all the things I need to discuss, I write the ones that I least want to talk about down and give the written stuff to my T to read on his own.

Other than that, I either say in the beginning 'there's two things I want to discuss, X and Y, and I want to fit both in' and I'll usually ask my T to manage the time from there on.

If something comes up mid session, I ask whether we still have time to discuss it, we've never not had time so far.

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by ChickenNoodleSoup

If I feel we won't have enough time for all the things I need to discuss, I write the ones that I least want to talk about down and give the written stuff to my T to read on his own.

Other than that, I either say in the beginning 'there's two things I want to discuss, X and Y, and I want to fit both in' and I'll usually ask my T to manage the time from there on.

If something comes up mid session, I ask whether we still have time to discuss it, we've never not had time so far.

I do something similar, where I'll mention at the beginning that there are a few things I want to talk about. He'll sometimes check in whether I want to switch to one of the other topics. But I also keep an eye on the time and try to bring a second topic up with 20 minutes left. Or if more than 2, then try not to spend more than a certain amount of time of one topic. Though I've also found before that I *think* I want to talk about certain topics, but then there may be less to discuss about one than I think. Or I could end up spending a longer time on one than I expected, because I might not realize how much it was bothering me till we started discussing it.


And I also sometimes write stuff down on a notecard, like little bullet points of topics, then keep it next to me, so I don't forget about something.

[nottrustin]

Originally Posted by ChickenNoodleSoup

If I feel we won't have enough time for all the things I need to discuss, I write the ones that I least want to talk about down and give the written stuff to my T to read on his own.

Other than that, I either say in the beginning 'there's two things I want to discuss, X and Y, and I want to fit both in' and I'll usually ask my T to manage the time from there on.

If something comes up mid session, I ask whether we still have time to discuss it, we've never not had time so far.

More often not the topic that goes on the backburner is the most difficult from an emotional standpoint.

[Elio]

When I have a list of things that I feel must be discussed within the one session, I treat the session more like a work meeting by stating at the beginning of session that I have these topics and I want to make sure that we touch on all of them at least to some level. I think it helps T to not push too much into the depth or something. It doesn't always work, I do think it helps some.

[SlumberKitty]

I try to touch on everything that needs to be talked about. I just keep a list in my head and try to move through it. I can't see the clock so I have no real sense of time, so I have a feeling my conversations with T are somewhat discombobulated. It was easier with my former T because I would email in between and then she would bring up the stuff that she felt I most needed to talk about. But with this T, I can't do that, so it's helpful for me to grow and work on getting what I want to talk about out. I like the ideas of the above posters about writing it down or bringing it up with T at the beginning. HUGS Kit

[piggy momma]

If I feel like I have too much stuff I’ll email him between. Sometimes to let him know what I want to work on, other times to let him know I don’t necessarily need to work on it but I just want him to know it’s happening. It saves us some time and helps prioritize for sure.

[LonesomeTonight]

Originally Posted by nottrustin

More often not the topic that goes on the backburner is the most difficult from an emotional standpoint.

Yeah, I struggle with that, too. Like I put it off and then bring it up with 10 minutes left, which is not the best strategy...

[coolibrarian]

I come to every session with a list of things I want to talk about. But usually tell the less important things first, leaving more time to discuss other issues. Sometimes I'll ask my T for an extra session, instead of waiting two weeks to see her again. As it is now, I haven't seen her since November 7, 2018, and I don't know when she'll be back in the office.

[stopdog]

I was always fairly concise.

[nottrustin]

Originally Posted by piggy momma

If I feel like I have too much stuff I’ll email him between. Sometimes to let him know what I want to work on, other times to let him know I don’t necessarily need to work on it but I just want him to know it’s happening. It saves us some time and helps prioritize for sure.

I think that I'd what makes it difficult for me. I had full use of email with T so we could discuss some of the smaller things there.

Current T doesnt do email.