"Trust the process"

Thanks for opening this thread, I have the same questions about these kinds of things and it's nice to read all the replies ( @unaluna your metaphor was really nice, made me see it from a different angle, thanks!).
My T hasn't said it in those exact words, I think, but he has said that change will happen subconsciously by talking a lot with a therapist, and that it takes long (never says how long). To me, this is the same as saying to trust the process, be it a wee little bit more specific. It leaves me with no answer lol, and it makes me wonder if I should opt for a different style of therapy. Then again, somehow I do have more faith in psychodynamic therapy than for example CBT (for my issues I mean), so I suppose in some sense I do trust the process.

The whole "trust the process" thing makes me think of snake handling evangelists who blame the person who gets bitten by the viper as causing it because of their lack of faith. It is only if you have enough faith that you are safe and not harmed.
(exhankster and I often have very different metaphors for therapy/therapists)

I like this metaphor. I think many Ts like to view therapy as something mysterious, and/or make clients believe that. I personally don't see anything mysterious, it is a designed and controlled social interaction IMO that can go in many ways. They probably want faith because there is nothing really solid and tangible that they provide, it is not really a service in that sense... they provide a room and person to talk about personal things. I am not sure what there is to trust, it can turn out hundreds of different ways. I can trust that the T will be there in their office at the scheduled time and will designate 45-50 mins to listen and talk with me. I also like to believe that the information will be treated as confidential. What else?

Yes and it seems somewhat contradictory to say trust the process yet give no guarantees.

I wouldn't be able to resist asking her to explain to me just what "trust the process" means. Make her do the work of thinking it through and giving you a satisfactory explanation.

Is it weird that there are ten ways of cooking the thanksgiving turkey? Low and slow, fast and high, whole, cut up, stuffed or not, cheesecloth covered, butter basted, injected, herbs under skin? An i dont even cook one and i know all those. Deep fried or smoked.

Sorry, i do tend to cling to my methaphors!

It would also be ridiculous to tell someone to trust the process if they personally didn't have the knowledge of how to cook a turkey and the person they asked to help them wouldn't share the recipe they were using. If they said "trust the process" instead, you would probably roll your eyes and wonder if they were using a recipe and/or even knew how to cook a turkey since they were being so secretive.

Yeah. My turkey got all burnt up.

I should have rolled my eyes or something but I was blindly "trusting the process." Ugh.

I never had a therapist tell me this, and I'm glad they didn't. I hate these cutesy, wannabe zen-like statements that mean next to nothing. They're just supposed to make you feel like you're doing something wrong and need to check yourself, and you need to keep coming and paying the fee in order to figure it out, and the therapist can't or won't explain it to you.

I've never had a therapist say this, thank goodness. I hate therapist-speak; fortunately, mine never much engaged in such things.