What is the oddest thing you’ve ever seen in a therapist’s office?

I had a plant recently that required very little water. The instructions said add one ice cube per week.

Dr. T has some wicker furniture in his waiting room. It tended to make me rather uncomfortable, too, but when we were in person, I generally waited in my car until 5 minutes before, so I didn't spend much time in the waiting room.

A bunch of those Georgia O'Keeffe flower paintings that look like vaginas, there were four or five on the wall. The guy that ran the place told me the C-word was his favorite word. He was cool and so was the counselor.

I’ve seen lots of Ts on and off through my life, but can’t say I’ve ever seen anything in their offices that stood out to me as weird. The only ‘weird’ therapist I remember seeing was very insistent that I knew why my brother picked on me, when I was maybe 5 and thus had no ability to decipher his motivations
Still have no idea why some Ts do that. Surely they’re the ones who are meant to be providing their insights into what might be going on, not me?

I always feel with Georgia O’Keefe that once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

Not an odd item in the room but an odd missing item - no bin for used tissues! No idea how other clients handled it. I personally would bring in a plastic bag each session to put my used tissue in for later disposal elsewhere.

Odd item but it was a hospital outpatient setting, so "normal" and in every therapy room - a sink with a mirror.

My T has no bin, but also doesn't have tissues on display. Never really thought about it, but now that you mention it, that's kind of weird.

Before masks, I used to cry almost every session, but due to not learning to do so in the past, I'd almost never bring tissues and just cried into my cloths, problem solved when I did use tissues, I'd stuff them into my pockets in the end and dispose of them at the first public trash can I'd pass.

Yes! I remember that story too. The T would look at the rock, shake her head and say, “what are we going to do about [client]?”

I thought it made for a hilarious story, but like many eventually hilarious stories, was probably a terrible experience to have had.

Ex-MC had the bin under his desk, so I generally just took used tissues with me in my purse. Once, when I was really emotional and had a collection of tissues, he moved the trash can to be within reach. Dr. T and ex-T had a trash can by the door, so I generally just threw away any tissues on my way out. Dr. T's has a lid on it that you have to lift off (wicker, but with a trash bag in it), so if I'm also carrying a drink or umbrella, I would have to walk over, throw the tissues away, then come back and grab whatever I had before leaving.

I must have more foresight than most. When I enter the office, I pick up the box of tissues and the wastebasket and position them next to where I'll be sitting on the couch. (They're usually next to the other end of the couch from where I like to sit.) I do this before I even sit down and sometimes even before I greet my T! We are winding down now, I'll stop seeing her in February, so I haven't done this in over a year, but that is my usual pattern.

Occasionally, I don't think it will be an intense session, so I don't do these things. Most of the time it's fine, but if I do begin crying, my T stands up and fetches the box of tissues for me. When I've had male therapists (well, except for CBT guy), they've always handed me a box of tissues or gently lobbed it over to me at least.

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk

Now that we're talking about tissues, I cannot recall seeing a box in new therapist's office. And definitely no trash can.

If I'm right about the tissues, it goes along with MP's whole "do not get emotionally close to me" point about her.

Gotta add -- nope no table to hide a bin under. My T sits in a recliner with a tablet and stylus for notes. There's a really small side table near the right side of the couch but it's a solid one with no space below. On the side table is a tissue box and a digital clock which faces her.

Maybe I find it extra odd because tissues are clearly there but whenever I've asked her "is there a bin yet?", she says no. And I never see the patient (different ones) before me leave with any sort of container of used tissue.

I probably could ask her.

One of my therapists had a pet fish.

Also one of my therapists had a plastic head with psychology words on it that she kept right behind her. It was wearing a hat too. I forget what she called it. But I said “why is there a creepy head behind you?” And she looked confused until she figured out what I was talking about and then explained it to me. Then at our next session the hat was covering the face. So maybe she thought it scared me.

Yes that was me. It was a very hard, traumatizing thing to witness. So with this story it was the rock she glued hair, eyes and arms to and genuinely thought it was alive and spoke to her. The majority of my sessions with her was me sitting there while she “consulted” with the rock. So in this case both the therapist and the rock were what was odd.

Sweet baby deity

I think pet rock is the winner. It’s actually kind of scary. Unless it’s done to be funny, I’d be scared to be in the room with this bozo

My T has a rack for displaying clothing at a store used to hold his collection of dying plants. He does not have a green thumb.

I have therapy tomorrow, and now I need to see if she has a trash can. I have never needed a tissue, though I know she has those.

One time another therapist printed out like 100 of the same picture of my therapists cat and taped them all over the walls and ceiling. I kept one lol

Why? Was it a prank? Or to be funny? Ceiling too?

Yeah it was a prank. All over the walls and the ceiling lol

He had gone out of town and the other therapist was cat sitting his cat. They dressed the cat up with some bling and made it look gangster

I bet the cat loved that.

It looked pretty miserable haha