[20oney]

Is anyone able to share some experience with a temporary T while your T has been on vacation?

Mine is about to go away and has offered to set me up with a temporary person, which I think is going to be a good idea for me. Kinda worried about the idea though because I struggle to talk to my T let alone a new person who I’ll see once or twice. Just not sure. Like, Will it be worth it? Will I be wasting everyone’s time? I don’t know. I’m on the fence about it. Need the support to continue, but don’t want to take this step because it sounds awkward and embarrassing

[LonesomeTonight]

I've done this multiple times, a few times with the same backup T and then once with this other T. I found it to be helpful. I just used the temporary T to talk about whatever was on my mind at the time. I didn't feel they needed to know my full history (I think my T gave them some basic background). It was helpful in a way to get another perspective. And also to get some support while my T was away.

As long as the other T is OK with it and understands it's just going to be temporary--and won't require you to do a regular intake session, for example--I think it's worth a try. The one I ended up seeing a few times said she enjoyed being a backup T, as she gets to meet different people. It seems like a relatively common thing--saying that due to your fear of it being embarrassing.


I would just look at it as a chance to get some support. It may be a bit awkward, but that's OK.

[SlumberKitty]

I had a temporary T a few times when my former long Term T was on an extended working vacation in Singapore. We met a few times although I would see him around the office and he would talk to me some in the waiting room so I felt like I already had a bit of rapport with him. It was helpful to have someone to talk to, although we didn't get as "deep" into stuff as I did with long term T. One time we talked about the pain of her going on vacation during a time when I was crises-y. (She taught at a university there in the Summer so it wasn't like she had total control over the schedule). He was sort of helpful on that, but he was like, T's need breaks too. Well duh! I knew that! But it just wasn't great timing. The other thing I remember we talked about was my having to go on anti-psychotic medication and I was talking about the stigma of that and my own fears of that. Like what did it say about me as a person that I needed anti-psychotics? Would people be scared of me? Was I more scared of myself now and what I was able to do? Stuff like that. I would have talked through the anti-psychotic stuff with regular long term T had she been around but it all happened while she was away so I talked through it with him and it was helpful! I was glad I did it.

[LonesomeTonight]

Like Kit, I've also talked to a temporary T about my struggles with my current T being away. I also discussed my attachment to him, and my fear at the time that I was somewhat dependent on him. But I only talked about that after confirming with her that she wouldn't talk to him about the content of our session (I wanted to be in control of sharing that information with him, if I chose to)--in the US, we have to give explicit permission for them to share information.


If you do choose to work with a temporary T while yours is away, think about whether you'd want them to talk with your regular T about what you discuss.

[SlumberKitty]

Good point LT!

[20oney]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I’ll give it a go. My biggest concern is wasting everyone’s time. Like if I go in there and just shut down completely. Which is likely to happen. I guess if nothing else, I’ll at least have the routine and safe space 🤷🏻*♀️