Did you ever lay on the couch?

Just wondering how many have actually taken the "lie down" position on the couch.

I'm sort of wanting to do it but think it would be awkward.

Anyone?

nope. mine never had a couch. stuck on plastic chairs me

My T has a psychoanalytic orientation and is trained in Psychoanalysis too. Whenever I go and sit on the couch, I wonder if he has other clients who do. I always sit facing him. I think I would feel too vulnerable laying down. Plus I like looking at him and need the reassurance a simple gesture or a smile offers.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I have been offered a few times. And most currently, t likes to do visualizations and wants me to be in the recliner in the reclining positon. NO WAY!

Well, let me amend this - with my past 3 t's (including this one) i have curled up into a tight ball on the couch to do some of the visualizations, or to let the littles listen to a story. But we cannpt expose ourselves in a typical "relaxed" pose.
us

Yes I have!
She has a "normal" couch.
The littles lay down on it all the time, curl up under a blanket and talk. Sometimes we lay on our side to face her, and sometimes we lay on our back and face the ceiling.
I very much like laying down.

No, I never have. My T has two couches. Last time he told me I could sit on "his" couch if I wanted, but I declined. I think he would be OK with it if I wanted to lie down. But I really have no desire. The only situation I might do it in is if T were to go over to his desk to work on stuff (for some reason) and was going to be occupied for some time. I might lie down and have a nap while he was busy, lol. I am often very tired and feel very comfortable with T in his office. My teenage daughter has a therapist and she told me that she has lain on the couch a few times when she goes there. She said she lies down and is silent.

My T doesn't have an analysts couch, but just a regular couch. My first visit I told her I just wanted to lie down and be there and not even talk. I didn't but it is a fantasy I have. Sometimes I think a true 'on the couch' session would be more like the "sessions" I have with her in my head, that free association would be easier if it wasn't face2face, resembling a normal social conversation. But then I do love looking at her, so I don't know how that would feel not seeing her. I think I would be paranoid and worrying about how I was "doing", at least at first.

Good question. You have me wondering if I would have the courage!

no. curled up in a ball though.

Yes, I have... it took me a long time (I think almost two years). I was afraid then. I took me awhile to work up to that because I knew I would be losing the most important thing to me (face to face contact). Also, I knew that lying on the couch would take down the walls for me-- the walls that I work so hard to keep up in order to keep myself safe. It is impossble to keep those walls up when you are on the couch.

My T used to work in a psychoanalytic institute. The couches were not your regular sofas, they were the real psychoanalytic couches. So one day, I got on the couch. I laid down and flipped myself over every 3 seconds, asking T, "Are you still there?" Before I knew it, free association was taking place. I experienced my first real regression in therapy. It was scary, but important. To this day, T maintains that it was scary for both of us and "we took care of each other" after I got up from the couch. He did not expect such an intense reaction to come out my first time on the couch.

My experience on the couch was a turning point in my relationship with T. It was the first time I had ever felt so scared, and so safe, at the same time. I took a risk. I LOVE taking risks in therapy. My risk was that I placed my unconscious in his hands, and allowed him to take care of me. I trust him one hundred percent that day.

It is interesting that this post comes up today because I was just at a training today in which I was talking to someone about this very subject--- this guy asked me if I had any ideas yet for my dissertation, and I was telling how I am interested in researched the couch vs. face to face contact in psychotherapy. There are many facets to this-- my situation was an unique one because I had already established that connection with with my T-- it existed two years prior to going on the couch. I think that must be very different for patients who only use the couch in psychoanalysis. I would like to research how the different modalities foster free association, and how they foster (or inhibit, depending on which one), the therapeutic connection and relationship.

My T has moved offices. There is no longer a couch. I regret this because I would love to do it again. Perhaps I will ask him about this tomorrow. He always says that therapy doesn't have to be done in the chairs, just facing each other. I know he mentioned there are other things we can do in the absence of the couch, like turning the chair around... It would be interesting for me to see how that differs from the couch experience.

No way! Several times I wanted very much to curl up in the corner of the ugly couch but didn't.

Yes, a long time ago, with my first T. Free association and all that. It worked well for a while -- and then it did not.

All my sessions are in the "lie down" position on the couch. For the first year or so, I absolutely refused to do it (it seemed creepy to me). Now, it is always the couch. I haven't sat in the chair since the first time I used the couch.

This works for me because acknowledging that he is physically in the room brings immediate nausea. So, if I see his shoe out of the corner of my eye...uggghhh.

Yes, I lay on the couch. My therapist offers a choice to sit face to face or lying down. For the first year or so we sat face to face. She never pushed me but every once in awhile we would talk about it. She feels a recline position frees up defenses so it's easier to talk about the harder "good" stuff.

One day as I left her office I announced, "Beginning next week I will lay down and give it a try for 3 weeks, then I'll decide if it works for me." The first time was extremely difficult. I think I was having an anxiety attack (or close to it) most of the session. My head was swirling with so many thoughts; it wasn't pleasant. But by the end of the three weeks, it was beginning to feel more comfortable. Especially silent moments were tolerated easier.

It is a different experience. Sometimes, although not very often, I will sit down. Now I find looking at her awkward. It's been three years and I go 2 - 3 times a week. My t is psychodynamic.

I don't lie down on the couch at my T's office. Maybe it's because I'm a guy, but i just find myself confortable sitting on her sofa with my leg crossed over the other. i don't know that i would want to lie on the sofa, or the couch, but I'm confortable with the way i am in her office.

There is no couch in my T's office. I would not like laying down...
Lily

Since you lay down like myself, do you keep your eyes open or closed? I always close my eyes except for one session when I was so angry.

I find that my t is closely observing my facial expressions and my sense of hearing is highly tuned in to everything she is doing.

no...as soon as I lay down on any couch I get the urge to let a good fart

nuff' said

The more I read the responses on this thread the more I think... I could never feel comfortable laying down.

I want to try it but don't know if I have the guts.

My T has a sort of flat couch -- analytic type, no fluff and NOT a sofa. There is one toss pillow that is kinda flat too.

I always sit on the couch now. We had so many ruptures when I was sitting in the chair I told him it was the electric chair.

Just don't know if I could make it to lying down.....

I haven't. I don't think I've seen anyone who thought there was a benefit to it. The only psychodynamic / analytic therapists I've seen don't place a value on it (as Kohut and self psychologists don't tend to do). I'm not sure whether I would like to do it or not. I think I'd like it if my therapist couldn't look at me. I'd be happy enough not looking at him. I worry that lying down would feel sexualized, though. I guess I wouldn't mind trying it. I said to my t that I wouldn't mind. Then he did his behaviorist thing with the trying to discourage what he thought was my avoidance of him. Sigh.

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(as Kohut and self psychologists don't tend to do).

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This is interesting bc I think T might be of that school, although I'm not sure. HE never actually suggested it. I can only think of twice when the issue came up. Once was when I arrived at therapy and asked him if anyone ever fell asleep in therapy--LOL. He said that if he felt like laying on the couch at his therapists office he would. The second was not actually a couch discussion, but I was moving my seat around and he said it was okay to change around; that I didn't have to sit in the same place every week.

I am not sure why I want to try it other than that it might help me to relax a bit. I do like the closeness I feel when I am sitting on the couch as opposed to the chair. On the other hand, I find looking at him sometimes to be very intense. Of course if I did lie down, then I'd be like Pink because I would think he was tiptoeing out the door on me.

Oy

I've never lain on the couch. My T just has a regular couch, not a psychoanalytic one. He's never suggested I lie down, and I think it'd be a strange thing to do there. If I couldn't see him I don't think I'd be much interested in interacting. That's just not for me. Plus I don't want to lie down unless I'm actually planning to take a nap. Not my style for talking. I doubt my T ever suggests it to his clients, though of course I don't know for sure. I don't think it's his style either though.

Sidony

I think it would be interesting to try. When I lay down at home to rest or to (try to) clear my head, I often think that it would be great if I could free associate the same way and so easily in session. Even keeping a journal by my bed means interrupting my thoughts so while that helps, it also hinders.
I need brain TiVo

My T has a regular sofa. But then, he's a pain doctor... I have laid down on it and he has always asked me why I'm doing that.. it's always because the pain is too much to sit (sacrum.) He usually moves his chair a bit so we can see each other. Eye contact is very important for someone like me who likes to dissociate from the pain, who has no trouble with self-hypnosis to escape the pain. Plus, I'm working hard to keep the negative thinking (about what could have been, and the what-ifs) at bay, and he's best at picking up on that if he can look me in the eyes.

You know for me this thread is morphing into much more than just a seating preference in therapy.

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KJ said:
I worry that lying down would feel sexualized, though.

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I thought of this too.

I don't think I actually want to lie on the couch. I think what I really want is to feel comfortable enough to do it, if I wanted to, and not worry about how it might be perceived by my T. That is a long sentence that probably doesn't make sense. I feel the same way about simply moving from my current position (furthest point from my T, nearest the door). I am no longer worried about her violating my personal space or making sure I have a direct route to leave quickly. These were concerns only during the 1st few sessions. Even though those concerns are gone, the behavior remains--limiting my seating options. I am aware of this behavior and it bugs me; but I still sit in the same spot session after session. WHY?

This same behavior pattern keeps me from doing a lot of things.