I've only made one attempt at seeing a therapist, which was about trying to make sure that my mother's serious illness wasn't going to interfere with my ability to do my job. What she did right was to acknowledge that her style of communication and mine didn't mesh very well, and to make a serious attempt to match her way of working to something that suited me better than what came naturally to her. I was very much impressed by that. A small example was that when I asked her to turn off the soft, soothing music so that I could concentrate on the discussion, she acquiesced immediately and didn't make me feel as if I was insulting her by rejecting her ambience.
What she did wrong was to get upset by my giving a concise but direct account of the background of why I had decided to consult her. I would be surprised if a professional counsellor doesn't regularly hear things more shocking than "my mother has cancer and may die" but this therapist really gave the impression that I was horribly brutal for saying that outright rather than beating about the bush. She also tried to pressure me to cry during the session, which I found intrusive.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-07 10:22 pm (UTC)What she did wrong was to get upset by my giving a concise but direct account of the background of why I had decided to consult her. I would be surprised if a professional counsellor doesn't regularly hear things more shocking than "my mother has cancer and may die" but this therapist really gave the impression that I was horribly brutal for saying that outright rather than beating about the bush. She also tried to pressure me to cry during the session, which I found intrusive.