therapy questions

[mikep]

hi

 

i have been going to therapy recently, its ok, but i never know what to talk about

 

sometimes, the therapist will say that she doesnt want to take people back to their past, and rather focus on talking about present issues. i have said that perhaps if i talk about the past it will help me understand the present better etc ...

 

i know that you guys often say therapy is good etc, but is there any more specefic information ? im not really feeling a lot of benefit at the moment, and id like to get as much out of the sessions as possible .... i have about 15 sessions left 

[Mcattack]

Hi! How do you feel toward your therapist? What do you want from her?

[mikep]

i like the therapist

i dont see how talking about things can change them, ive thought about my past a million times ..... its certainly not making me feel any different

is there anything in particular i should do ?

 

i just heard you guys say "go to therapy" sometimes, so i did it, but "now what?"

[Dibble]

She doesn't want to talk about the past? What was her response when you told her that you felt talking about the past might help with the present issues?

 

If one of your issues were that you're afraid to be left alone by say a spouse or partner or whatever how does she intend to solve that without looking for the source of this fear? I haven't been to therapy yet myself but I understand your confusion. It's what I would expect to be doing during these sessions as well.

 

Maybe next time you go to the therapist sit her down and state clearly that you want to work on issues from the past, or at least look for the sources of your troubles keeping in mind that it might be something from a long time ago, else you can't see how the therapy's going to work. After all she might have the greatest of plans in mind for you but if you don't feel it's relevant and have little faith in the effectiveness of the therapy it's not likely to work.

 

Did you have an intake meeting before the therapy began in which you stated your issues and desired outcome?

[TheRobin]

As McAttack asked before: What do you want out of therapy? I mean, why did you want to go there? What in your life does currently bother you that you need help with?My experience is that things in the present can prompt an emotional reaction which is tied to past experience. When this happens its very useful to be curious about the emotion and what originally prompted it etc. This is especially true if the emotional reaction is somehow not appropriate to the evidence or facts at hand (meaning, some assumptions/experiences from your past are tied into a situation from the present, which they have nothing to do with. That imo usually means that there some repressed emotions that were appropriate somewhere in your past when this same or similar situation happened, alongside with not being able to act in accordance with those emotions)But yeah, simply talking about the past as in "When I was x years old, I did y and z" or something like that doesn't sound too useful to me either, if that's what you meant with "talking about the past". (Which doesn't mean much, just my thoughts)