(he hates me) (when I leave easily on time he's like oh thank fucking god) 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

My T recently moved out of the area and I'm starting with someone new. I realize the first couple sessions with someone new are probably going to be awkward or uncomfortable but Can you tell you your therapist isnt a good fit after 2 sessions?

The new T is someone who you can tell is super sweet but she seems like someone who isn't going to really challenge me much or ask me many questions. I actually asked her if she'd ask me some questions at the beginning of and during the second session and I didn't get much the entire time other than some product ideas that may help me sleep better. I said I felt like I didn't know where to go with starting from scratch and needed for guidance through the session but I mostly just talked to fill up time because there was no guidance. It seemed like I was alone in the room because shed give me one sentence answers every now and then. It was like having bad dates with a nice person.

Is two sessions too soon to feel like you're just not on the same page with someone and how they work? Am I just grieving the loss of my old T? I even asked the new T that. My previous T had two people in mind and I'm wondering if i shoukd try the other one or if i should keep seeing if this gets better?

I feel guilty about what happened in therapy today. I tripped and he has a jug of water and a glass and it fell and broke. I reacted like a baby. I started crying and tried to pick up the pieces and he shouted not to touch the pieces but I know he wasn’t meaning to shout at me but I got so startled and I couldn’t stop crying about it. I feel so bad. I think he’s still angry at me even though he was being nice about it.

I was with my previous therapist for about 5 years. We immediately clicked, and the relationship was great. I was in an extremely fragile state when I started seeing her, and her gentle style was exactly what I needed at the time. As I've worked through some of my issues, I felt like I needed a therapist who would make me a bit more uncomfortable and push more than she did now that I'm in a better living situation and frame of mind.

About a year ago, she went on maternity leave, and I took that opportunity to start with a new therapist. She's definitely pushing me more than my previous therapist, and I feel like I've benefited from the switch, but I also feel like we aren't clicking the way I'd hoped. I've been with her for almost a year, and she doesn't seem to always remember the names of important people in my life or fully remember specific events I've spoken about on numerous occasions.

All that to say, I'm not sure if I should try someone new again or if this is worth switching? Her not remembering names and events has really bothered me, but I'm not sure I want to go through starting over again with someone new. If you've switched therapists, how did you know it was time to move on? If you're with a therapist you like, did you click with them immediately or did it take time?

my therapist offered me to restart therapy if needed and I guess I thought it was something I wanted. Im actually doing a lot better mentally and I only started therapy in February of this year due to something happening in my life and I needed support. Now that im back after taking a break I feel a lot worse. I believe rumination is the problem and things outside of therapy during my break actually helped me a lot more.

We just started last week and I feel bad already because it feels like I’m wasting my therapist time for already leaving for a break coming back and leaving again. I’m trying not to people please because at the end of the day I am paying a service. But I can’t help but feel bad for doing so.

Is it normal that my therapist when I shared a story, where literally on the facts on the face, the guy misled me romantically, she said that men are hunters and conquerors and it's normal for them, that he just didn't resist me, that is, as I understood, it just justifies him that he didn't resist in relation to me. She said that this guy had long forgotten about me and continued to live his life. Although I told her that this story is traumatic for me and completely changed me and my idea of life. She also addressed me as "Miss", it's like an appeal to a young inexperienced girl. Is it just me, or does these words express some prejudice against me as a young inexperienced girl? (Her example is 65).

I feel guilty after my therapy session today and wanted some thoughts on this. Basically I have been wanting to go to a therapist for like 3 weeks now and wasn't able to due to classes and sleep issues. I skipped class to finally go today on 4 hrs of sleep and empty stomach because I threw up b4 I went. It was my first session with this guy and I felt very emotional at the start. I'm also kind of an introvert and shy person so while I do think I explained a lot of things I feel that I could have done more. It's just that I have been so busy and stuff that I didn't note things down either and when he asked me certain questions I gave confused or vague responses either because I actually felt confused or because I kinda forgot the things I wanted to say or did not want to say too much. I just feel like after all this hard work I should have done a better job. I also feel that my mental health has just been so bad recently that I guess I wanted a better breakthrough because I did not want to suffer anymore so that's a big factor as well. My next sesh is 7 days later. Ik I have another shot and therapy is a process but idk I feel like I didn't lend myself the best hand today so yeah... I just feel a bit dejected I guess like my actual problems weren't super duper addressed

Pretty much what the title says.

As the title says, I've been seeing a psychologist for about 6 months roughly and I feel like I am getting nothing out of it.

I would well and truly be over session 9 by now, an estimate would be about session 13 maybe?

Regardless, I've been going after my Psychiatrist recommended this specific Psychologist to me as at the time we weren't getting much response from my medication and would inevitably need to accompany the medication with standard therapy too as it isn't going to fix everything.

This is my second time seeing a Psychologist, the first one just made me feel like I was going in for her to pry about what was on my mind for 50 minutes and stall until the end, I sound pretty silly saying that but when it gets to Session 8 and I've asked multiple times to try and prepare some mechanisms or strategies to help me cope with things she never went beyond anchoring and counting tasks, once again I might sound silly but I told her as nicely as I could that I didn't think they were working and wanted to do something else.

Cut back to now, I've been on a plethora of meds since way back and I'm currently on stimulants (Vyvanse 50mg).

Every time I have gone in to see my Psychologist I either leave the room feeling like I understand my emotions a little better (or so I'd like to believe) or I end up leaving feeling completely hopeless because I end up sitting there basically telling her about how much I despise things and why I am the way I am.

I've asked for strategies from her a few times and each time it has ended up just being homework, I've never received anything beyond essentially playing a game or doing an activity in my head to cope within the moment and I've experienced it well enough to say it doesn't help in the slightest.

A lot of the 'tricking' the brain or talking through things / playing activities for calming senses and what not do not really work on me in the slightest and I feel like I'm reaching the end of what therapy can actually do for me, do I need to see someone different or is this just what therapy is and eventually I might find something I respond to?

I don't know what to tell her in order to change our approach and I feel like I should be getting somewhere but instead regardless of how far I've actually come I genuinely feel like I'm still on day 1 of being that sad little kid asking to go to therapy.

Should I get as much out of the way as I possibly can? I don't even know where to begin because I have issues upon issues. I think I'm gonna freeze up. I only have 7 sessions in one year. I feel like I shouldn't waste these? I really like desepretly need to get fixed. I can't waste this opportunity

I’ve been to three or four sessions with my husband to his therapist. I was under the impression this was couples therapy but upon reading things on here it seems the conventionally it’s supposed to be client entered (ie. I’m there a guest a d my partner should still remain the focus).

I’m also reading a lot on here that conventionally an individuals therapist should not do couple sessions because of bias.

In the last session I felt extremely rubbed the wrong way, and there was a very very clear bias. Like my feelings were a huge afterthought. This especially triggered me when talking about my miscarriage. In the moment I felt too disempowered and just “took” it.

Anyway, I think that she didn’t set the framework for expectations, and I think ethically she blurred some stuff resulting in an extremely negative experience that has only caused conflict and pain.

I don’t intend to write to her about this, but I really want to tell her what she said about our miscarriage in regards to my experience was painful and I won’t be returning because of it. I don’t know. I feel pretty hurt and fearful resulting in anger. I don’t know where to put it and I think she did a bad job (people can make mistakes but also there needs to be accountability).

Maybe I don’t.

I just wish I went and said nothing at all. But I wish I knew what my role was supposed to be in the session.

I feel a huge amount of distrust now that this person is influencing my husband. I feel dirty for allowing myself to be vulnerable in front of her.

For context: We were talking about my husband telling his father about the miscarriage without letting me know. I said I wasn’t comfortable about people know about my miscarriage and what it entailed without a discussion first. My husband was not very upset about it tbh (maybe his therapist knows more!). He was very supportive but it’s a completely different experience for a woman. We literally talked about her comments after, he definitely thinks he was in the wrong and her comment was weird.

The therapist stops my mid sentence as soon as I said my miscarriage, interuots, and holds up her finger and said you should say OUR miscarriage and then cuts me off and moves on.

I wonder how she would feel about my husband telling his dad about a pregnancy without asking me; or about say surgery on my genitals without asking me. Like, wtf.

Anyway, it was how she dismissed that a miscarriage is a hugely different experience as a woman and yes, it is OURS but it’s also MINE. My husband didn’t have to go through the physical passing of a pregnancy, or an additional d&c, or the hormonal changes. I’m not dismissing what he did go through but if it comes out of my body I should be allowed to use the term “mine”

touch boundaries with male therapist?

I (F) am now an adult but when I was around 13 I went to a residential facility. While I was there I had a male therapist who during my sessions would rub the inside of my legs and my back for extended periods of time. He would begin and then ask “is this okay?” And I didn’t know how to say no. I am wondering if this is ever acceptable for a therapist to do?

Additionally, I had a book taken from me while in the facility as they said it was not appropriate, but he then had the book in our session and read me out a sex scene in the book to “demonstrate” it was not appropriate. Looking back both of these things feel quite gross to me but I don’t know therapeutic guidelines so I’m not sure how inappropriate this behavior would be classed?

I'm currently looking for a new job and my T knows I struggle with social anxiety and imposter syndrome. I just had a not great interview and I'm realizing I need to practice with someone I am comfortable with. Would it be appropriate to hand her a list of interview questions and ask her to do a mock interview with me?

Or should I just hire a career coach?

Comment down anything that your therapist told you , like a life advice or anything that you absolutely loved i wanna know .

Ps: today was my first session and i absolutely loved it , idk why some people say that they come out crying but I can understand everyone is different but my experience was very nice .

I was seeing a therapist regularly and was Starting a new job so I asked to pause on rescheduling our next session until I got a grasp on what my hours would be and how my days were and that I’d be in touch. I plan to get in touch this week but it’s been 3 weeks since we last spoke. Is it normal that they haven’t followed up with me yet? I feel insecure about it as if they dont care whether I’m a patient or not anymore

My ex broke up with me. The main problem was I kept putting my emotions on her and she has a very stressful job so I can’t keep doing that.

Right now I am going to therapy to help with dealing with my emotions rather than putting that on someone else.
What tips do you have to do this?
What is the best way to deal with these emotions without feeling like I need to go to someone else and put the stress of them on them?

Hey yall! Quick question for the masses about AI use. For reference, I’ve been seeing my therapist for a few years now, she’s very open, she’s helped me work through a lot and I have no intentions of switching providers. I just want some advice on how to navigate this.

I would say about 2 years ago she started mentioning her use of AI. I wasn’t too worried at first, she showed me goblin tools and it’s been a great resource for me in several areas in my life. However over the summer when I was applying to grad school (MSW, pray for me) and looking for a car she started to encourage me to use AI. When I would talk about my anxiety’s with buying a car, she would ask me if I had asked chat about it. When I had been nervous about my personal statement, she asked if I had put it through chat. I haven’t really talked about my distaste for AI in session but I do try to avoid using it and feel strongly about it.

Recently she’s been assigning me reflections after our sessions (super helpful) and I’ve had a hard time discerning what’s her actual voice and what’s AI prompts based off what’s discussed in our sessions. The questions read like AI prompts, not like a human that I’ve been talking to for years. She recently switched to Headway for her private practice which I know uses Scribe so I’m wondering if she’s using the transcripts and then asking AI for discussion points for the reflections. Sometimes the reflections sound like her and other times they sound robotic and look copy and pasted. Even her responses to my answers I have a hard time determining whether it’s just professionalism or if it’s AI.

I’m not here to yuck anybody’s yum, I do think AI has a lot of practical uses and I appreciate the value it has for social workers with large caseloads. I don’t mind her using AI to transcribe our sessions and make her note writing easier and ultimately I don’t know what her caseload looks like. However, I don’t want to be prompted by a robot after my sessions. I chose her and have stayed with her for so long because of the human she is. She’s such a good clinician, I plan on staying with her for many more years and I know I can address this without getting any pushback. I guess I just don’t want to make her job harder? I also just don’t know how to start that conversation without coming across accusatory. Because there is a chance she’s just writing with professionalism in a way that I’m not used to during our sessions but knowing how often she uses AI I can’t help but feel like that’s what’s happening.

Any advice is greatly appreciated <3

TW: SI, SIB, and eating disorders

27F. Please be nice. Crying as I write this so sorry if it’s all over the place. I have been really struggling lately as a lot has happened over the last 2 months. I recently had to withdraw from my masters in counseling program with less than a year before graduation because of unethical and unprofessional behaviors from my school (bordering on bullying tbh, and I don’t use that term Willy nilly). I had lost my practicum placement because my supervisor was constantly demeaning me in front of clients and coworkers and when I tried to tell her I didn’t like that, she fired me and then lied to my school saying I had a “meltdown”. School automatically takes her side and doesn’t even care about my side of the story and was going to kick me out. I’m devastated and I feel like a failure. I previously had tried another masters program 4 years ago in school psychology in Colorado but that ended badly too. My whole time in CO has been very bad. I know this sounds bad, but had been seeing a therapist who I became EXTREMELY attached to. I liked her a lot, but am now realizing that this relationship caused more harm than good. I quickly became obsessively envious of because she always was put together and had the perfect life. She has everything I want: marriage and kids. I gave myself the same timeline as her (get married at this age, have kids by this age, etc.) I found myself starting to dress like her and even gave myself bangs like her. I wanted to be her. I want to be a therapist like her. I had a mental breakdown due to this and decided I needed to get out of there. I moved back to Connecticut 2 years ago to be closer to my family in Massachusetts and am much more content but I still get dreams that I’m still in CO and constantly find myself trying to convince myself that this period in my life never happened and that I just imagined it. My current therapist thinks I am traumatized but I feel like that’s a strong word. While there, I told myself before starting this program that if the counseling program didn’t work out I was going to kill myself because what’s the point of living if I can’t be a therapist. It’s the only career I see myself doing now. And even if I transfer, I’ll have to basically start over because they won’t accept all my credits. And just overall I feel so useless, unloveable, and undeserving of happiness. I’ve never been in a long term relationship and I always feel jealous when I see people from high school and college get married and have kids. Because I know that I’ll never find anyone who will love me because there is nothing to love about me. And now I can’t even do the career I want. I work full time and am financially stable and have an amazing manager so finances aren’t a stressor right now. But all I do is work and go home to my apartment where I live by myself. I have started to develop anorexia over the past year which is getting worse. And even after 2 years, I still find myself wanting to be my old therapist and trying to have my timeline align to hers. I don’t know why it is happening and I want it to stop.

I just want to die so badly after all this but I don’t know how to explain that I’m not in any active danger to my therapist. I just want something to happen to me. I’m stuck living, as I can’t do that to my family and friends and I adopted a cat last year who I love more than anything and I can’t imagine leaving her. I don’t have a plan or intent but I have been praying that I get in a car accident or my anorexia causing a fatal medical emergency. I really want my therapist to understand that it’s just passive. I like my current therapist, but she uses a tough love approach sometimes but I know she’s doing it because she cares deeply about me. But I feel like she’s often quick to jump to the conclusion that I’m not making progress or that I can’t keep myself safe, and then she’ll terminate me. This has happened every time I engage in self injurious behavior, specifically head banging, which is my main motivator to not do it in fear that she’ll terminate me. But I really need to talk to someone about this without risking being hospitalized. Having to leave school and lose my practicum, as well as memories from Colorado are becoming too much for me to handle.

Hi,

i hope this is finding you all well! I recently went through pet loss and i originally was hesitant on starting therapy. I finally decided to start therapy on Better Help after kind of being forced to mostly because during this pet loss I knew I needed a animal to help me through the grief. However, my dad who i live with said i couldn’t unless a therapist said they believe that i need one. Which made me determined to find a therapist and start asap because i knew personally that i couldn’t handle the silence and the pain alone. So I started therapy. She has been sick this whole time since i’ve started though. I’m hoping I am just overthinking/reacting and she maybe just forgot about the schedule. So i’ve been doing therapy for about a month now and throughout it my therapist has been showing up usually on time and now this past week and today she has no showed again (only 2 times in total). I’m hoping it’s just that she forgot and not because she’s in the hospital or something like that, however i texted her and i’ve heard no response at all back. I’m just very hesitant on finding a new therapist because i already started unpacking stuff with her. Of course i think her no showing is being unreliable and breaks a little bit of my trust but I’m already used to her now so i just don’t know what to do. Any advice or anything is appreciated!

I’m a little surprised and hurt by this. She said she’s leaving to a higher level of therapy for couples and families and it’s not a one to one thing or a practice that she can have me follow her to. So I asked is it a group thing? She said no it’s just different.

Making sense of where she’s going (not exactly where) but how her job changes would help me make peace with this. Has anyone ever heard of this? Or am I just being “soft fired” as a client? What is this higher level of marriage and family therapy she is referencing?

I recently went to a psychologist, or rather, a few months ago. We did a psychological assessment, and then I went back to the clinic a few times to ask for the report. They said the doctor didn't inform about any report yet. Finally, I went last week iirc, and got an appointment for Friday. I went into the appointment thinking they'll just hand over the report to me. They didn't. First, someone from the psychologist's team talked to me for idk how long, but it was long enough, cuz I only got to talk to the psychologist for a max of 10 minutes. Anyway, so that person from their team asked me why I had initially come in, and what my complaint was. I again, explained to her what ever I'd been dealing with. I can't get up to do stuff. I don't know how else to put this, I just can't get up. Sometimes I don't want to, but even when I really do, I can't get myself to do it. I can't get myself to study, I can't get myself to shower, to brush my teeth, wash my face, if my water bottle has run out of water, I'll just lay there and eventually get up, but sometimes, by then 1-2 hours have passed. I feel really low. I feel sleepy. I don't sleep.. I don't have insomnia, no. I feel sleepy, I feel so sleepy that I start drifting off to sleep. But I don't get up to brush my teeth and wash my face, I just lay there doing whatever I'm doing. Which, most of the time, is just binge watching some TV show or film.. I don't want to watch it. But I'll still watch it, because I can't get myself to study, like, I'll bring the books and all the material, open it up, but I won't be able to start studying. If I start, I can't get myself to keep at it for long. So what else can I do then? Because I don't want to lay there doing absolutely nothing. So I just put on some drama, or a short film, or something. I also sometimes play those really easy games alongside, like those, idk what it's called.. yeah, I don't even know the name of the game I'm mindlessly playing. Anyway, I checked, and the ones I'm currently rotating between, are clash of clans, wool connect, jewel color sort, and jewel sliding. I just keep playing those games, hours on end. I don't even like them. Or maybe I do. Actually, I do. Anyway, I don't stick to playing one game though, I rotate between a few

So I went in on Friday, when I finally got to talk to the psychologist, he refused to hand over my report to me.. he was like, I need you to convince me, that you'll use this report to improve your life and won't just hyper fixate on it. He said, okay, I'll give you your diagnosis, then what will you do with it? Will you put the diagnosis on a name tag and put that tag on your shirt, visible to everyone? Or how will you use it to improve your life, tell me. I was stumped. I just wanted the damn report man. No, I don't want to announce my results to anybody. It's not anyone else's business but mine. I just wanted to know what was happening and why I'm feeling like this. Also, he said what he said cuz I didn't want to continue with the sessions, I've only had 4 sessions in total, 2 where I got to see the psychologist for like 10 mins each, I'm not kidding, the rest were spent talking to someone from the team. And 2 were where I just did the assessment stuff with another team member. I don't want to continue the sessions, I just wanted a psychological assessment. I don't want to take meds either. In the first session he said, he can refer me to a psychiatrist, and they can diagnose me and treat me with meds, or we can continue the sessions with him. I said no to taking meds, cuz they have side effects. In the first session, he said paracetamol has side effects too. I couldn't say anything then. But when he brought up meds again in Friday's session, I said meds for depression or anxiety or ADHD(was my primary complaint, I saw reels and symptoms online, resonated with them, and went to the psychologist, cuz I wanted to make sure I'm not going off in the wrong direction, like, this would clear stuff out if I just consulted a professional instead of self diagnosing.) or whatever, have VERY DIFFERENT side effects to paracetamol or other meds. He said I am struggling to accept the facts, I asked what facts, he said, I can't remember the whole thing (yeah, i forget stuff🤡). He said I need to bring my self to accept that I am struggling and I need help, and that my coping is compromised, I engage in maladaptive behaviours when I am struggling. (But like, I make scenarios even when I'm not struggling? I make scenarios pretty much all the time, though. Does that mean I'm struggling all the time?? Maybe I am. I don't know anymore. I do know, that I don't sleep all the time, like depressed people do. In fact, I deliberately sleep less. (This, I do realize is an issue..) I sleep like, at max, 5 hours. On most days 4 hours and less.

Anyway, so he didn't give me the report on Friday, told me to walk in the park or nature for 1 hour for 15 days then come back to collect the report. I said that's too far away. He said one week, I said that's really far away. He said, okay, Tuesday. Come on Tuesday and I'll give you the report. So I have an appointment for tomorrow.

In the first session, he told me some stuff to improve on, I didn't improve on them. Told me to improve my sleep hygiene, to walk everyday for one hour in the nature, to drink more water. The only think I did do was drink more water. I am well hydrated. I did try exercising and being physically active on and off in the meanwhile, but never stuck to a routine, never got consistent with it.

I need an outsider perspective please. Any and every reply is appreciated. I don't know, I currently do not want to continue with the psychologist for sessions or the psychiatrist for meds(if they think I need them).

I don't know how well I explained my situation. But yeah, anyway, thank you for reading this long. I feel stumped. I don't know what to do anymore.

Is it valid for a therapist to hold your hand during a very difficult session?

Nothing strange happened but he did hold and pat my hand for a few minutes when i experienced a flashback/hyperventilated.

I have former childhood SA, so I get super aware when someone touches me in any way.

I have Bipolar 1, CPTSD, a history of childhood abuse, identity confusion and compulsive sexual behaviour.

I've always been fascinated by psychoanalysis, especially Freud, Jung and the idea of uncovering unconscious conflicts. Part of me believes that understanding the roots of my problems is the only way I'll truly heal.

But traditional psychoanalysis is expensive, often requires 3–5 sessions a week and is almost impossible to find where I live (Pakistan).

I've also read that the evidence for psychoanalysis is limited, which makes me question whether I'm idealising it.

I'm not particularly drawn to CBT or solution-focused therapies. They seem too surface-level for what I'm dealing with, although I'm open to being proven wrong.

So I'm curious, especially to hear from therapists: is psychoanalysis worth pursuing, or would psychodynamic, trauma-focused or another type of therapy be more suitable for someone with my history?

I don't just want to manage symptoms. I want to understand myself, work through my past and make lasting changes.