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Originally Posted by Thalassophile
Interesting observation here... Not wanting to derail LT's session but I can understand why someone might not clarify in the midst of the conversation as I think I would have done the same. I can't say of course why LT didn't clarify but I know if it was me I would worry that he had said what he said by accident...let it slip.. and had not meant or wanted to say it and if I asked him to clarify it would draw attention to that fact and he would feel regretful or suddenly shut down and tell himself he needed to be more careful in the future... and thus there would be no more slips which can be enjoyable...Ridiculous I know..Or another scenario is that I often take hours before I react to things that were said so I wouldn't have realised I wanted to clarify until I'd left the appointment. Depending on what it was I might bring it up at the next session. Like a delayed reaction of sorts. Interested to hear your thoughts on your session LT.
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I didn't say it wasn't understandable and I think in fact it's quite a normal thing to do. It wasn't a criticism or something that needs to be defended against. To me a therapy session is like a big fishbowl where it's easier to see the things I do that could be changed or improved (compared to everyday relationships, where things can be more loaded). I find it useful to bring them to the surface and see what they are about, think about them more deeply.
But, as to your explanation above, I don't think anyone knows for a minute how the therapist would feel in the moment and the other "worries" about what he might think are kind of the identified problem-- mind reading, caring too much about what someone else thinks, when you can't possibly know and I'd bet ten bucks to this therapist's straight talk that he'd be glad to repeat what he said or even clarify it. Most people would be glad to repeat something they said if the intended hearer didn't catch it; isn't that the whole point of saying anything at all, that someone actually hears what you said? And isn't the whole point of being a listener to actually understand what someone says?