I know I posted this in the In Session thread, but this is still rolling around in my head, a comment my therapist made at the end of my last session.
Quote:
As we were wrapping up, t said in a sort of...complimenting, almost...voice, "And you didn't cry this time!" Which half took me aback. Really? "Is not crying a good thing?" I asked. And she said something about a stronger sense of my self and holding things together.
It was our session wrap-up, so I didn't get a chance to pursue it, and I still find myself puzzled by the idea. Is that a measure of progress, not crying?
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So I will just throw this out there as a general question, because I am thinking about how this pertains to my own progress, but I am also genuinely curious about other's experiences: What do you all experience or believe about the value (or not) of crying (or not) in therapy?
I'm still pondering this. I do cry often in my sessions. I am faced with a pretty daunting challenge, without a lot of opportunity to let my emotional guard down, so it tends to be pretty close to the surface while I'm there venting about and exploring the issues I don't usually talk about. Crying and not-crying has been a recurring theme in my therapy. My first "assignment" was to cry in the shower or somewhere where no one would hear me, because I was so tense I was practically vibrating; later on, I sobbed my way through every single session.
(For what it's worth, my therapist is typically empathetic and we work well together. It feels to me a bit like it was an unguarded moment, like she tipped her hand a little. But fruitful, I suppose, as it's given me a lot of different directions to think on.)