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#21
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I appreciate your point about reconsidering ever contacting her again. I thought maybe after enough time had passed and depending on what I write in the letter, she would feel okay with that. If ever get to a place (which I sure hope I do) where I can write her from a solid place without any attachment or obsession, that is the only way I’ll let myself reach out. Deep down, my wish would be that ongoing contact would not be perceived as harrasssment. She stated before that she still gets letters from former clients, and granted they probably ended on a much more positive and appropriate note, I still hoped maybe I’d still have a chance to repair some of the “damage” by waiting a long time and working on myself thoroughly in the meantime. It does hurt to hear that my past mistakes will forever be on her radar, but I understand she has her own feelings and boundaries around trust too. And I think that scares me as well - knowing that any form of contact from her ex obsessive client could be perceived as a threat. I just feel really sad about it all. |
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SalingerEsme
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#22
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I am sorry if I didn't know the whole situation before posting. If she did things that were inappropriate, (writing love notes to you) I could see were she would be demonstrating very poor boundaries. For instance, if she showed up at a client's dorm room, that is totally inappropriate and creepy. Then, a client could be left thinking that there is nothing wrong with driving by the house. Also, if she has big issues with boundaries, I think it is unsafe for you to be caught up in her mess. More so, I would stay far away from her. |
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#23
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LonesomeTonight
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#24
Lol, idk if you knew about my post in which she did come hang out in my dorm room, but if not, that sure is a coincidence you’d pick that example. She didn’t just show up though, I invited her. So there is a difference there in that she did not invade my space. Nonetheless the boundaries and attachment was very confusing. In my last session, she told me she could no longer provide me with the “service” because in order to provide the service, there needs to be strict boundaries (some of which are irreparable, like driving by her house). I asked, “So that’s all the relationship was then, a service?” “You know that’s not true”, she answered. So I said, “But when the service ends, everything else has to end too.” She didn’t answer that statement, but if I could go back in time, I wish she would have said the caring won’t end, even if we never see/talk to each other again. I don’t know why I’m talking about the last session here, but I’ve had some vivid memories of it last night and replayed it in my head, which was most certainly not helpful. I cried a bit and woke up throwing up - maybe my body just really needed to let go of some of the grief.
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LonesomeTonight, SalingerEsme
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#25
*omg I was trying to edit the last post and submitted a totally new one
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Grand Magnate
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#26
All therapists are guilty of love bombing or attention bombing. It's what they do. When the client, predictably, has a strong reaction, it's labeled transference, and used as the basis for recommending years of expensive therapy. Smoke and mirrors.
When the client has a really intense or unsettling reaction, as with OP, therapists can just disown it, blame the client more overtly, and make a quick exit, keeping all the cash. Disgusting beyond words. BTW i dont see much difference between the responses on Quora and posts I've seen on therapy client forums. On the latter, have seen plenty of bullying and abusive posts in response to people in distress over therapy. As well, lot of people playing armchair therapist and preaching in detail how people should live and how to do therapy right. It's part of the culture. Therapists tend to model victim blaming in my opinion, and that s**t rolls downhill. |
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#27
Justbreathe, I think it was your post. I know I got it from someone's thread on PC.
Please don't be offended by this: even if you invited her, a therapist isn't supposed to have social contact with clients outside of the office. So by her coming, she may have gotten you confused on what the appropriate boundaries were. Here is what I think is a good example: Lets pretend that I asked my psychiatrist to lunch. The psychiatrist is supposed to know that that type of behavior is unethical and counterproductive to a therapeutic relationship; therefore, he wouldn't allow it. The boundaries are there to protect the client. That is why therapeutic relationships are only one way. If my psychiatrist became my friend, his needs in the friendship would have to be met too. Then he would lose all objectivity in trying to treat me. This is why the boundaries are so important to follow. Last edited by Shotokan Karate; Apr 28, 2019 at 05:19 PM.. |
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LonesomeTonight
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#28
The boundaries are there to protect the therapist - they just say it is to protect the client.
__________________ Please NO @ Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. Oscar Wilde Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. |
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BudFox, DP_2017, Kk222, koru_kiwi, SalingerEsme
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#29
A therapist can't remain objective in a dual relationship with the client. Hands down. That is why the boundaries are so important.
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Grand Magnate
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#30
__________________ Grief is the price you pay for love. |
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SalingerEsme
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#31
Think about this in another way: without boundaries in the therapeutic relationship, it would be hard for HIPAA to exist. If therapists can become friends with you, your friends and relatives, your private information would be hard to protect.
Here is another thing: Imagine that these boundaries don't exist. And now that you are friends with your therapist, you must meet their needs too. After all, a friendship is a two way street unlike a therapeutic one. Then, you finally get to know this person sitting in front of you. You may even find that you can't stand the therapist. Then what? Kinda hard to do therapy like that. The therapist loses objectivity, and the client loses trust in the therapist. Sorry OP for derailing your thread. Last edited by Shotokan Karate; Apr 29, 2019 at 12:04 AM.. |
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Grand Magnate
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#32
This board is usually pretty reasonable in terms of extreme opinions and the insulting and demeaning that typically goes with them, but the internet is a terrible place to seek support for any kind of real issue in your life. Most famous writers/celebrities/known people do not read anything about themselves on the web, because they have wisely figured out that the "haters" and the negativity doesn't feel good or helpful.
So maybe the question is why do this to yourself? Seems like self harm to post this on that kind of site. But for the record, I think you deserve empathy and above all self compassion, not scorn and dismissal and harsh judgements. |
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#33
Justbreathe, don't take their responses seriously because they don't know what really happened. Now that you have told us more, I see things differently now. I think she might have confused you.
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LonesomeTonight
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#34
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Grand Magnate
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#35
About the only thing of value I got from therapy was the motivation to stop caring once and for all about the opinions and advice of other people, and to stop asking for it. Conveniently, this (and other factors) made therapy irrelevant.
Advice and opinions are about the giver. It's a way to feel less empty and invisible for a few minutes. Therapists have made a career out of this. For me progress was when I stopped asking therapists and others what went wrong in my f-d up therapy, and started telling them. I sorted it out thru self-analysis and reading up on the cult of therapy. And I stopped worshipping fake authority and fake gurus. Now I see the assessments and opinions of the therapists i consulted with as rather pathetic. The therapist who was in the room had a badly distorted almost cartoonish interpretation of events. Many people I solicited feedback from online likewise fed me a lot of insane nonsense. |
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#36
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My therapist inserted herself as an important person in my psyche and then destroyed it. The self-clean-up afterwards is what turned on that light for me. When I could accept the devastation related to my “unimportant status” to my important person, and I could also accept all of her judgment, rejection and hostility, I was freed. The worst had happened. I survived. Nobody else in my everyday life could ever descimate me in such a raw, straight-to-the-core manner - so I had nothing left to be afraid of. A year later, I view my former therapist as narcissistic, incompetent and broken. And actually, quite monstrous for accepting none of the responsibility for therapy failure and letting me take on all the blame and shame. All the while, accepting upwards of six-figures of cash from me over an 8 year span. In many ways I do feel like someone who escaped a cult, and all the toxic mentality that went with it. I can’t relate at all to the desperate and grasping person I used to be. I’m now someone who refutes “the joys of submitting to the master”. I too no longer crumble at the negative opinions of others - and tell, rather than ask. I think an experience like mine (ours?) could only come from “therapy gone wrong” - so perhaps it was successful after all. OP - keep plugging away. You’re doing the work with or without your therapist. Last edited by Anonymous41422; Apr 30, 2019 at 07:34 AM.. |
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#37
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In an ideal world, we could both say sorry for our part in it and I would feel at peace and like I’ve received the closure I so desperately want. However, if that never happens, I need to figure out a way to hold both of our mistakes at the same time, even if she doesn’t believe she made any. |
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koru_kiwi, SalingerEsme
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#38
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One thing that has helped me unpack and process my confusion is accepting that neither my therapist nor myself could even agree between the two of us what was happening and had happened in therapy. We were living two totally different experiences. An outsider has even less insight. Maybe both of us were doing the best we could? Might it help to frame it as a very special experience with a very horrific ending? I still love my therapist and probably always will. However I am also cycling through highly justified anger and fury. Last edited by Anonymous41422; May 02, 2019 at 05:36 PM.. |
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koru_kiwi, SlumberKitty
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#39
For me what had to be reckoned with was that the other person in this "relationship" was not invested in it. She was there to collect income and to get some needs gratified and to further her career. It was a fabricated relationship with no legs. Most of the drama was in my head.
These things can evaporate in an instant, because one person sees the relationship as disposable. And meanwhile, in some cases, the other person has everything riding on it. That kind of asymmetry is usually poisonous. But therapists will tell you it's safe and healing and all the rest of it. And yet everywhere online where therapy is discussed you see the same stories of desperate clients being taken out like the trash. Not everyone will be so nihilistic about it, but I find comfort in shredding all the BS and dealing with reality. |
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koru_kiwi
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#40
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