# My therapist is leaving....



## Catastrophizer (Aug 23, 2010)

...


----------



## ahita (Oct 14, 2012)

I haven't been through this, but i've heard about it from one of my friends. Usually what happens is you don't just have one session where you say your goodbye. It's usually the last few sessionS spent doing this. My friend says it's like breaking up with someone lol... but i understand ur sadness since you've been going for a while. Bring it up in therapy if you feel okay talking about it.


----------



## mcgilicutty (Apr 9, 2012)

NoSocialButterfly,

I know what you mean when you say that you think you might be too dependent on your therapist. Sometimes I think that about mine. But I think that a healthy sort of "dependency" can be good for me. 

Kind of the feeling that there's at least one earthling who has my back when I don't feel like anyone else in the world does. 

The therapist that I had had for five years moved 3 months ago. He was awesome and was the most empathic of the many I've been to.

It took a long time to get hooked up with the new one so I tried self-paraphrasing on paper. I write maybe one sentence of "self-disclosure" with I statements and then paraphrase with you statements. 

Occasionally, I'll also throw in some empathy/ emotion identification, validation and encouragement. But most of the time it's just straight paraphrasing. 

I've been very surprised at how helpful it's been to me. Not sure exactly why. Maybe I imagine the paraphrasing is being done by my old therapist. 

It's just a simple way of feeling acknowledged nonjudgmentally. Although, at first it was a little challenging to get the hang of it. 

I'd be interested to know if you (or anyone else) ever tries/ has tried it.

My new therapist, I've had 3 sessions with him. He's not into the empathy game which bothers me but it gives me an opportunity to be assertive with him about that. And incentive to keep doing the self-paraphrasing. 

I hope that you manage your way through your transition and find a new one that you click with.


----------

