# Moment of Silence During Therapy...................



## NYR22 (Mar 21, 2005)

Towards the end of my therapy session yesterday, my therapist did something he's never done before. Like I said, it was towards the end of the session and I was kind of running out of things to say, because I do most of the talking, obviously. I guess you can say there were a few extended periods of pauses (silences) and then it actually got to the point where we were talking about the Yankees and a few other sports. Haha. Then, he goes, "Do you feel like it's necessary or that you're pressured to talk during therapy?" I was kind of befuddled by the question and I wasn't sure how to respond. I think I said no, not at all, and I asked him what he meant. I think he said something to the effect that I don't have to talk if I don't want to and I told him that I wanted to talk. Then I asked him if he saw the movie Good Will Hunting, during the therapy sessions where Robin Williams is the therapist and Matt Damon is the patient and he's completely quiet during a whole session of therapy. I told him I was not like that at all and that I wanted to be productive during therapy. Haha.

Then my therapist suggests that we try a 2 minutes moment of silence during therapy, where obviously we don't talk to each other. So, we have the 2 minutes moment of silence and then we both tell each other what we were thinking about during those 2 minutes. It was just sort of a bizarre experience and I'm not sure what my therapist was trying to achieve or figure out. Maybe he was trying to see how comfortable I was during that silence? What do you guys think his objective was? Maybe this was some kind of test? I'll type more later.


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## leonardess (Jun 30, 2009)

It could be that he wanted you to see that it's ok to be quiet. Perhaps he wanted to see if you blame yourself for any long pauses in any conversation. This is common for people with SA. 

I often do not say a word during therapy, while I cogitate on something that I or my therapist said. Sometimes i just simply don't know what to say next. So I just wait. Sometimes, it seems like nothing is happening then all of a sudden BAM, something happens - a revelation, an insight, some such. 

Anyway, I don't think it's unusual to have some silences in therapy.


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## LostPancake (Apr 8, 2009)

yeah, he might have been seeing how comfortable you were with just being in the presence of another person, without filling the space with talking. maybe he was trying to see if you talk a lot to avoid anxiety, or something.


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## Traci (Jan 26, 2004)

There's too many moments of silences turning my sessions, lol and I do blame myself. >.<


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