# What don't you like about your therapist?



## MobiusX (Nov 14, 2008)

I say something and she repeats what I'm saying, sometimes in her own words, like a question. This wastes a lot of time. 

Ex: me: I think the depression made my anxiety worse than it was plus I isolated myself 
her: So you are saying that you're depression made your anxiety worse than it was and you isolated yourself? 
me: yea


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## vidory (Sep 25, 2010)

what I don't like about my therapist is that I don't have one


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

That he doesn't check his email every two minutes. 


:mum


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## fredbloggs02 (Dec 14, 2009)

My therapist is great. She gets along with me just fine and her kids are exactly the same age as me and my sister. Her son is also into a lot of the same stuff I'm into and when she talks to you you know shes really listening by the way she intelligently responds and empathizes with her own observations on your feelings. she actually suggested a number of times me and her son go to China together to live in a Shaolin temple(something her son wants to do). I politely declined of course so she kinda gave up asking. I'm too insular and unprepared to go for something like that. I confuse her sometimes and she asks me to repeat myself but she ALWAYS gets it the second time which is more than can be said for most people lol.... I tend to launch from small talk into something quite complex and it must be annoying keeping up with that, I couldn't, it would frustrate me lol.

I'm struggling to think of something negative uhhhh. She sometimes runs late but always gives me 15 min over time unless I decide to leave early.....Yeah.. All round caring person I think although I don't believe someone could really be empathizing with everyone elses problems. Therapists must somehow disassociate themselves from their patients, some complex psychology to keep them immune...somehow..


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## skittlez (Jan 2, 2009)

I don't like that my therapist is a normal person. Haha.


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## skittlez (Jan 2, 2009)

fredbloggs02 said:


> My therapist is great. She gets along with me just fine and her kids are exactly the same age as me and my sister. Her son is also into a lot of the same stuff I'm into and when she talks to you you know shes really listening by the way she intelligently responds and empathizes with her own observations on your feelings. she actually suggested a number of times me and her son go to China together to live in a Shaolin temple(something her son wants to do). I politely declined of course so she kinda gave up asking. I'm too insular and unprepared to go for something like that. I confuse her sometimes and she asks me to repeat myself but she ALWAYS gets it the second time which is more than can be said for most people lol.... I tend to launch from small talk into something quite complex and it must be annoying keeping up with that, I couldn't, it would frustrate me lol.
> 
> I'm struggling to think of something negative uhhhh. She sometimes runs late but always gives me 15 min over time unless I decide to leave early.....Yeah.. All round caring person I think although I don't believe someone could really be empathizing with everyone elses problems. *Therapists must somehow disassociate themselves from their patients, some complex psychology to keep them immune...somehow..*


Totally, and it unnerves me to think about this.. Meh :/


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## Under17 (May 4, 2010)

Hasn't offered to have sex with me yet.


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## Dub16 (Feb 28, 2010)

Under17 said:


> Hasn't offered to have sex with me *yet*.


hahaha, you're confident anyway!


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## Antechinus (May 17, 2010)

ShinAkuma said:


> I say something and she repeats what I'm saying, sometimes in her own words, like a question. This wastes a lot of time.


I know exactly what you mean. I've read a lot of books that teach you that this is an empathic way of listening to someone. I don't agree at all. It's bloody annoying to have someone repeat back to you what you just said.


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## King Moonracer (Oct 12, 2010)

Haha what don't I like. I've only been to two therapists an only went once. The first on was the weird old lady who ha her 6 month old grandson with her, so that was a little distracting. The only thing she told me after an hour was that I dint hav to care what people thought of me, so that was succesful. The mmezt one was this cocky old lady who was pretty sexy lookin for a 60 yr old. She was a huge bicth tho, and thought that I didn't have anyfiends because everyone in my school was a retarded hick. She thought I didn't have any social anxiety, but there were just no friend t make. She said once I go to college it woul be better. It's actually worse, I keep having dreams of highschool, and it's freaking me out. I'm having anxiety in my dreams, I think it's because i wasted my highschool years being a loner.


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## Dub16 (Feb 28, 2010)

Cymbalta Eater said:


> pretty sexy lookin for a 60 yr old..


Good God. I've read some wacky stuff in my time but fancying someone older than my granny is a new one. And yer only a young lad too!

Oh you just wait til she whips out her dentures! Come back and talk to me then! aye, keep that mental image in yer head next time ya see her! :b


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## laray55 (Oct 17, 2010)

Right now I am loking for a new therapist. The one I had been seeing has been no help overcoming my SA. All he did was listen to any problems I had been having and then he would have me do visualizations. It was nice to have someone to talk to about my problems. I can do that here for free.


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## Knowla (Feb 23, 2010)

My therapist talks too much.


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## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

Weird complaints considering you folks are the ones paying for all this. You can't bring this up to the person who is, in my opinion, your employee? Tell 'em what you want.


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## NoDirectionHome (Oct 24, 2010)

My current therapist is fantastic. Sometimes we don't get to the root of a problem as quick as we could, maybe, but for the most part, she's extremely good and also someone with whom I can have regular conversation before we start our session which makes her more personable and makes me tend to trust her more.

The last one I went to, though, was a horror story. He was some hack that was working for Adanta (our local Adanta is absolutely horrible). I have a hard time opening up and put on my typical "hey, man, everything's cool and breezy" attitude that I use to hide my actual emotions, because I was uncomfortable with him. It apparently convinced him that nothing was wrong with me even when I was telling him I felt near-suicidal. The first appointment didn't amount to much, he spent all of the second appointment texting with his daughter (and openly acknowledging this) while half-listening to me and offering very little advice before saying he had to go pick up his daughter after fifteen minutes, and then the third appointment he completely no-showed. Sorry to rant, but it nearly destroyed my confidence in therapists.

I hear he's out of the business now. Good riddance.


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## miminka (May 10, 2009)

Sometimes I feel I'd be better off talking to my next-door neighbor. Say if I'm feeling depressed and I want to try and talk about it, I don't feel she helps me navigate through a labyrinth of emotions. She seems to get lost and veers the conversation back to more positive things. I guess she thinks that's a sure fire way to cheer me up, but it only works for about five minutes until the negative thoughts swarm me again.

There are points in time where I feel like she gets frustrated with me (but that's probably my anxiety misreading her). This feeling comes about when I'm talking about something that has been bothering me, and she'll remind me of what we concluded about it in a past session. Obviously that doesn't work, because it's one thing to come to a conclusion about something or some thought process and it's a complete other to get me to believe that. I feel she is only going the first step. Or maybe I'm only taking her there...

Like a previous poster said, how can we be expected to be assertive with our mental health professionals and demand the treatment we feel is necessary when we have this crippling anxiety? I can't even ask her to rephrase a question I don't understand. That's another thing; she likes to ask these Byzantine hypothetical questions that make no sense to me.


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## senrab (Apr 23, 2006)

Nothing.

She's warm, easy to talk to, appreciates my "gallows" sense of humor, and understands me perfectly. I trust her completely with no reservations.


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## pita (Jan 17, 2004)

I forgot about this until recently, but my ex-therapist was also a customer at my former place of employment. During our sessions, she would tell me how much she didn't like one of my co-workers, who was pretty much my best friend at the time. She told me her dauther didn't like my co-worker, either. Also, the therapist's cat used to bite my toes, and once, her dog chased me. 

She was recommended to me by my family doctor, who was also a customer at my former place of employment, and who once entered my place of employment and loudly proclaimed, because my voice was elevated for whatever task I was doing at the time, "YOU don't have anxiety."


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## Robot the Human (Aug 20, 2010)

^That's so harsh, pita. 

Mine seems as if he thinks it's funny that I like to go into detail. When he says "anything else?" he's kind of chuckling as he says it. Now I feel like I should say things short and sweet.

He also doesn't seem too inviting for more visits. My family doctor practically shoved me to the therapist as if it were some kind of emergency, and my therapist doesn't act like he wants to keep me around at all. Don't therapists usually try and encourage you to come back? 

Today, his questions and actions just made me feel really stupid.


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## Toad Licker (Nov 2, 2007)

Mine is one of those therapists who is always after you to do crap and my sessions rarely last 30 minutes, I'm sure she charges the insurance company for a full hour.


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## grigori (Jul 8, 2010)

That he/she doesn't even exist. I mean, come on, if they're not even willing to do that then I really feel like what's the point, you know?


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## Monroee (Aug 26, 2009)

Lol. ^


That he doesn't really know how to respond to when I get suicidal thoughts. Then again, I'm going into psychotherapy myself, and I'm not sure how'd I respond to myself.


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## theEscapist (Oct 13, 2010)

My therapist is hard of hearing. I mumble when I manage to spit out what I have on my mind, and he says "What?!" with this look of utter disgust on his face. Also, he's a quack.

:help


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## bazinga (Jun 9, 2010)

I'm on my 3rd therapist in 2 yrs because they keep leaving or changing positions.

Kind of hits home that they're just doing their jobs, and I'm just a client. I'm beginning to feel like what is the point of opening up to these therapists if they're just going to quit or leave in a few months.

2 years of therapy and I keep having to start all over.


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## Olivia (Nov 15, 2009)

ShinAkuma said:


> I say something and she repeats what I'm saying, sometimes in her own words, like a question. This wastes a lot of time.
> 
> Ex: me: I think the depression made my anxiety worse than it was plus I isolated myself
> her: So you are saying that you're depression made your anxiety worse than it was and you isolated yourself?
> me: yea


Your therapist is using a common technique called reflection. Although it helps to reflect feelings more so than mere content which is what it sounds like she was doing in the above quote. But the point of reflection is that the client feels heard and becomes more aware of their feelings. I didn't "get it" at first when I was in therapy either, but as time went on, it was very helpful b/c I felt understood. How a therapist "operates" depends on what theoretical orientation he/she subscribes to. I'd just be open w/ her and tell her that her approach isn't very helpful and see if that changes anything.


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## Belshazzar (Apr 12, 2010)

Mine is pretty bad-***. He juggles!


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## Still Waters (Sep 18, 2008)

Olivia said:


> Your therapist is using a common technique called reflection. Although it helps to reflect feelings more so than mere content which is what it sounds like she was doing in the above quote. But the point of reflection is that the client feels heard and becomes more aware of their feelings. I didn't "get it" at first when I was in therapy either, but as time went on, it was very helpful b/c I felt understood. How a therapist "operates" depends on what theoretical orientation he/she subscribes to. I'd just be open w/ her and tell her that her approach isn't very helpful and see if that changes anything.


People do that a lot with children too. I think I'd find it insulting.


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## Olivia (Nov 15, 2009)

Still Waters said:


> People do that a lot with children too. I think I'd find it insulting.


It's very effective in play therapy fwiw.


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## JunkBondTrader (Nov 22, 2010)

My therapist pretty much told me I didn't have a problem and told me to get a job. I stopped going ha


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