Often people share the worst, the downside of their lives and psyches with their psychotherapist. And this makes sense because there is no place more appropriate, where complaints and woes can be heard, accepted, understood and processed.
At times some good news sneaks out at the end of a session.
It is actually worse when patients don’t talk about the extent of the downside. A person may be deceiving self and therapist, following an out- of- control course, like a car which has lost its brakes, as in drug addiction or alcoholism.
An example is a patient that came week after week, saying everything was alright but he was simply too depressed to work. I did not understand why he wasn’t getting better. Sadly, after an accidental overdose, we discovered he was abusing over the counter medication.
The goal is to form an honest collaborative relationship, and to integrate life’s negatives and positives, its downs and ups.
No comments:
Post a Comment