I hate feeling needy, 2x a week appointments?

[whiteraven]

I hate this feeling of just being a burden on people.

But it is your therapist's JOB to help you through the difficult times.

I saw a therapist (a long time ago) 3x a week. And I would love to see my current one twice a week because, as others have mentioned, it's sooo hard to get the work done in just 50-60min a week.

 

[Rumors]

I am having a similar scenario. I have a memory that is torturous. It is awful and the details of the event are disgusting which makes me feel awful about myself. I don't have anyone else that I talk about it with. I have a few gaps in this memory and that makes it more difficult for me bc I don't have all of the pieces or players. I just want to go sit in the same room and just kind of be there. I feel lonely, frightened, and quite needy...lol. But, I never ask for extra time. I can't make myself. I don't know why bc I know she would make time bc in the past she has recommended that I come in more often but for some reason I just can't. It feels burdensome and quite frankly I am sick of thinking about it so I can't imagine how sick she must be of listening to it....I get where you are coming from... good luck!

 

[SeedMan]

Wow! I am so positively impressed by everyone's openness and okayness with going for extra-long and multiple sessions per week when times become especially difficult, whether the reason for them being so is known or not.

For me, I've learned to "get the most bang for my buck" with my t by:

1) Making a note of what I want to work on in the session. I don't make it too long, but just enough for me to remember what thing(s) I wish to address. Sessions often digress from the topic I thought we'd work on, but at least I enter the office with a direction rather than having to spend half the session figuring out what to work on

2) I arrive at the office at least 1/2 an hour before my session so I can get as grounded, centered, and calmed as I can before diving into the hard work of therapy.

3) In my non-therapy times when I become overwhelmed, I picture a miniature version of my t sitting on my shoulder (like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio) and I imagine what, how, and the facial and bodily expression my t would use to communicate to me. (Harnessing my very active imagination for good things rather than the terrible things it often does.)

Take what works for you and leave the rest. We're all on such individual journeys in life that not all tools work for everyone. I'm glad, however, that we have this forum to share our common threads.

 

[loui50]

I had a really productive but difficult session with T. I asked about seeing her more often until I feel better and she said that was fine but she can only do one appointment next week because she is only in the office 2 days. I'm really distraught. I know she cares. I know she would do it if she could. She is out of town half of next week so I have an appointment Tuesday. We managed to touch on a little of everything on my mind this session. It was hard. Now I'm really shook up. To top it off, I admitted to her that I only heard about half of what she said last week. I think I dissociated in her office which has never happened. She was very understanding. She checked on my at the end of this session and made sure I was with her and not disassociating again since we talked about the same thing that made me dissociate last week. I just dont know how to handle this all on my own for another week.

 

[hithere]

i record me sessions on my phone and it helps to listen to it later a various times. sometimes it's too painful to listen but it helps usually

 

[grit]

Hi Hithere,
how wonderful to have the ability to record your sessions. I do not think they allow that in Canada.
I wonder though does this make you censor yourself or become self conscious.

I am merely curious and I apologize to Loui50 for hijacking your post. I am sorry.

 

[Missycat]

@loui50 , what anchors, grounding and self soothing techniques could you use whilst you wait for your next session? What has helped you when she has been out of town before? Is there a crisis contact you could use maybe? Sorry if im throwing loads at you im just thinking of options .

 

[loui50]

@Missycat, there is another t she has set up as an emergency contact for me
However, it is the other t in her office and my husband has started seeing her. Not sure where that leaves me. Right now I just want to be held by my husband. Nothing more! Just held. It makes me feel safe. I need to work on self soothing. I do the 5 senses grounding and that helps.

 

[hithere]

Hi Hithere,
how wonderful to have the ability to record your sessions. I do not think they allow that in Canada.
I wonder though does this make you censor yourself or become self conscious.

I am merely curious and I apologize to Loui50 for hijacking your post. I am sorry.

I don't know why it would be illegal to record your sessions. It would probably be illegal for the t to record them without written consent. It doesn't make me censor myself already from what I constantly censor because of my fear of the t. However, I have turned the recorder off right when I can tell that the details of the traumatic events are about to come out of my mouth, or some very difficult thing for me to say or address wants to come out. I have suddenly stopped and turned off the recorder--and this has also been a que for my t to know what Im about to say is very important to me. In those stressful moments though I often completey forget what I said and what the t said, LOL, so it kind of defeats the purpose in those moments. The few times that has happened I've turned it back on after I said the gorey shameful thing. mostly I don't want those things on a device that someone may later find and listen to. that's my main reason for turning it off. I tried a new t out a few months ago and i was so foggy minded I started to record the session and the new t would not allow it. that t told me they never allow a recording of a session. i don't know why because i was super foggy and i forget what they said. I did not hire the new t or go any further and stayed with my current t. I have become dissociated in many sessions at times and i don't even know what im saying. Later I can listen to the recording and I can hear myself get hijacked into a flashback ... it's weird to listen to but also i learn alot about myself from it. Mostly I used it to listen to what the t said, since I don't seem to remember it very well later.

 

[grit]

Thank you so much Hithere for sharing this. I only know one therapist that was adamant about having a cellphone turned on in sessions (who has issues here...LOL) so I never bothered.

thank you so much

And thank you Louie for letting us have a bit of side conversation. Truly appreciated.

 

[loui50]

So I got my 2x a week appointments for the whole month of October. Hopefully I'll feel better!!

 

[somerandomguy]

Great job!!! You did awesome!!!