Posted by Joslynn on December 18, 2003, at 11:01:57
In reply to Re: Feeling during therapy, posted by Miss Honeychurch on December 18, 2003, at 10:41:55
This is an interesting discussion. I think it takes a lot of time. In the beginning, I could discuss my emotions verbally, but I wasn't actually feeling them as I articulated them. Or I would come in and read journal entries out loud, but not express the feelings I was having at the moment in the room.
Then time went on and it just got easier, gradually, to feel what I was discussing, not just intellectualize it. Sometimes it helps me to remind myself in my head about what feelings I want to get out.
One of the best things that ever happened to me was when I cried in front of my pdoc for at least 15 minutes straight. I was falling apart and just could not fight it anymore. Looking back, that's actually when I started getting better, when I let it all out like that first. It was a turning point. And he was so good and patient, not like a lot of men, who cannot stand to hear a woman cry and just want to shut it down.
I cried in front of my therapist a couple times when I was rejected romantically. (That is a big abandonment trigger for me.) Once when I was talking/crying on the phone to her, I was so upset I put the phone down and threw up! Sorry about the details. She heard it and everything. That was the night after a break-up with someone.
Does this every happen to anyone...you start involuntarily expressing the opposite feeling than what you freally eel? This has happened with my therapist, when she will say something empathetic about what it was like to grow up with my father, and I will start grinning and sometimes even have to fight back a giggle! I don't think it's funny, but my body wants to laugh. It's disconcerting.
poster:Joslynn
thread:291244
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20031213/msgs/291279.html