Posted by Tamar on July 5, 2005, at 17:17:06
In reply to Re: What do you call your Therapist? » Tamar, posted by cricket on July 5, 2005, at 16:18:53
> It reminds me of an amusing therapy story. I came to therapy and my therapist's door was open but he was on the phone (very typical) so I sat down in the waiting room as I always do. It looked like he accidentally double booked that session because two minutes later this young woman (cell phone pressed to ear, scarf billowing out behind her in the breeze of her wake) comes right in and plops herself down on his couch. My therapist gets off the phone, brings her right back out to the waiting room where he makes her sit beside me as he apologizes to me about double booking and if I can come back in an hour, he will only charge me half price.
Ooooh, grrrr! I know she has mental health issues too, but still, grrr!
> So the point of this story is that I think this young woman would be one of the ones who use his first name with attitude.
Oh *yeah*!
By the way, I love how you described the part with the scarf billowing out behind her. I’ll be growling at her all night! Grrr!
> Anyway, Dr. T does sound formal, especially since I am only a few years younger than my therapist. And there may be some distance that I am trying to maintain by using it. And last session he was complaining that he sometimes felt like this was a Victorian marriage :) so perhaps it's time to give it up.
Wow! A Victorian marriage as in enormous emotional distance between two people who have little in common and married to please their parents? Or a Victorian marriage as in a profound but largely unspoken connection between two people who have discovered a means of finding harmony against all odds? Or something else entirely?
I think names are particularly significant for a woman in therapy with a man. Wherever there are social differences, I think it’s a good thing to challenge them. I guess that’s why it annoys me if older men talk down me, and why I find it uncomfortable when young men show too much respect for me. I think it’s particularly important in therapy to feel able to get close to the therapist. Therapy is often complicated by differences of sex, race, age, class, and orientation. Finding ways to cross those (if not other) boundaries seems important to me.
Just my two cents.
Tamar
poster:Tamar
thread:523728
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050628/msgs/523851.html