Posted by Dinah on January 11, 2012, at 16:27:24
In reply to What you pay for, posted by pegasus on January 11, 2012, at 15:43:03
Maybe this sentence?
"If the treatment is sometimes satisfying, gratifying, inspiring, warm, or pleasant for me, that is a nice perk, a tip perhaps like the spare change that I sometimes find in the cracks between the cushions of my office couch."
Coupled with
"When an acquaintance tries to tell me a long, detailed dream at a social function, Im bored, burdened, looking for some way to extricate myself from the conversation as it is slips into a non-mutual place."
That seems to be saying that she finds therapy pleasant about as often as she finds spare change in the cushions of her couch.
And that the money helps her find interesting what she wouldn't find interesting in any other venue. Not because she wouldn't be using her skills and intellect in those other settings. But because no one is going to pay her.
My therapist said something similar once, not about money but about boundaries. That the boundaries are what makes it possible for him to care for me consistently and not be burned out.
I didn't get the warm fuzzies, I can tell you.
If my therapist had this conversation with me, in the terms used there, I'm not sure I'd understand in what way they are saying it is not similar to prostitution.
A person is collecting money for engaging in behavior they might otherwise find, at a minimum, tedious. They provide the client with behaviors that, if provided by those not being paid, could be considered caring and loving.
What's that difference again?
I think I prefer discussions of money focused on the therapist's need to make enough money to continue to provide services. Not on the therapist requiring money to make our interactions palatable.
poster:Dinah
thread:1006988
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20111220/msgs/1006992.html