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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 4 of 4. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by onceupon on October 23, 2008, at 16:37:06
I've realized recently that I don't do such a good job of maintaining continuity between my therapy sessions. I go one week, have an intense experience, and spend the next day or so in a kind of therapy hangover during which I feel kind of crummy mentally - almost analogous to how you can feel really sore after a good massage sometimes. The intense longing for closeness with my therapist and distress over my life peaks during those two days, during which I'm preoccupied and distant. Then, over the course of the week, the feelings and intensity dissipate. I recognize that this is probably normal, but it's such a weird process for me. Sometimes by 4-5 days after seeing my therapist I start to wonder why I'm even going because things feel at least tentatively OK. Then I go back and WHAM! the feelings hit me again.
I admit that I'm prone to avoidance - which has been a big topic in therapy - and that therapy is the one guaranteed time per week or every other week when I will be focusing on painful stuff. So to some extent, I consciously "put away" therapy stuff during the week, if only to feel like I can be a functioning employee/mom. I'd say spouse, but I haven't really been functioning there for a long time.
Does anyone else experience this? It's also difficult for me to remember the content of our sessions week to week. Sometimes, almost immediately after meeting, I will try to reconstruct a she-said/I-said kind of dialogue in my head, but I just can't. It's even hard to recall the general themes we discussed, outside of a very broad recollection. This is frustrating, obviously, because it makes it seem like there's not so much progress week to week or month to month, or going on, year to year.
Posted by lucie lu on October 23, 2008, at 19:07:11
In reply to therapy space-time continuum, posted by onceupon on October 23, 2008, at 16:37:06
Know that feeling only too well... I couldn't get anywhere until I went to twice a week, but I know that's not always an option. No matter how often you meet, I think the best way to maintain continuity between sessions is to journal.Actually I think that continuity has become easier the longer I've been in therapy.
Lucie
Posted by antigua3 on October 24, 2008, at 9:13:52
In reply to therapy space-time continuum, posted by onceupon on October 23, 2008, at 16:37:06
Yes, you're describing a lot of what I'm going through now with my pdoc.
I see him every other week. The intensity has been really high for the last two months and I swear, when I walk out the door I often can't remember a thing we talked about, and I have a terrible time reconstructing what happened when I see my T the next morning! I can feel it, though, and that's what's important for me.
So I have a therapy hangover until I can figure out what happened emotionally, and that can take up to 4 or 5 days. I have incessant conversations w/him in my head and I think about calling him. But I don't. I want so much to talk to him and can't believe I have to wait so long to continue the conversation or say, "But what about...".
By the end of the first week I'm usually OK and then a day or two before the next session I start to get nervous again.
It's a rollercoaster for sure. I've been taught that the things I can't remember are important because for me, my mind is protecting me. I often go in and say "I can't remember a thing about our last session," although I certainly feel it.
I'm sorry you go through this too. It can be tough.
antigua
Posted by rskontos on October 24, 2008, at 10:57:28
In reply to therapy space-time continuum, posted by onceupon on October 23, 2008, at 16:37:06
Well for me, all three of you expressed how I feel perfectly. I have tried to journal. I do try to escape it. I expressed this same thing to my T last time and for the life of me I can't remember if we addressed it. Sometimes he will think about it and we will talk about the next time.
I don't know the solution. Only the problem.
rsk
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