Posted by daisym on July 13, 2005, at 0:27:32
In reply to Re: Chapter 6: Gaslighting, posted by pegasus on July 12, 2005, at 21:09:17
I was talking to a friend tonight who is a psychologist. She checks on me every so often, though I really think she is checking on my therapist. :) I told her that it frightened me that I can't seem to stay with the "real" work...that my therapy itself often becomes the topic of discussion. And i worry that my therapist will get bored. I told her about some of the bad terminations we've heard about here. It was her opinion that bad terminations and gaslighting occur when therapist have their ego invested in the work and when the only validation of their work comes directly from clients. She said the part they leave out of therapy training is how to accept that some clients won't make progress, despite your best efforts. But they might need you to help them simply stay in the same place, instead of getting worse. She also said it is hard to "take" a negative transference but if that is what the client needs, you, as the therapist, need to go down that road with the client. And wait and support and never abandon. It was interesting to hear her perspective. But she thought gaslighting clients about their progress is more common than you would think. Especially with managed care and 12-15 session rules.
I think I'm glad I'm not a therapist.
poster:daisym
thread:491935
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050706/msgs/526995.html