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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 happyflower on October 7, 2007, at 11:00:54
She said she spend 5 years in therapy to take care of "her stuff" before she became a T. I think this is so smart because being a T is very hard but if you are fighting triggers and stuff, it would be too much. It probably isn't good for clients either. I think T's need to be very stable emotionally to do a good job. I am glad I have been in therapy. ;-)
Posted by RealMe on October 7, 2007, at 13:05:50
In reply to My friend who is a T, posted by happyflower on October 7, 2007, at 11:00:54
This is exactly why as a psychologist I am not doing therapy right, just evaluations--in and out and gone. I still care about these people,though.
WhenI was doing therapy after the long treatment and then working at Menninger's, I was doing extremely well and not even depressed or on meds, and so I was a damn good therapist so I was told. Unfortunately, I had sealed away or put away stuff from my times of being abused, and so now it comes all flooding out. I would not do therapy now, but my therapist finds it "interesting" that I do evaluations on sex offenders, murderers, domestic violence folks, etc. and don't get triggered by them. Many thanks to my ability to compartmentalize. HaH. there is something for your silver lining. Problem is it is not an adapative coping mechanism obviously since I am not having to deal with stuff that I thought was not an issue for me anymore. I used to tell my T at Menninger's this, and he would just laugh as he knew better but did not push me. A wise psychologist at Menninger's used to say in our class on brief psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy that people can do a piece of the work they need to do, and if this is all they want, its okay. They may or will come back later, even years later, to do more work, and that is okay too. So, here I am getting long winded again. I need to get to work.
RealMe
Posted by happyflower on October 10, 2007, at 9:45:26
In reply to Re: My friend who is a T » happyflower, posted by RealMe on October 7, 2007, at 13:05:50
I think you are an amazing person RealMe. To see yourself and know it is was best you weren't doing therapy with clients, well that takes guts to do what is best for you and future clients. A lot of T's should do this when things are not right in their personal life, but a lot of times their ego's get in the way and it is devestating to their clients. I am hoping to get all the ghosts out of my closet before I even get into grad school.
One of my prof. who is a T, said that when he was going through his divorse, he didn't see clients going through divorse on either side of it, because he knew he couldn't be objective. I think it takes a strong person to decide this.
I think all T's have some areas that they are not comfortable working with. My current T doesn't work with DID, because he becomes too emotionally involved. He told me of what happened to him years ago and I can see why he doesn't work in that area because as a T, he is extra sensitive. For me that is just what I need for a T and to see a T being, for my future. He agrees so many T's lose their sensitive nature because they have to protect themselves mentally. But it is better for him to protect himself from certain areas of work, then to lose all of his sensitivity. It takes a great T to see his faults and area's he isn't effective in, and try to do the work he is best at.
He used to do age regressing therapy, and he said it was so hard to see client on the floor just wrapped in so much pain. He said he doesn't think he would still be a T if he still continued to do that. He said he felt so much of the pain and it was so hard to separate it from the client. He said you would have to be a cold hearted bastard to not feel the pain but it was almost too much for him. He felt like such a bastard for "causing" the pain in a sense. But he needed to let the client get all the pain out of them. But it was very draining and he is glad there are other ways to work in this area.
So RealMe, I see it as a strengh that you are taking care of yourself and doing your own therapy and postponing doing therapy with others until you get your stuff straighten out. Just thing once you get to the other side of the mountain, how strong of a T you will really be.
Posted by RealMe on October 10, 2007, at 23:40:53
In reply to Re: My friend who is a T » RealMe, posted by happyflower on October 10, 2007, at 9:45:26
Thanks happyflower. I know this is true, and I know that I was good therapist once and can be again. My T says he can tell I was a good therapist. It still sort of freaks me that he read one of my psych evaluations and said he thought it was really good. That really made me uncomfortable. Once when I was doing my postdoc, my T said he had been asked to be a consultant on a case for a review conference of a patient where I had done the psych testing. He asked me if I would be uncomfortable with him being the consultant, and I said no even though it meant I would be giving a summary of the psych testing and how I thought it fit with what was going on with the patient at the time. I even looked him in the eye across the table, but it was sort of weird in a way. He told me later that he was impressed, and he would tell me at times how often he would hear about how well I did with my hospital patients and my therapy patients. Seems like I should have been able to keep my sh*t together all these years later, but here I am dealing with the sh*t I thought was resolved in my mind. T would just laugh at my statements that I was fine, and my past was no longer and issue. He knew, I think, that I needed to keep it together, and he also knew I was doing well for real. We never know for sure when something will decide to rear it's ugly head. My opinion is that we will always have things to work on until the day we die, and even then we have to work on dying that day. So, thanks for your words; they mean a lot.
RealMe
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