Unsure of what to expect from therapist

Started by Tenacious, September 19, 2017, 03:39:45 AM

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Tenacious

I'm been seeing my therapist for almost 18 months and I am finally finding the courage to question  that I am seeing the right person. I truly like her as a person and I want her to like me, and I think that may be why I am not trusting my instincts ....again.
I've started to fall back into a depression and  I left her a message to tell her that I was not feeling up to coming in to our regular appointment , I just couldn't gather the energy. She messaged back a short time later that that was" good self care" and she would see me next week. I emailed her the next day to reschedule our appt for the next week and I received no reply, I emailed again a 2nd time 4 days later asking again to reschedule and no reply.I then left a voicemail saying I was holding my calendar open waiting to hear from her and I was concerned that she had not responded. She then called me about an hour later apologizing for being so rude and we set the next appointment for that week. When I came in to her office I sort of expected her to say something about forgetting to get back to me but she didnt, she did not explain or acknowledge that it may have concerned me. It actually made me feel invisible and very unimportant to her, it may be a just a f I rgetful error on her part but it hurt my feelings. I felt a familiar pang of rejection and neglect. Now how to I come back from this?  Any thoughts would be appreciated!

AphoticAtramentous

I'm sorry to hear about, Tenacious.
If you think she is a good therapist, I'm sure there's reasons as to why she didn't talk about the recent events. Perhaps she's had a busy few weeks, maybe something stressful came up. I think it's an important thing to remember that therapists are people like us, we have our own down days, they do too. But of course, it doesn't change the fact that it made you feel all quite 'unwanted' in a way. I guess my only suggestion is to ask her about it if you're still concerned by it, even in a casual manner like; "Had a busy few weeks?". There is no need to have something ruined by what could be a little mistake on someone's part. ^^ And she's already apologised over the phone which is good, so I'm sure she means well and would happily listen to what you have to say.
This is all of course just my own suggestions and views. Feel free to take with a grain of salt - as I'm not completely aware of the situation and can't really suggest anything perfect. :)

Three Roses

I think it's a good, healthy sign she didn't try to explain away her error in not getting back to you. She's not looking for your validation or anything and is directly taking responsibility. It is her job as therapist to take care of you, not the other way around.

If you're looking for advice, I would let her know the feelings this brought up for you - invisibility, unimportance, or whatever, as this to me seems to be significant. If it's intimidating, you could hand her a note to read at your next appointment. Hope this helps!
:heythere: