I have been thinking about this question for a long time. It doesn't make sense to me, when somebody is suicidal, why would they want to talk about it and potentially loose their autonomy? I understand the case in which somebody is not suicidal and is worried they may be suicidal in the future, so they talk about this concern. But I am really struck by the fact that people tell their therapists they are suicidal.

Why?

Hi I’m wondering if therapist stop seeing clients for any reason?

Hi I’m wondering if progress notes look different than what’s said in session? I recently got access to my medical records and my previous therapist (who left the practice) said “it was my choice to find a new therapist “ but it actually was because she was leaving

My T sort of hurt my feelings today by what I felt like was kind of pushing me a little too hard for the moment. I don’t believe they meant to or anything like that so I’m not sure it’s worth bringing up. I don’t want to offend them, seem ungrateful, or seem that I’m not eager to put in the work. I felt like it was simply a tad too much on me right then. It’s never happened before and my T is splendid so I don’t want to make a big deal if it’s not one.

Would you want your client to bring it up or am I being whiney?

So a lot of really terrible shit has happened to me in my past, and honestly I haven't stopped being mistreated by my family.

I'm lonely to the point it triggers a borderline panic attack when I see others having a life I can't have.

And a LOT of shit has happened to me spanning the years.

I don't wanna say too much because the Internet isn't exactly confidential, but "fucked up from the floor up" would be a great descriptor for me.

I'm scared a therapist wouldn't even know where to begin because I have such a backlog of crap that I literally cannot process or really understand.

I'm afraid they won't understand, won't believe how bad it is for me, or be able to help with this much at once.

I am a 23 year old carpenter. I work completely alone 5-6 days a week. 99% of the time I have headphones or my Bluetooth speaker playing a mix of podcasts and music. I enjoy the listening, but I fear that it may not be so healthy for me consuming such a large amount of media every single day. Maybe I’m overthinking this and it’s very normal and completely healthy from a psychological perspective but I am curious what you all have to say! Thanks🙏

I’ll keep this brief. My wife and I started couples therapy about four months ago. The therapist immediately separated us, and since then, we’ve seen her individually, with only three additional couples sessions (two of which felt very strange).

These individual sessions have been torturous for me. I feel like I’m facing my Jungian shadow self. The therapist has implied that I exhibit a lot of negative behaviors. For the first two months, she described my behavior without any context. I confronted her about this because it was tearing me apart; oddly enough, she was describing many of my wife’s behaviors. I’ve begun experiencing panic attacks, triggered by the things she tells me in therapy.

Things have improved somewhat since then. Outside of therapy, my wife and I have worked on our relationship, having the conversations we should have in therapy. We’ve followed advice I found on YouTube, and we’ve reached a really good place.

This week in my individual session, my therapist told me I idolize my wife. I expressed feeling both euphoric and inadequate due to not having a better relationship with her after 16 years together. She advised me to maintain separation and set boundaries, which has troubled me the more I think about it. I don’t feel it’s boundaries I need; I want my wife to cooperate with me, like putting a budget together and working on a shared vision for our life. We spent the session discussing how unrealistic it is for me to expect my wife to create a shared vision, and that I should focus on living in the moment and trusting God. This creates an internal rift, making me doubt my wife’s ability to make our marriage work, as these goals are non-negotiables for me. She concluded by reiterating the need for more boundaries.

This session has set my nervous system on fire, leaving me terrified. Initially, I thought my anxiety stemmed from my wife, but now I believe it comes from my therapist. The intensity is so high that the Xanax my doctor prescribed isn’t helping.

When I started therapy, I felt depressed and had repressed many emotions. After confronting my therapist about her approach, she helped me with some codependency issues and offered useful book recommendations.

I’m torn because she has genuinely helped my wife, who rarely trusts anyone.

This may sound ridiculous, but I have to ask.

I'm a guy in 20s suffering from mild social anxiety. It used to be a lot worse a few years ago, but I've significantly improved.

For context, I never drink outside of social events (and keep it limited to 2 standard drinks at most) and until a month ago I didn't have any alcohol at home. My only two reasons for drinking are that everyone around me does it at that moment, and that alcohol relaxes me, at least in those quantities.

I was going to a party where my crush would be the other day so I preemptively drank some wine before I went there and of course had some more wine at the party itself. Overall around 3 standard drinks during the night spaced out over 2 or 2.5 hours.

I also did this 2-3 times before in the past month when I was going socializing, though it involved 50% less alcohol beforehand.

Now I'm not an avid party goer and don't attend parties often, so I may be misattributing my feelings, but I felt it caused me be more relaxed than usual. I was able to start a conversation with several strangers, get FB of few girls and had even seriously considered (but never took) few very extroverted and confident moves around opposite sex. Upon reflection I concluded the main difference was I didn't overthink as much when ideas of what I could say popped into my head, and that I'm not really clueless, I simply auto-dismiss my thoughts as awkward. This corresponds to the well known effects of alcohol.

It really felt great and I was planning about doing it again next time I go to a party next week, but I've just read that alcoholism is more prevalent among people with anxiety. So now I'm worried I'll become an alcoholic.

To make it worse I had started viewing wine bottles, glasses and color of red wine aesthetically beautiful which has made me paranoid I'm developing addiction. It's probably coming from seeing a photo of a wonderful romantic restaurant lunch set-up which included wine about two weeks ago (I'm a very visual person who likes pretty stuff), but I was wondering if that's actually alcoholic within me trying to get me to drink. I had also noticed some of my sexual fantasies now feature red wine which is totally random.

I [19M] don’t feel like it’s possible to get better anymore. I was involuntarily admitted to a psych ward when I was 16. Before that, nobody in my life knew anything about the state of my mental health. As far as I remember, my family just kind of ignored the topic altogether. As a condition of being released from inpatient care, I was mandated to attend therapy and stay on meds until I turned 18. Suddenly, I was expected to share details of my suicidality, gender dysphoria, sexual abuse history, and codependent relationship with some therapist(s) I had literally just met. I tried a few therapists and ended up settling with the third or fourth until I was 18. I didn’t settle because It helped, but because I could get her to talk about herself for most of the session. Every psychiatrist I’ve ever seen has told me explicitly that I “need” certain medications to help, but I was never able to get anyone to consistently prescribe these meds, so for years, I was bouncing on and off my stimulants, antidepressants, and anti-anxiety meds. The whole debacle tore my relationship apart but I couldn't leave at the time. My parents felt farther away then ever, and I had nobody in my life I could talk to anymore. I think I’m on meds consistently now, but I have major trust issues that make it feel impossible to fix any of my problems. I know I’m not a good person, and I have things I want to work on, but the overwhelming majority of resources I find say therapy is my only option. I don’t feel like I can talk to anybody, professional or otherwise, without risking my autonomy and future career. I can't do the whole psych ward thing again, for many reasons. I can’t interact socially with anyone, I don’t talk to the only people I’ve ever considered friends anymore because I moved for college and I don’t want to bug them. I feel like I can’t explain anything I’m feeling to any of the numerous mental health “resources” I have access to at college because I can’t risk institutionalization. I don’t know how to fix trust issues as severe as mine feel when I don’t trust the systems that are supposed to help because they've only ever hurt me. I want to be better but I don’t want to get better if it’s just going to hurt more. I've heard that getting better is like climbing a mountain, but it feels like I am going to get punished for looking at the mountain. Is just "getting over it" the only solution?

Howdy.

I'm a 31 yr F from southeast Arkansas. Been battling depression since I was 13. I have a whole lot going on, and each mental health professional I see has wildly different diagnoses for my condition. (Treatment resistant depression, social phobia, avoidant personality, borderline, possible bipolar, etc)

I can't ever seem to click with any professionals because I also struggle with a condition that's been coined as maladaptive daydreaming, which has been the core issue of all my issues in the first place.

Eventually I developed substance use problems. I've also severely isolated myself and have been living in bed for the past 7 or 8 years, unable to work.

My entire life fell apart because of this maladaptive habit of mine. I spend about 15+ hours a day in a daydream. This has been occurring since I was seven.

My social skills have completely disappeared. I never leave my house. I never gained independence. I have a history of trauma.

And one hour of therapy over the phone or in person is not enough for me.

I've been on over 20 different medications of varying classes, yet I responded to nothing. I had TMS, I had ketamine infusions, and I even explored psychedelics. I had no response. No visuals, no altering of senses. I felt as if I had just drank a glass of water.

I feel like I need some kind of long term intensive care that connects me to a supportive community. I don't even know where to begin. I am under Medicaid coverage, but resources are so limited where I live.

What should I do? How can I develop a meaningful life?

I’ve been seeing this person for about six months weekly, via WhatsApp video calls, both in England. She’s been generous with her time and very supportive during the worst time of my life so far.

Some behaviour seemed off but I let it go cause I was so desperate. Some weird stuff, telling anecdotes like we’re mates in a pub sharing stories and relating to one another. It’s good to have rapport but it was already well established!

But she’s made comments about my appearance, my face and jaw and girlishly mentioned my muscles when I wore a sleeveless top. I’m early 40s she must be fifteen years older for context. She gets smiley and this girly excited tone and talks about how long and thick her hair is, and now at least twice she pulled it out from her back and shook it at me while grinning - just as I was looking away and talking but I saw it clearly in my close peripheral vision. This was on a bad day when I was exhausted and distraught and not well focused but I saw it 100%. I feel like she thinks she can get away with more when I’m more run down.

There’s a bunch more stuff but these are the worst. I should have done some basic research I know but I was desperate and she seemed highly accredited and qualified. There are four google reviews. One 5* with a positive script, two 2* and one 1*. The one star review just says this counsellor traumatised me.

What can I do? I don’t want to see her again, the image of her shaking her head is so sinister to me. It sounds like she shouldn’t be practicing, but there’s no record of any of it at my end anyway, and I’ve shared so many intimate things.

I’m a grad student in clinical mental health and have found my preferred theory of psychotherapy: existential therapy. I’m also into existential/lovecraftian horror myself and wonder if any other therapist who practice ET also like existential horror.

What exactly are the differences? Currently I only have a bachelors of general studies.

Therapist said we'd have to terminate if our relationship was not therapeutic for me anymore, what does he mean? We had a pretty big rupture last week and he said it the session after. Plan to talk more next session, hoping he's not trying to get rid of me.

hopefully this finds the right folks!

i’m getting forwards to end of my HBA in psychology. as the day comes closer, i’m that much closer to my masters and phd. my ultimate goal is to open my own private practice.

in the perfect dream, i’d love to open a private practice that has multiple fields of medicine (think private practice the tv show lol). a place where people can see a family doctor, psychologist, etc all under one roof. and i mean… ontario is short on family doctors, at least in my area.

does anyone have any recommendations or experience on opening a practice? i don’t personally know anyone in my area, so obviously reddit is the best place to ask lol!

for those of you who’ve read this far who don’t have any advice on opening my own practice.. what kind of things would you want to see in a family doctors office/psychology office. there’s way too many shitty practices (IMO) and i’d like to actually make a difference.

i was seeing a therapist through my university and we had planned for when i graduated, that i would continue seeing him through his private practice. a few months later (mutually agreed upon break for life events/vacation), when i reached out, he emailed back saying that he couldn’t take on any new clients due to his workload + professional/personal reasons.

i emailed back saying that i understood and respected his decision, but wanted to know if he had an idea of when his schedule would free up again. i haven’t gotten a reponse and it’s been ~2 months since i sent that email.

should i reach out again asking if his availability has changed? i’m seeing a new therapist and have seen for 5-6 sessions, but i don’t have the same degree of trust in his skills/have considered leaving him several times.

Pretty much was the title says. I know I can ask but would you let your clients see? I’ve been seeing my therapist for a while am just curious. Have any of your clients asked you this before?

I have been seeing a therapist for a while and feel ready to end it because I feel more able to cope in life now plus i am hopefully going to be offered specialist trauma based counselling sessions on the NHS (I am in the UK, and NHS services are free).

It is ironic to be asking therapists this, but how can I end it? I feel so unbelievably awkward and I don't know why. The thought makes me feel so embarrassed and anxious. I realise how ridiculous this sounds.

Is this a common issue, and is there some kind of explanation for feeling so reluctant to end it for fear of offending or somehow disappointing my therapist, even though she has never given me any indication she would take it badly?

How do you tell them how to behave normally?

Super curious about this so thanks in advance.

Do you therapists ever schedule certain clients at certain times/days on purpose. For example, would you try not to schedule too many of your harder clients in one day or would you schedule a more energizing client after a client who tends to be more draining for balance?

Lately, I’ve noticed that I’m becoming more sensitive to certain sounds, like babies crying, fireworks, and even the screeching noise when closing a window. These sounds never bothered me before, but now they make me feel really irritated and even angry. For instance, the screeching of the window feels like it’s literally peeling away at my brain!

I’m curious about what might be causing this sudden sensitivity. Is there a psychological explanation for increased sensitivity to noise? And as anyone else experienced something similar?

I was watching my friend’s dog while they went away, a beautiful little guy who was so full of life and curiosity.

We were waiting to cross a road and he jumped forward just a little bit on the lead and got pulled under a bus. I tried to get under and pull him out but I couldn’t stop it and watched it drive over his body with the rear wheels. He wasn’t in a good way and I picked him off the road and my partner came out with some sheets to take him to the vet. It felt like a blur and a nightmare in one, I sat with his body for an hour to tell him I’m sorry.

We’ve told the owners of the pup now and understandably she’s devastated.

I just can’t stop seeing it over and over in my head, it’s my fault, I could have parked on the other side of the road, I could have just been standing back further so when he jumped forward it wouldn’t happen.

I work in emergency services so I see trauma a lot but this messing with me in a different way, I just keep seeing it over and over in my head wherever I look. I just keep seeing him jump forward and the bus tumble him then go over him and his little face looking at me.

I don’t know what I’m asking here really I’m just struggling to understand it all.

I'm a person that people would call a "yapper" I don't really have a problem talking allot but sometimes overshare about my thoughts and feelings to much which becomes a problem when I do it to people I barely know. First of all I have been growing up in a family where everyone talks allot and discusses about many different topics, second of all I have adhd and I know that it makes people more prone to overshare. But the thing is I don't just share bcs I have "no control over it" but I have a deep desire to share everything about my thoughts and feelings. If I wouldn't control it a little bit I would talk about it 24/7 and it doesn't matter to whom. I just don't know why. I don't feel like I'm really seeking advice. Yes I do want it but even after getting the advice I still don't feel satisfied. And even after talking about the same topic to different people I still don't feel satisfied. When I have unresolved feelings about a situation with a person i need to talk about it immediately with that person or i can't concentrate on anything else. I know it's natural for people to want to share their emotions but I feel like my desire for it is much more than of a normal person. What could it be and how can I stop it? bcs tbh it makes me feel a bit exhausted..

My therapist has an interior office, no windows or natural light. The lighting in the office is usually bright white florescent light. Not my favorite, but didn't really bother me. Last session, though, my therapist wasn't feeling well and had the lights dimmer and warm white, like he had turned off the overhead lights and just had some accent lights on. It felt much mure comfortable to me and I found myself opening up more and telling him some things I didn't think I would ever tell anyone. I felt like the lighting helped. Today it was back to bright white and I didn't have a good session, and felt leaving like there was a lot I didn't say and I wasn't comfortable saying. So I'm thinking of asking during my next session if we could have the lights dimmer and warmer and see if that helps me feel better about opening up or if it was just a coincidence that the day I felt like I made some headway just happened to be the day the light was different. But I don't want it to seem weird or demanding and I don't want to mess with his environment if he prefers the bright white. Would you be annoyed or taken aback if a client asked you to adjust the lighting?

This question is aimed at therapists who have experience in treating dissociative disorders, or non-therapists living with DDs, and who are well read on the subject.

My "official" government diagnosis is PTSD, as they are using DSM V and cptsd doesn't exist.

I told my therapist (clinic that specializes in disociative disorders) that I think I have CPTSD based on reading reddit.com/r/CPTSD wiki section, and Fisher's "Healing the fractured selves..." She apparently agreed.

Of late I recognized more of my traits as OSDD/DID-ish. My T. gets vague when I bring these up. She did say that in her view all forms of dissociative disorder differ only in degree, and the therapy is the same for all, so it doesn't matter what I "officially" have.

What is the observable differences from a practical therapeutic point of view between different types of dissociative disorder?

Hi there

I’m looking for some opinions on what might be going on with my therapist after I requested to see my notes. We discussed it in my session last week and he wasn’t keen, but said if I still wanted to see them then to put it in a email and he would get them ready for my session this week. So I sent the email and he replied saying he would come back to me shortly. One day before my session this week, I still hadn’t heard anything back so messaged him to ask whether he would be bringing my notes to the session. He replied saying he was still considering the request and it would not be advisable to meet whilst the process was on going. I was shocked at that response, as there had been no hint of a problem previously and he didn’t warn me that would happen or tell me that there was even a process to follow. I replied to ask why he was saying that and he was extremely vague and avoidant and just said he would get back to me when he could. So I sent another message to say that I was withdrawing my request as clearly it had created a situation I didn’t intend to create. I heard nothing back from him. I messaged today to ask whether I would be able to come to next week’s session as I had withdrawn the request or was he stopping therapy completely and he just replied saying he would email within the next 24 hours. I’m completely confused as to what is going on. He is being so vague and it seems like there is something else going on that he’s hiding. I asked if he was ending therapy then why isn’t he just saying but he’s ignored that message. I am freaking out and thinking I must be in some major kind of trouble. I’ve never heard of any therapist responding like this to a request to see notes. Anyone got any idea what might be going on? I’m UK based if that makes any difference.

My therapist is always telling me it’s a secondary emotion and implies is not worthwhile to feel

I have seen like 6 counsellor/therapist, and I still don't get it. What should I be doing within a therapy session ? What is the end goal ?

I have autism which makes some tasks very difficult for me. I am trying to explain it to my therapist, but when I try my therapist doubts me and thinks that I don't struggle as much as I say I struggle. She thinks it is just the derpession talking and that it can't be that bad.

I know that depressed people can see things worse than they are. But it is frurstrating when my therapist don't believe me. And in my mind I sugarcoate things and they are worse than I tell her. I am deeply embarrassed of how much I struggle in lifee so don't tell my therapist how much I struggle.

I also feel like she gambles on that things are not as bad as I tell her because she doesn't risk anything if she is wrong. But for me these things matter a lot and I have also told her how important these things are for me.

So i already paid it, but I'm unhappy with a lot of things. I've had really good therapists before this, but with this one there were red flags right away.

Like she had some weird, too much personal detail, excuses why she couldn't do video chats for therapy, only phone conversations. (Driving to get her kids, taking care of her 5 dogs, etc) I tried it. She was obviously muting her phone when i talked and would wait abnormally long like over a minute to unmute when i stopped talking, like what is she doing, vacuuming her living room?

Anyway, i missed the last appointment on accident, and immediately after the missed appointment she texted me saying i signed paper work and agreed to 100$ no show fee. And i asked her why she didn't text or call me during appointment time. She said shes not going to chase patients anymore. And i didn't argue with her about it, but it just seems off to me.

Anyway, i have heard that it's illegal to bill medi-cal patients, but since it's a no show fee maybe that's not the same thing?

Im quitting therapy atp. It wasnt a good fit anyway.