Hi. new here. I’ve been seeing a therapist now for about a month and a half for anxiety/depression but I feel I’m not making any real progress. I am fairly comfortable with her now whereas at the start I was an anxious wreck so that’s something I guess. but I just cannot for the life of me express how I’m feeling when asked to go into detail or describe my thought process etc I often just reply with “I don’t know” and I feel like such an idiot! I dont wanna waste her time or my own. But the thing is though I honestly do not know and I feel like I should know but It’s like something’s blocking me from accessing those thoughts or feelings and my mind isn’t my own anymore. I want this therapy to work but it’s just not going anywhere atm and I feel the problem isn’t the therapist it’s me. Does anyone have any advice for me? Thanks for reading.
Need advice. Struggling with therapy.
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Hi. Yes,I have mentioned abit of what I’ve said above to my therapist after I had my first few sessions but I haven’t brought it up again since.
sierra9779
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My guess is that some therpists only have one dimensional approaches to therapy and when challenged to come up with alternative approaches that require them to actually work at getting the "feelings and thoughts" out of you ... they simply aren't trained for it or aren't willing to do the work. If that is the case, then it might be worth finding another therapist so you aren't wasting valuable time and money Just a thought. My first therapist was like that and finally admitted to me that she was at a loss as to how to help me. I think she also wasn't really trying to get to know me (my personality, background, life experiences, etc.) She just had this generic list of things to try that she knew had worked on other clients in the past. My second therapist had lots of training on different approaches and really did the hard work with me to get to know me well and discover what would be effective.
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Have you been asked to write some form of diary during the time out of therapy? A lot of people don’t know how to properly express their feelings and explain them, because all their lives, they suppressed them. Suppressing feelings can lead to depression and anxiety. When you now all of a sudden being asked to express and explain them, you don’t know how. So you need to learn it. The therapist needs to kinda teach you how to express your feelings and how to describe them. Part of this process can be starting to write a diary. This can help you defining what you feel and to put it into words. You can take the diary with you to the sessions and read out of it and start discussing those feelings already written down.
Google the word, feelings. You will get a list of feelings from which to choose which is closest to what your body is telling you. The other thing to do is to sit quietly and listen to your body. Let yourself experience the "here and now" and your feelings will be there. Don't be distressed if they are tears. That means sadness and sorrow. There is a place to start with your therapist. Good luck!