Posted by Dinah on September 26, 2004, at 18:19:42
In reply to To read or not to read, posted by vwoolf on September 26, 2004, at 12:02:33
I too was afraid my therapist would be angry, and when my husband met with us my one instruction to him was to not mention the psych books. But he was more amused than angry.
The answer to me is so far on the side of "to read" that it isn't an issue. For someone with a rather limited emotional vocabulary, books help me consider things that wouldn't have even occurred to me without them. I'll sometimes read something and have it really really resonate and know I have a fruitful path to follow. If I get oddly sleepy while I read, I know I've hit paydirt.
My therapist isn't really very directive. Without books we'd have sat doing nothing. With books I've been able to have a deep and wide therapy that I'm not sure he's used to having. Like any other arena, books broaden my therapy world. I almost *never* give a recitation of the weeks events. We talk ideas and fears and things that books help open up.
At first I read the technical psych books, and I still do because it's fun and I enjoy it. But my initial purpose was that I was sure he was manipulating me and I wanted to know *how*. But it didn't take me more than a year or so to figure out that my therapist doesn't do all that much manipulating, and what he does do isn't from the books. It's based on understanding *me* and what makes *me* tick, not on techniques. Every once in a while I might snap at him that this isn't the time for mirroring, or something like that. But not often.
Besides, his mantra is that this is my therapy and it is my responsibility. Why should he object if I do it to the best of my ability? (And in fact he doesn't.) I bring books in all the time, all marked and ready to read to him.
poster:Dinah
thread:395279
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040925/msgs/395418.html