Help. My therapist won’t let me go.

[Lizzbear]

This is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but also a bit worrying. I’ve been seeing a psychodynamic therapist on the NHS therapies fir 5 weeks, once a week.
I’ve been suffering with intrusive thoughts and anxiety.
After a couple of sessions I decided we weren’t a good fit, Im not sure it’s forms.
I’ve told him on 3 occasions but he keeps saying I’m giving up on myself and that he’ll see me next week. I then feel bad and turn up the following week, and have the same conversation.
He’s quite hard to read, and it’s not his fault I’m looking for more direction.
The thing is it’s an unusual therapy which is based on the relationship between the therapist and the patient.
its called dynamic interpersonal therapy and Im finding it hard to navigate. I think I’ll stick with it now, but has anyone else had this therapy?
How did you find it?

But that’s the law! She was telling you so you could decide what to say. If there’s a chance that an abuser is still abusing, you aren’t suggesting she do nothing, surely?

Well, if it helped then that's good.

I think I feel that a therapist isn't necessarily dangerous because psychotherapy is inherently dangerous; the danger is that the therapist's interpretation can acquire too much authority. I certainly think it should be highly regulated and only highly skilled people should be therapists. It's absolutely become too much of a thing people are attracted to get into because they think it's cool or the money is good. I remember when I was young having therapy about overcoming my anxiety over learning to drive. The woman had another job and was cramming therapy sessions in with people around the rest of her life. In two sessions, she literslly fell asleep for about 20 minutes each time. I was young and just sat there waiting for her to wake up again. She didnt even offer me any money back. It was a joke. But I bet if I'd turnedvup 20nminutes late O would have heard all about it.

So much of this is much deeper than I'm going to discuss here. I was quite down and seriously depressed and saw a therapist privately. One thing she said that has stayed with me is ... why are you crying ... i am a cryer but it made me try to identify it. The other thing was to go and buy myself a teddy bear ... he's still upstairs, haven't given him to any of the grandchildren,

After a while I realised I didn't want to go any more; felt time had gone and I'd rather go shopping, I thought this was quite healthy!

Told her I wouldn't be booking any more sessions, I felt fine now. She got very strange with me, questioned my not continuing ,,, and said that when I fell over again I'd be back. I feel i did well to escape when I did.

I met her socially a while later, and she wanted us to pretend we didn't know each other, I had no privacy issues. As we spent more time in a social circle it became clear she was mad as a box of frogs, but i wasn't aware of her still working as a councillor!

Depends.

If the OP has severe intrusive thoughts with a history of acting upon them then she might not have a choice.
It could be "talk to this therapist or be held under section 8 of the mental health act".

I work in the NHS in mental health. You are incredibly lucky to get a psychodynamic therapist at all, and even more lucky to get one trained in DIT and to get 16 sessions. I assume there is good reason why this has been recommended to you.

The whole point of this therapy is to work stuff out on an interpersonal basis, and some confusion and projection is part of that. Having worked with many people in the past I would recommend you discuss this with your therapist rather than asking the internet when we don't know your difficulties and can't properly advise you.

Just to add, I've been on the receiving end of psychodynamic therapy myself. The reason I stopped is because I didn't have any problems anymore. I was really struggling to dredge up "has anything bad come up for me this week?" If you still have problems, make the best use of what you've been offered.

Therapy is about so much more than an individual perceiving they they do or don't have problems. That's a very odd comment from someone who works in the mental health field. Also, that opening question, while not unheard of, is far from ideal.

I dont know about a money spinner - I made a lot more money in my corporate job before I retrained, and would be a lot better off this late in my career if I had not switched.

Having worked in the States though, I am appalled at the lack of protection around this profession here. Not that there arent poor therapists in the US, but at least there is a chance of managing them out of the profession if there are complaints. Over here, literally anyone can call themselves a psychotherapist, and if people are not accredited, there is no come back to them.

There was a move to have all these professions regulated by the HPC, as psychologists are, but it died a death years ago. I hope it gets resurrected, as it would be very helpful in regulating the profession. Its not infallible, but it would help.

I’ve been having intense anxiety-provoking thoughts which I haven’t been able to let go of. I already had 2 lots of CBT which didn’t help much. I asked for something better, and was offered this. I will stick it out.