Should i change my CBT Therapist?

[Foreverstressed28]

Suffering with PND and PNA for 18 months. Finally decided to get help and decided on CBT. Found a therapist who sounds great on paper. I’ve had a couple of sessions with her now and I’m not sure if I had wrong/different expectations.

She’s very blunt, talks and doodles a lot while she’s chatting and makes me feel like how I’m feeling is wrong. I’m obviously aware I’m severely depressed and anxious but she says things like “You need to stop doing this and that” or “you need to stop having these thoughts”. I realise i NEED TO STOP, but it's not a button i switch off. She's also become fixated with one issue (my separation anxiety from my kids) and keeps banging on about that and not letting me explore all the other issues in my head.

I expected to sit down and talk loads at these sessions, maybe even cry if I needed to, but haven’t found she’s given me that opportunity.

It’s only the second sessions, and probably my PND is clouding my judgement of her. But should I just continue for a few more weeks? What happens during CBT sessions?

So sorry you've had this experience. Can't leave a longer reply just now but I'd say you're right, she's not giving you what you signed up for and are paying for, ie. CBT delivered with expertise and sensitivity and focused on your needs. Admittedly the first couple of sessions can be weighted towards assessing a client's needs, but she doesn't appear to be doing that as much as she's following her own agenda.

Follow your instinct and look for another therapist. At the very least you need to feel comfortable with her/him and have the sense that s/he's attempting to get a broader picture of what sorts of thoughts are troubling you, clarifying their different forms, eg. catastrophising, predicting, mind-reading, etc, and offering you strategies to challenge them.

Wishing you better luck, keep us posted.

Change her. It's totally fine to change therapists.

Another vote for finding someone else. Therapy is so hard, you should click with the therapist at the first session IMO.

You won’t get what you need out of therapy if you feel this way.
We have been through about 4 therapists to find the right one for my teenage daughter.
It’s perfectly ok to stop and try someone else.

Change. I've had some rubbish CBT including a very nice woman on the NHS who said I probably wouldn't find it helpful, as she and I managed to repeat questions in unison as I already knew everything on her sheets. Whereas the guy who established how I was thinking and then managed to skewer exactly where the kinks in the logic were and they (mostly) vanished.

great thanks for this! now just to find one who is an expert in PND rather than just general depression and anxiety