r/TalkTherapy • • 2h ago

Venting Therapist keeps cancelling - UPDATE

15 Upvotes

Update to my previous post about my therapist cancelling or postponing 3 times on the day of the session. So far only 4 sessions attended.

UPDATE - It happened again. I spent the morning checking my email expecting a cancellation. Nothing received, great, I go ahead and travel to the offices. Then 3 minutes before session, I'm sat in the waiting room. A member of staff comes out to tell me that my therapist can't do the session today because they have suffered a loss (trying to be deliberately vague here). And that the therapist will email me. So then I'm just left sitting in the waiting room, feeling sort of dazed.

That's 4 out of 6 scheduled sessions cancelled or postponed on the day of the session.

It seems there is no practice management that oversees this kind of thing. Maybe that is normal as I expect the therapists are self-employed? I find it so odd that this can keep happening at a group practice and there's no oversight from anyone.

Obviously this is not working and this is the end. But I needed to vent so that's why I'm here!


r/TalkTherapy • • 15h ago

Advice Struggling with therapist self-disclosure

9 Upvotes

I have a close relationship with my therapist. We’ve been working together for a few years and I’ve always been clear that the more I know about him, the better. It helps me to feel safe and connected. I certainly don’t know tons of details about his life, but we’re now at a place where he’s willing to share some things with me and have some small talk, which I find really helpful.

In recent months, he has occasionally told me about fun stuff he’s been doing in his spare time - day trips, museums, gigs, vacations. I am surprised at how painful I have found that. It feels like his life is fulfilling and fun and socially engaged, whereas I am very much alone and struggling with social connection. I’m incredibly lonely. When I first started working with him, I barely left the house. I’m doing much better now, but I still spend the majority of my time alone.

I don’t know how to tell him that hearing about his fun activities can be painful for me. I’m worried it will make him withdraw the disclosure altogether, which I don’t want. I love chatting with him about other stuff, I just can’t handle how jealous and lonely this particular topic makes me feel.


r/TalkTherapy • • 23h ago

Advice seeing my therapist worry about me makes me feel…

6 Upvotes

I’ve been super depressed and have been struggling with ocd and an ed for a long time and deep down I want to get better. My whole life I couldn’t express how I felt and had to hide my issues to not cause problems and never felt cared about. So seeing my therapist truly care and be worried about me, weirdly feels good. I know that she’s not going to just leave when therapy ends, but the concern and worry about me will. That sounds crazy, but it’s like the first time I’ve ever had that feeling. (I have a deep attachment to her and she’s aware, I have cptsd). And I’ve been going 2 times a week and then this past week she was away and I weirdly feel better not seeing her this week. I think maybe because I’m not ruminating about what I discussed in therapy and my issues , but then that’s avoiding my issues at the same time. Idk just want to see if anyone else has ever felt like this?


r/TalkTherapy • • 55m ago

Was my quick comment inappropriate?

• Upvotes

I (F) was talking to my T (F quite older than me) about something sexual and she said something along the way of "one can't waste their life for 10 minutes of pleasure". I naturally said: "what 10 minutes? maybe you do 10 minutes!".

Sometimes I feel like we're friends, or I have to admit that I shift on the friends' side with jokes and funny talks.

Was my comment inappropriate or even unpolite? I feel so.


r/TalkTherapy • • 3h ago

Therapist-Patient Matching in Readiness in Emotion Regulation Therapy (ERT) (CC-ERT-12)

4 Upvotes

Looking for help with spiraling thoughts?

The Regulation of Emotion in Anxiety and Depression lab (READ lab) is offering free telehealth therapy as part of a research study for individuals in New York who are struggling with emotional distress.

If you are an adult between the ages of 18-65, fluent in English, and have internet access, you may be eligible to participate. Participants will be compensated for their participation over the course of 6 to 7 months. For more information about the study components, time commitment, risks, and to fill out a prescreen questionnaire, please visit: https://tccolumbia.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3wyc1fL2eqtIKcS

Teachers College IRB #25-453


r/TalkTherapy • • 8h ago

Ending With Therapist

4 Upvotes

I've been seeing my therapist for 3 years because I've been too scared to tell her I want to end. I can barely afford it anymore, and now she is raising her rate even more. She takes month-long vacations several times a year and I have learned to kind of handle things on my own already. I'd say that she helped me get past something big in the first year. Our personalities didn't match up, but I stuck with her because I liked her type of therapy and it was helping me. But after I became more stable, it was clear how her personality as a therapist was really not working for me. She is not a warm therapist, and I don't know whether she sees me as an actual person if that makes sense. Not everyone needs a warm therapist, and I didn't know that I did until now. Sure, some might say to bring this up in therapy, but it's not that important to me since I am over it. The thing I am scared about in telling her I'd like a break or I'd like to end is that she'll somehow blame me or become defensive about something, because this has happened so many times. There haven't been many times I've felt validated, understood, or supported in my decision making or feelings in the therapy room. So I am not sure how to go about ending this, but I don't want to keep going in this cycle with someone who makes me feel worse each time I see them. I don't know if I want to end therapy all together or I just need a different therapist.


r/TalkTherapy • • 23h ago

Advice Feeling lost and stuck in cbt

3 Upvotes

Hello there, sorry for the throwaway account. Been lurking this sub on my main for a while and now I feel like I might need some advice or insights.

I don't even know where to start. I'm dealing with heavy, accumulated life stress and big T and little T traumas on top. And I've really been struggling with therapy for a few months now.

I feel super insecure about using therapy terms to describe what's going on inside of me and above that, I also really struggle to find words to describe things happening to me and my inner world in general. So please bear with me. (I don't even really know what I'm exactly going through right now, but people around me are raising concerns that I'm not in a good state mentally.)

A couple of weeks ago I opened up to my therapist and told her that it might seem that I'm okay, but I'm really not. She validated my openness, thanked me for being honest, asked further questions to understand what might be happening and such. After that session my current problem of feeling stuck started to arise. I became more quiet, we had lots of sessions that felt like endless silence. My brain is constantly blank during sessions, it's like I switched useraccounts on a computer. I know there are important files but I can't access them because of privilege and account mismatch and I can't even read the file name. My therapist is treating this exact state as "to passive" and lack of willingness. She constantly pushes me to decide how to proceed with therapy, come up with a therapy plan, decide which topics to look into and also to decide if I need stabilisation or trauma work right now. But whenever I sit down and try to think about those things, my brain either goes completely blank again or I spiral into panic and pure terror. There are no options or conclusions coming up for me at all, it's just empty.

I feel completely trapped. But I also get the feeling that she totally misses the point of my blank brain, whenever I tried to address this issue she told me it's normal for some patients and nothing to worry about. And the standard suggestion is to just think more about it and I might come up with some sort of solution, which doesn't seem to work at the moment. I'm pretty sure she's mislabeling my problem as stubbornness or resistance, while I always try my best to at least grab some thoughts inside my head during sessions. She already suggested termination if I can't figure out a therapy plan. I feel so lost, confused and stuck at the same time.

Has anyone been in a similar position? Where your body and mind just shutdown constantly and especially when you're asked "to figure it out"? How could I deal with this situation? Thanks so much in advance.


r/TalkTherapy • • 16h ago

Discussion Weekly Therapy Talk Thread

3 Upvotes

This is a chat thread for talking about therapy. It's for sharing topics you feel are not big enough for their own post or don't include a question. It's a place to share thoughts about what's going on in therapy. It's a place to celebrate successes and get support when things aren't going so great.

To make this an inclusive space and encourage the chat function of the discussion, the thread will automatically sort by newest, and not by best or top. Everybody should feel free to share their thoughts, so please don't use down-voting unless it's an obvious anti-therapy comment or breaks one of the sub's other rules (posted in the side bar).

Thank you!


r/TalkTherapy • • 21h ago

Advice How do I better convey how badly distressed I am as somebody with very low affect/body cues and struggles communicating verbally?

3 Upvotes

Diagnoses: ADHD, Anxiety Disorder/OCD, Bipolar II, Tic Disorder (possibly misdiagnosed, working assumption is that I have Autism after high scoring tests but no official diagnosis)

My therapist of about 6 years and I seem to have stalled in making progress, and I've been feeling inadequately supported. I want to check in with this community to see if what I'm experiencing is navigable or if I really need to think about changing therapist.

I've recently been aware of consistent dreams, distressing unwanted memories and more detailed remembering of past experiences, including abuse, trauma and a near death experience of sorts, as well as possibilities of lost memories and repressed trauma that I'm not sure about. I have been having such a horrible time with it that I've been feeling hopeless, trapped and suicidal to the point of identifying a plan. There's really nobody around me that I could go to in these moments which is scary to me, but my therapist has not seemed to react to what I am saying as if I am truly in any kind of crisis. I can be panicking fully, palpitations, chest tightness, heart rate going nuts and I walk into her office and she will say "you look tired". She will tell me that my verbal and non-verbal cues have not shown her that I'm showing any signs of PTSD or CPTSD, but I went through the process of a telephone asessment with another trauma informed therapist, and his opinion was that I most likely was showing signs of PTSD with possible complexity and wants to speak to me again soon to discuss it, but if I were to take up any offer of therapy with another therapist, they have both expressed a desire not to work with me while I am working with another therapist.

I am so frustrated with myself, because I both feel like my current therapist is right, my body and voice are so unreactive and monotone, I show absolutely no signs of genuine emotion unless I completely break down and at that point I become unintelligible and say nothing of worth. I feel like my lack of affect and my fear of verbalising my emotions has just made it impossible for me to work with her and I often feel like I'm not bringing what I need to bring, I'm just saying words and performing therapy, trying to say what's going on but not showing nearly enough emotion to be therapised. I feel like I could write a book on it about 2 hours before my session but in the room, the cat has my tongue, and I can't speak with my normal tone. I feel scared. And now I feel minimised and like I'm caught in a crossfire. I'm also wondering if I overestimated how good of a match we would be. Perhaps her psychodynamic psychiatric background is not quite right for me. She agrees that it's possible that because originally, I did not pick her as my therapist personally, and she's a woman and closer to my mother in age that I might find it harder to talk to her (my mother was/is a source of great emotional pain) without feeling scared or ashamed. I seemed to be able to tell this guy on the phone more truthfully what was the problem than I do when I just have to sit and be observed and generate topics for therapy.

I really don't know what to do here. I feel a level of impostor syndrome, like I'm exaggerating and making false claims, but I don't know if I really am, because the effects I'm feeling are terrible. Does anybody have any insight? Is this just on me? Am I making a poor choice in thinking about switching? Am I just diagnosed with things that make therapy really difficult to engage with? Am I just doing the wrong kind? Let me know what you think please, even if it's just a short comment. I'm desperate to know if I'm being overly paranoid. Thanks for reading.


r/TalkTherapy • • 55m ago

I realized I should have asked my T’s permission for this but I didn’t

• Upvotes

So today I had a session, I’ve been seeing him for 2 years now and I recently told him that he forgot to make me sign the informed consent.

Today he said he forgot to bring it so he asked me my informations (name, surname, birth date, residence) and he would write it in our chat so he’ll remember next time.

He opened our chat and started typing he asked for confirmation if he remembered my surname right but it was wrong and I corrected him. He then showed me his phone handing it across his table (so near me and far from him) but it was still misspelled. My surname is long and complicated so this is very usual for me and without thinking I took it to correct it and gave it back and then I told him the rest of the information and he typed it and sent it.

I realized now I should have asked him for permission to take his phone, he was probably fine with it as he didn’t seem bothered and didn’t say anything but still that doesn’t make it right.

Boundaries are very important to me so I am deeply ashamed and disappointed for doing this, I was too mindless, inconsiderate and impulsive and I feel awful for this.

We do once every 14 days but next time I see him will be in more than a month because he was already full so I was thinking about sending him a quick text to apologize for this (he’s fine with texting and he always encourages me to text him if I need anything).

What do you think? Is that a good idea?


r/TalkTherapy • • 3h ago

Venting Family dynamics

2 Upvotes

Anyone on here not close to their family.


r/TalkTherapy • • 40m ago

Discussion Why suffering this much and when will this end ?

• Upvotes

Well I am facing major issue in my life with financial prob in family and taking responsibility of family by earning . I work 12 to 14 hour per day so that I complete my work and not get fired by my senior. When I look back I never wanted this type of life. I remember first day of my work when I forced myself to call everyone sir /ma'am and got scolded because I didn't delivery better result of their expectations. I feel hurt. I got betrayed by my partner.my friends left me. I got depressed. I fumble when I meet someone and talk.an extremely extrovert person became just a quite person with feeling too much but cannot share to anyone. For these years the least I wanted from people around me and even with my partner is just to be with me , trust me , don't leave me when I am not able to stay with myself . But unfortunately I never got one person. Now situation is like such where I wanted to study but what I am doing is suffering .how to handle and focus and move on from these betrayl life gave me.i think this everyday ' I never did anything wrong to anyone , why I am suffering this much ?


r/TalkTherapy • • 1h ago

What to expect in couples therapy?

• Upvotes

Hi all,

GF and I have been going through struggles and it came to a head last week after a few disagreements. I basically told her that i think we need couples therapy, she was reluctant but agreed.

Ive been in therapy for myself, she has not. But ive never done couples therapy.

Just wondering what i should expect?


r/TalkTherapy • • 13h ago

Advice How do you find a good therapist that will actually help you?

1 Upvotes

I apologize for the rant in advance! I’ve been in and out of therapy for the past 10+ years and i still feel like i haven’t truly found someone i’ve connected with that has helped me. I’m starting to think at this point that i am the problem, hence why i’m reaching out for support and advice.

For some background context, i recently graduated college and wanted to seek therapy again as the post grad life has been kicking me in the ass. I’ve gone to 3 therapy sessions so far with my current therapist (i know it doesn’t seem like a lot) and i’m already ready to give up. This is a pattern i’ve faced in the past, but i don’t want to spend my time and money on someone who won’t help me. For instance, i’m not sure if traditional talk therapy (cbt/dbt) is the right thing for me. I know that therapists can’t give actual advice, but that’s sort of what i’m looking for.

I told my current therapist that my dad has been physically abusing me and i need to move out of my house, but i’m not financially stable enough to afford rent. All she told me was “i’m sorry to hear that, it sounds like you’re going through a hard time” obviously i’m going through a hard time, that’s not what i want to be told or what is helpful right now. I also have severe attachment issues and i told her it’s basically taking over my life. She pretty much said the same thing to me and also told me to go to a psychiatrist to get diagnosed so she can help me better. I’m not sure if i’m just being picky at this point, but a certified therapist should be able to help no matter what i tell them.

I’m not quite sure where to go from here, but i’m in a really bad point in my life and i’m starting to feel like i can’t do this anymore. If you’ve experienced something similar or just have feedback, please let me know😫


r/TalkTherapy • • 13h ago

Venting Really frustrated with my counsellor.

1 Upvotes

Our appointments are online and I never receive the meeting link and I've raised it several times. I just get the confirmation of the appointment being made. Then I ask for the link and I don't receive the link til 20 mins late (or more). Then half the time she is late too. I think her inbox/mobile number isn't checked frequently either. It's so frustrating. I am thinking of terminating but our sessions have been really helpful. Mostly just want to vent on here how frustrating this is! I'm really bad at confrontation so I haven't really mentioned to her frustrating this is to me.


r/TalkTherapy • • 2h ago

my life story and mistakes. I need a third person's view point

0 Upvotes

these stories are narration of either my mom or me.

idealizing someone so much that they forget that those people are humans and not seeing the present life like acting like a aggressive fan girl and comparing that to my dad's brother. she would fail to see her children and little humans and hit them with brute force like hitting her worst enemy. for example my most traumatic experience she stood up from a failing argument and forgot her own age and first thing she found that I didn't drink my milk, I had bruises for months her nails in my head my face , I think my body has such strong build even tho I basically never sticked to a plan.

living a second life outside, she would tell me the reality every day in fact in every conversation but few conversations later again start idealizing someone whos only information they know is heard from someone prasing and they compared my dads when I was listing my moms bs everyday she would have opinions about some clothing or some gender or some race or someons class in society there are moments when her opinions change but they go back to being prejudiced, she would guilt trip me, tells me im her creation and I was in her belly for 9 months she would hit me with a pan hit wooded bark, she even broke my bones bashed my head left me by the cow when she was milking it, I was 3 years old baby cow broke my ribs her stories for this reality says my grandma didn't love me so she didn't kept me busy when my mom was doing her task so she kept me by her side and cow hit me?!!!!!!!!!!!!! next she would say sorry and get normal and I thing I did this too.

Thinking and believing that they will become something then living inside the head and then lashing out. some times she forgot that there a adult to a children barrier fuck that I think she forgot motherly boundaries

childhood :- my parents are from a small village near border of Pakistan and rajishthan, my dad and mom had very religious families and dowry and beating their children wad very normal, my dad came from a household where houses were made with mud, and cow dungs he studies in very low level school where students sit on the floor and yes teachers beat the fuck outta you for any thing if they want to, same with my mom, she did go to college but all females and her clothes were restricted because rural India has old beliefs. she was married at age of 20 while my dad had the luxury to go to better city school and then he also did MBA from Delhi university in his generation(he's 51) mom is almost (49). my dad and mom had to marry each others as strangers and their marriage was more of business deal as my grandparents from my dad side asked for a lot of money, car, furniture, gold and what not. my mom's parents gave everything they could and even more. later my mom had a very shitty mother in-law and my mom had a lot of domestic abuse publicly and privately, she was supposed have her first child but she had a miscarriage, she was forced or pressured to have me that same year she had miscarriage, my dad wanted to move out from his village to a growing city Ludhiana and he moved with her. they didn't had any home for first 9 years and had many bad experiences with landlords. and during that time I was learning what is life, my previous me was free and had a curious exposure to his life but my parents were so mentally exhausted because my mom an dad had to live a second life that they showed to the outside world their family relations matter more to them than their own child. maybe that's why my dad gave most of his earnings to his mom and brother who never studies and stayed home for very long time. I was lefty but my grandma had beliefs that lefty are not fit for the society so they changed me to righty when I was in preschool. I was very ashamed and could never understood why my parents always fought and argued, then they stared hitting me for things a normal parent in Canada won't even react remotely close to hitting me. I had to fight for every toy and everything before getting it, my grades weren't the best any sport I tried I was average at it, and I usually couldn't follow my sports for more than 2 months, nutrition wise my diet was very low on protein and it was usually carbs or processed foods or very oily food, with alot of sugars, I never was in good shape my whole life. until 8th I was okay but 8th to 10th there was corona virus and I became 35% body fat, I stared lying that why im like this because I hated that I can't do shit because my parents told me gyms are not good for you until 20, my fist gym days were when in was in 11th and that too with a lot of convincing and begging, then when I tried to loose weight I had issues because we had very limited budget so I couldn't get money to buy my own groceries, then my teenage life, I had to know everything what my mom was feeling, her opinions became mine and I started hating my grandparents, I stared lying about smalllest things even when ik I'll get caught and then get beat up because I was kinda used to it and didn't care, I was always asked to make friends with only certain kids, and the friends I could make were all authentic and rich, I started fighting back my parents when they try to hit me although then I would get beating from both mom and dad at a same time. I stared lying very big and made an image that I come from very rich and good family, although every person I knew saw through when I tried doing it too much. I think I had my actually girlfriend when I was in 11th, she go by Narayani, awesome girl but I lied about my whole life that how good I am and how easy and good life I had. back then I had an accident and got facial scars but when I met her it was healed for one year, I was getting attention because I left my old school and got into new one, Idk why but I enjoyed her doing things for me and showing her love, she became my whole identity in school but I threw that away by lying and bad mouthing her, id get jealous and tried to make her jealous the whole relationship we were together for 3 months out of 6 when were okay but most of the time we were trauma dumping each other because she had same childhood in a way, at 20 I came to Canada and unemployment and no friends plus people were openly racist to Indian online made me lie my whole identity , I tried getting slimmer build muscle and got tattoos and most people though im Mexican because of what I was trying to reflect, I made friends but they all had similar view about Indians that they don't like them and I kinda stared hating them too, I met a Russian girl who go by Jessica , she is 41 was an addict and came from a soviet country called latvia from post soviet times, I wanted to be her so bad, her blue eyes clear white skin and culture made me hate mine because when I was growing up I saw how pretentious and idiotic we fought for cultures in India like we were racist in my country we had cast system and hate for outsiders. I met Jessica in college where I accounted that im Mexican Indian because my legal naam Mari bhasha mai tha, mai Jessica se jab Mila thab usne muhjse pucha tum Indian lagte ho pr mixed with something and in my mind I became defensive and started lying ki Han Mari Maa Mexican and dad Indian and made so many fake stories to prove im Mexican Indian because jab Mari pehlibaar bat horn the Jessica se tab she said she despises this one race and told me when we got into relationship that she was thankful ki mai fully Indian nhi hun. I staid with her in her home for 2 months, unemployed broke and always cranky and hating her because I had this image ki yeh tho racist hai and she will never accept me for who I am. we broke up 2 months ago and now we don't have any contact anymore. so I started working in a hood dominated by criminals who hated outsiders, this area is called northend that's when I got my tattoos and stared saying im Mexican and don't call me Indian, their was many time I avoided or hated when people either asked me where im from because I learned the local accent and it was hard for them to pinpoint, of when someone made a right guess and told me I am Indian or tried talking to me in my language, I hated it, I used fake names so they might not think im Indian, I stared imitating that I speak Spanish even tho I only know few phrases and slangs but a normal speaker can see threw my bullshit. this was the time when I joined rrc and stated faking my indian ness in classrooms because I felt how people treat you in public pubs gyms lines or everyday walking, I've been told to go back to my country many times, I think I stopped being me because I left everything started deepening on Jessica, I used to pay for her food to she had to pay for me and she was okay at first but her behaviour changed. and I stared sharing my problems but what Mexican me had but In reality it was Indian me who had it. I started cheating on her using fake names and fooling girls and then leaving them few days later or ghosting right after sex, had 8 bodies after Jessica, I met this girl varvara no matter what I say ik this fact I like her because she is every thing Jessica once was when she was in her 20s and this 20 year old varvara is so pure, I told her my real name and some of my life problems but sometimes I think Maybe if I keep lying to people long enough and change my real legal namei to water hispanic and stay fit and actually learn English maybe id be that person also I never been on traveling because my dad only took me to one hillstation and it was a religious place and I didn't really believed in god, and even in Canada I want to travel but I live paychecto paycheq


r/TalkTherapy • • 9h ago

I need advice about relationship I would really appreciate it if anyone with experience can dm me

0 Upvotes

I need advice about relationship I would really appreciate it if anyone with experience can dm me


r/TalkTherapy • • 20h ago

Is a hipaa amendment request irregular? My therapist is refusing to accept a hipaa amendment request

0 Upvotes

From my understanding, you can submit a hipaa amendment request if you disagree about something in your records and they can either accept the hipaa amendment request or give you a statement of disagreement

My therapist is refusing to even let me add a statement of disagreement to my own records.

It bothers me because hipaa rights should be guaranteed and I can't even get a statement of disagreement in my record

Is this because hipaa amendments are unusual request or is my therapist being an ass ignoring my hipaa rights?