What is the most helpful thing a therapist did for you?


I just wanted to put this question "out there." The answers can benefit those of us who are afraid to try therapy as well as the therapists who visit MS. For those of us who have worked with a therapist, thinking about this question can give us insight into what and how we have benefited. (I am sure there are many negative experiences- let's try and save that for a different thread---Thanks!)

She "walked" with me back to when I was a boy and to when I was I raped and help to re-image the "events".

By me being "ready" and trusting her she talked with me and got me to realize I was NOT at fault.

Stacy, my T, I will be forever grateful to you.

Just me - thanks for the thread.

My T has done others things but the above is the best.

DJ/Donnie

The most helpful thing Therapist #1 did for me was to let me know in the first proper session we had (after the initial referral phonecalls), that I was the first client that straight-up told him what happened re the CSA without weeks to months of coaxing.

This was following Xmas 2006 into January 2007 when the memories were falling out of my head and I didn't care who I told. He gave me the power to carry on disclosing as far as was necessary.

Therapist #2 I'm still seeing so I'd have to think back over the past two years and post again.

hey J.M.
I came across your thread and I really had to think about this one.i have not been with therapy long and would never have gone without the support of the guys here on M.S. I guess there are two things that go together. when I went to the WoR this spring (insanely hard for me) we did a sculpture of my difficulty in making friends/being a real person ( hard to explain) and as I saw how that devolved into the pure noise in my head and it was so much like what happens in my head I saw it as real somehow and it brought me to tears.my T helped me to see that a med can help bring that anxiety down from what is often crippling to something manageable and maybe one day non existent,and I wont need the med. I'm still working through trust to give T all my secrets but maybe soon

The most helpful thing a therapist did for me was to listen to what I was saying. I thought I was able to disguise my pain. I thought I was able to be strong and tough. I thought my humor and easy-going demeanor could trick people into thinking that I had a solid foundation. And I fooled a lot of people. But I didn't fool her. She never challenged me, but she heard the themes of loss and heartache and pain that undercut the image I wanted to project, and she helped me to see that I could tell the truth and still be safe.

If you saw me, you might laugh to think that I didn't feel safe, that I was scared. But I was. I was afraid of the truth. And in a different situation, I don't know if I could have handled it. There were a few months where I felt like my head was literally flying apart. Like, I felt like I could feel the wind hitting my brain. How messed up is that? And things jumped into my mind that would paralyze me, ugly memories of terrible things, humiliating things.

It's weird to think how much better I feel these days, how much more solid and more OK with myself. To me, that was possible only with the love and honesty of my partner, and the accountability that I owe her, and to the expertise of my therapist, who will always have a place in my heart.

Bob