Posted by mair on July 2, 2003, at 21:37:38
In reply to Re: The OTHER clients..., posted by Penny on July 2, 2003, at 12:54:40
My therapist has 2 doors both in her current office and in her last office, but while i always use an exit that doesn't require that I see the next patient, the ones before me never have. I don't relish that contact so I would probably be the girl with the averted eyes.
I see my therapist twice a week. A woman I know has the time before me on one of those days. I was startled to run into her the first time and once we had a brief discussion where we acknowledged that we wouldn't tell anyone else that we both see this same therapist. I told my therapist that I wasn't bothered running into this woman, but I found that it really did bother me, and that it was hard to avoid her because she frequently ran over her time. After awhile, I'd drive by my therapist's office and if I saw this woman's car still in the parking lot, I'd drive around for awhile until she had left. I think my therapist picked up on my discomfort without me really saying anything about it because she offered to start my session 10 minutes later than usual, just so I wouldn't have this overlap.
I can't really say why it bothered me. I think I'm sort of embarrassed by how frequently I go to therapy and how long I've been at it. Since I sort of naturally assume I'm far down the pecking order of my therapist's favorite patients, I don't allow myself to feel jealous of her other patients. I do wonder about things like how many are long term patients and how many are couples or are men, but this is pretty much the self imposed limit of my curiosity.
Mair
poster:mair
thread:238620
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030529/msgs/238868.html