I am a therapist and frequently think I'd love to be friends with my clients if we'd met under different circumstances.
Well, some of them.
I am actually friends with my former therapist. I had to change insurance because the one I was using was no longer offered on the marketplace. Couldn't see her anymore. She let me continue seeing her for like 1/4 her normal rate for a few months until I could get into a different doctor. Now we text, chat, and see each other at pride (she is a 65+ straight, cis, married woman in southern US). If I'm going to be in the city where she's at, we'll occasionally get lunch or something. She's awesome.
Oddly enough, though, I think that level of friendliness messed with the actual therapy. Love her to death, but we did more chit chatting than actually delving into anything, and I got so fond of her that I began to get embarrassed sharing anything that I wouldn't already share with friends/family.
The human brain sucks sometimes. Lol.
Imagine thinking someone would be your friend.
can't tell if this is an insult or self depricating
Yes.
real
If you feel this, that’s good because it means you really vibe with your therapist and are more comfortable being honest and vulnerable with them. If you feel no connection at all to your therapist that’s probably not ideal!
Likely! There’s that chance they’re really good at acting as the kind of person you’d vibe with and that’s who you feel you’re kinda friends with.
Thankfully, on the clock, they’re just about one and the same :)
I'm a man and I still like to think my therapist and I would be friends under different circumstances.
I'm a friend and I'd like to believe my friend and I could be therapists under different circumstances.
I remember the first time I ever really went to a strip bar. Was just out of bootcamp and my friend really didn't want to go alone so I went with him. Such an odd experience for me because I had never really been drunk or did drugs or had been with a woman. So he told me to pick out a lady and he would pay for a private dance. I picked the lady I did fancy and it was awkward for sure. I bought her a drink and we chatted for a few minutes and about halfway through the conversation, she flat out tells me to "never come back here". Like what "yeah, I can tell I would really like you so please never come back here again."
It really hurt at the time and I never did go back. When I got a little older and wiser, I thought about it in a whole new way like, yeah she probably did like me and she hated herself that we met at the fucking strip club.
Soundour
