aston

Has anyone ever experienced this? I for one am against the whole "seeing a shrink" simply because I have been through enough in life and saw myself through. However, in an effort to save the relationship (two yrs ago) I decided to get a therapist (in addition to marriage counseling etc).
Well the guy FELL ASLEEP during the session!!! Needless to say that was the last time we had a session. Wrote him his check and terminated the session.
Has anyone experienced a useless therapist?

FirstYearDown

Yup. When I was 18, I had more than one useless therapist. One of them rarely spoke, which was not helpful.

The other tried to force me to talk about certain things immediately, when I had other issues I wanted to start with first.

aston

yup! felt like I was paying someone to validate my feelings...literally. Then he fell asleep.....

voivod

My worst was one of my last. He was told by me that my wife had been previously "diagnosed" as being codependent and that she was not comfortable with that and lo and behold what does Dr. Harvard grad do but open his desk drawer and start literally tossing pamphlet after pamphlet of codependence info, encouraging her to go to meetings. She said she'd never go back again. Kinda sad because this was ealy on in our reconciliation process, and we were making progress.

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separated, honoring wife and family daily, she deserves the best me i can give her.


4 kids g18, g12, g11, b7

that_girl

I love my therapist She's awesome. You have a crappy therapist!

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aston

ha! Yes I did hav a crappy therapist. Ironically my STBX is a psychiatrist........who woulda thought!

Runs like Dog

The Freudian lady who took my money to never utter a single word.

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fight back

stupad

I've had both. I had an IC for depression years ago who was great and seeing him again for marriage and other issues. I rarely leave his office without a couple of 'ah-ha' moments where he's made some connections for me (that I should have made but didn;t). I

I've also seen my wife and daughter have crappy therapists and one of these idiots we (my wife and I) started seeing as a MC - which by all accounts is a really bad situation. As if he should have known better.

So - there are good therapists out there - unfortunately the yo-yos give them all a bad name.

Good luck.

stupad

Oh- and don't be a concerned about interviewing them. If they can't give you their time (on a limited basis of course) before you are a patient, I would be leery.

Mike188

Best way to get a good one is by referral. Ask around and you can usually find someone who has a good one. I've been to three - one bad and two good. The first one was not good. We went in his office and it was my first time to see a counselor. There was the sterotypical couch, the lamp and him sitting in the big wing back chair trying to look serious. I just started laughing and couldn't stop. He seemed a little annoyed and wanted to know why I was laughing. I told him because the whole thing was just like in the movies. He was offended. No sense of humor. We only went a few times before we found someone else who turned out to be really good.

The MC I'm seeing now is really engaging and funny. She and I probably joke and laugh probably more than you're supposed to in MC. When my wife used to go I would often times weave a joke into our problems that would make the MC laugh. My stbxw would just sit there pissed off so the MC would have to cover her mouth and try to act serious and not laugh. We get along pretty good.
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stupad

Sounds like you have a good thing going. And now you're single. My friend married her divorce attorney : )

Lon

I have had a lot of success with my IC, though I have caught her in a yawn a few times, and she sometimes used to get my name wrong (but seems to get it right now). I'm making good progress, in part to her, but probably more because she has a really good patient

Thor

I had an IC after about 1.5 yrs of a nearly sexless marriage. HE gaslighted me! Told me it was my fault and not to pressure my wife and she'd be fine when her grad school was over.