Annoying habits of therapists

[Sylph]

I never had to deal with any of these 'quirks' in my therapist. Anyone have any stories about their therapist?

The 12 Most Annoying Habits of Therapists - Well Blog - NYTimes.com
The 12 Most Annoying Habits of Therapists
The mental health Web site PsychCentral notes that we all have bad habits. But when the person with the bad habit is your therapist, it has “the very real potential of interfering with the psychotherapy process.”

[MsTerry]

I never had to deal with any of these 'quirks' in my therapist. Anyone have any stories about their therapist?

You should never forget that the reason they have become a therapist is usually because they felt the need to fix something in themselves.
I've only been to couples counseling, and boy what a miserable collection is available for that.
The first one was on my side, and I was able to manipulate her so much that it became unhealthy.
The second one was on my partner's side and they had secret meetings to talk about me.
The third one had piles of paper all over the floor from the notes she took about her clients. I didn't feel like being trampled on.
The final one send me an angry email caus I dared to ask him to clarify a statement he had made, and he was NOT going to use his own time to answer questions. He would always make us wait at least 5 minutes before sessions.
You have to realize that this covers about 10 sessions total, after that I realized, I was better of without!

[Sylph]

MT, I'm sorry you had such a bad experience with your therapists!
Couples counseling is all I've experienced as well and it was a pretty grueling, painful ordeal. However, we both toughed it out and felt that it was worthwhile. (We both probably tried harder on the relationship so we wouldn't have to endure the torture of therapy ever again!) I did not experience any weird or unethical behavior from the therapists, it was just hard.
Your story reminds me of Ray Romano's trip to couple's counseling in Everybody Loves Raymond, where both of them, (mostly Ray), manipulated the situation and, of course, nothing was accomplished. Really funny...I wish I had a video clip.

You should never forget that the reason they have become a therapist is usually because they felt the need to fix something in themselves.
I've only been to couples counseling, and boy what a miserable collection is available for that.
The first one was on my side, and I was able to manipulate her so much that it became unhealthy.
The second one was on my partner's side and they had secret meetings to talk about me.
The third one had piles of paper all over the floor from the notes she took about her clients. I didn't feel like being trampled on.
The final one send me an angry email caus I dared to ask him to clarify a statement he had made, and he was NOT going to use his own time to answer questions. He would always make us wait at least 5 minutes before sessions.
You have to realize that this covers about 10 sessions total, after that I realized, I was better of without!

[hales]

Hy, Sylph,
When I was 18, I went to a Jungian Therapist, who would sit behind his little desk and fiddle with his pipe. (I don't think he would light the thing, just mess around with it.) He mostly would ask me a couple of questions about my dreams or how I was feeling, then he would expect me to talk without much interaction from him. At the time, I found it really annoying. I just realized it mostly likely triggered my feelings about my dad, who was kind of like that, too.. (mostly passive in our interactions). In retrospect, I guess if we'd been able to get beyond that initial transference, (or whatever), we could have made more progress. I we both got pretty irritated at each other, and I quit after a few months, but I kept detailed journals for several years, after that.. thanks, Doc!

BTW, what a great conversation starter, for finding out some core issues from people! ; )

What I liked about that guy is that he got me to keep a detailed dream journal, which turned out to be a really great tool to self-understanding and growth.. what Carl Jung called the "Royal Road to the Unconscious".

Later on, in couples counseling, during my divorce, about 16 years ago, I had similar experiences to Ms. T's.. the therapist would side with one or the other of us, which kind of invalidated the whole thing, IMO. Later we found someone who helped us get to the truth of the thing.. my ex-wife wanted to be out of that relationship, whether I changed or not. She was a very good therapist, and still practicing in the area. (name available on request).

Scott.

I never had to deal with any of these 'quirks' in my therapist. Anyone have any stories about their therapist?

The 12 Most Annoying Habits of Therapists - Well Blog - NYTimes.com
The 12 Most Annoying Habits of Therapists
The mental health Web site PsychCentral notes that we all have bad habits. But when the person with the bad habit is your therapist, it has “the very real potential of interfering with the psychotherapy process.”