Posted by fallsfall on June 17, 2004, at 7:20:58
In reply to I want to drag my parents to therapy, posted by Dinah on June 16, 2004, at 22:18:00
Yes. You should do it. Absolutely.
My dad came to a therapy session with my first therapist. She said so many times that meeting him really helped her to understand what was going on. And yes, he came across just as he really is.
Tell them that you, their daughter, need their help. That your therapist needs to understand better what you were like as a child. That you and your therapist think that if they came in and talked about your childhood that it would help him to understand you better. This approach makes it non-threatening to them - you aren't asking them to come to talk about THEM. You are asking them to come and talk about YOU - because they are the experts - they were there, they saw you growing up.
During the session, in order to control your anxiety, maybe you could focus on how the point is for your therapist to see who they are. Of course you don't tell THEM that. But that approach has helped me to be more detached, I have been able to remove focus in my mind from what they are saying to *observing* HOW they are acting. Whatever they say about your childhood is, in fact, irrelevant. The point is for your therapist to see who THEY are.
You should do this.
poster:fallsfall
thread:357413
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040614/msgs/357499.html