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Angry with the therapist


Hi all, I found this forum when I googled for transference. I've seen a therapist for 5 1/2 years. She's not a not a psychologist but I see her for rehabilitation for my disability, which I've been through several major surgeries. One of the surgeries caused an undiagnosed pain condition that is under intervention. I also have chronic headaches because of the nature of the rehabilitation. My therapist is experienced and also have a relative with the same disability, so she knows my challenges better than the vast majority of professionals.
But I also have much anger about her, related to self-disclosures she did for about four years ago. I can see why she shared the information with me, but the way she did it was no ok. I could hear the anger in her voice and she seemed to be speaking not as a professional but as a private person. She raised the subject several times, partially because it was related to an organization we both had very bad experiences with and partially because she saw me as an allied. She then continued to share her personal opinions of a hot button topic (related to the organization) which I very strongly disagreed with and consider dangerous but I did not say anything but gave a neutral answer. But it created the anger in me and next time she raised the subject I addressed her attitudes. She responded in an aggressive tone and seemed to be taking it for granted that people agreed with her. I snapped and scolded her, she answered back again and I hit her so hard verbally that she backed out. For the record, I'm well educated about this subject and knew her arguments and what I should answer, so she was an easy match. In the end she said I had misunderstood her, to me it appeared as a way to get out of a discussion she never saw came. Later that day I texted her and cancelled the next appointment and told her we needed a break. She responded that it was ok, apologized and said that I was welcome if I wanted to come back. I resumed the sessions after 5 weeks, partially because she has no competitors as my disease is rare and my city is not that large. And of course I need the rehabilitation. We never spoke about the incident and she has never even remotely raised this particular subject.

I doubt she is educated about transference and countertransference as her education is centered around this particular disability. Her profession is also poorly regulated although it is covered through the NHS. So if I wanted to file a complain there would be nowhere to complain.
But the anger about those episodes that happened four years ago will not go away. I believe she should have addressed the incident when I finally resumed the sessions but didn't. I think it is because of poor education about therapeutic boundaries and framework, and also because she was scared of my response as she could not dream that anyone would disagree so strongly. There has also been some other incidents where she disclosed personal things like what party she voted for last election.
She's a part of a small firm with three professionals that specialize in my disability so I could request to switch to one of the two others but I have not done so but considers to do. I would like your views of this as the anger I feel is unhealthy.
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Hi Nessie, welcome to the forum.

I had some questions come up for me when I was reading your post. Is your therapist a counsellor/psychotherapist? Or something like an occupational therapist? I don't want to intrude on your privacy if you'd rather not say.

Can you say anything more about the rehab you have? Is the rehabilitation therapy very specific to the disability - is it a really necessary thing that your T has to have in depth knowledge of the issues you face? Or is it talking therapy that mainly focuses on your emotional/psychological life and how it is affected by the disability. Could another counsellor/psychotherapist help you if they were willing to learn? Or is it better for you to have access to someone with specialist knowledge?

Probably it would have been good for her to raise the issue when you started working together again - but she may have taken her cue from you if you did not bring it up.

I suppose if it felt appropriate and you want to try to iron this out with her you could feel out her readiness to talk about the subject again response by using a script like:

"T, there are some things about our work together that have been bothering me. They've been on my mind a lot and I think it would help if we could talk about them"

You'll probably get a good idea of how well this might go from her response.

I suppose it's also worth thinking about what you would want from that interaction too, if you did decide to talk about it?

If you're experiencing anger and it's not going away, I wondered whether it's possibly related to other pain/vulnerability that's hitching a ride underneath the anger? Is there something about her expressing such a different opinion from yours that really hits a sore spot? Does the anger feel like any other anger/vulnerability you've experienced before.

I know that I once blew my stack at a male counsellor when I wasn't feeling heard and eventually realised the anger was down to not being heard or protected by one parent from another. I was angry on one level because he was being an ass (in my opinion!) But there was a whole world of anger and pain linked into that incident that came roaring to life.

If you don't think you're ever going to be able to talk and get a satisfactory response and your work together will continue to suffer, then I don't think it's wrong to switch to another therapist. I suppose it's worth thinking about again if this is not a counselling profession as such, then what you might do if you run into the same issues.

I know that I tend to spend a lot of time early on with a new T working out boundaries and expectations up front and these keep getting revisited in-session. I find it really helps us both keep on track to talk about how the relationship is going.

Hope that helps!
Hello Mallard and thank you for your reply and your good questions. She is an Audiologist/speech therapist and provides rehab related to my medically very complicated disability (the doctors have never seen a similar case, even the US-based manufacturer of the medical devices I use have encountered something similar) and also provides coping techniques and education related to living with a disability.

I've seen psychologist at a center with special knowledge to my disability. I saw a therapist at that place for a year and my panic disorder improved. But unfortunately my interpersonal issues and anger did not improve. I quit because I felt the therapy did not gave me anything anymore and I also felt a lack of understanding from the therapist. I was informed that the sessions would be over in near future anyway. I know I need a therapist but finding the right one is hard, as many has no knowledge of my disability and will contribute my challenges to bad attitude and are not afraid of telling me what they think.

It's a good question if I should talk about the incident and what I would want from it. I need to think about it.

I'm sure there is underlying things, as I probably had an attachment disorder as a child and was emotionally abused and also medically neglected as a child. My mother was probably in the BPD-spectrum but as she never saw a professional it's only an uneducated guess based on what I read about this condition.

I have anger issues but the anger I feel towards this T is a different kind of anger than I usually feel. I feel it totally consumes me and I have no way to vent it.

The work we are doing has not suffered particularly but I feel the incident we never talk about is there, a kind of 'don't ask, don't tell'. I'm somewhat restricted in my interaction with her, when it comes to personal things like asking how her holiday trip was and so on. I believe it is because I'm afraid of her cross my boundaries again. But I do not want a completely unpersonal relation, I've been in therapy with a therapist who was almost robotlike in her distant style.
Does this person have training in counselling or psychotherapy? It seems a little unusual for a speech therapist or audiologist to offer anything other than the physical support of their speciality?

You might be better with someone whose focus would be more psychological - the NHS do employ 'health psychologists' whose role is to help people with medical issues cope with their stuff. For childhood abuse you'd need a counsellor or therapist I'd think?

I'm in the UK too - think the situation is slightly different to the US and Canada.

sb
In my opinion, it would be helpful to try another psychologist. The psychologist you saw was apparently a wrong fit for you, but the issues you suffer from are persistent and should be attended to in some way to bring you relief. Also, the attachment disorder that you mentioned you might have definitely calls for a skilled psychologist. It's doubly difficult to have a physical problem and a relationship problem as well.
Thanks for your replies.

It seems to me that it is different from country to country what the professionals do, as in my country an Audiologist do provide support related to the emotional challenges related to the disease/disability. But as one do not need a licence or registration to this titly it may differ from each person. As I understand the hospitals often refer their patients to Audiologist for providing coping skills.

I have never heard of a health psychologist so we probably do not have this profession. As the psychatric generally is understaffed, the ones who provide support often are Social Educators, psychiatric Nurses or similar professions. Psychologist are much sought after and will often only be assigned to those with more severe mental issues.

As the session I attent with this Therapist is mostly focused on various excercises and using medical devices I sometimes talk about the mental issues I'm facing, mostly those who are related to the disability.

I really want a therapist to deal with the attachment issues but as I'm high functional the NHS will usually only cover a limited amount of sessions (around 12). I've several times tried to raise the subject with my former T's but they seem to not want to go into the subject, or downplay it. Emotional abuse and attachment disorders appears to be a neglected subject in their education. But as my disease is chronic and severe the NHS covers unlimited Audiologist sessions.

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