I love reading posts where people share about the fun or out of the ordinary things they do in therapy, like having little celebrations, creating art, coloring, reading stories and poems, working puzzles, games, and so on. It can be inspirational and heartwarming for me to read about the different ways all of you forge those connections with your Ts.
So, since I had a particularly special session yesterday I thought I would "pay back into the system" so to speak, and write about it here.
I hadn't originally been planning on bringing Baby with me to therapy, but he was sleeping soundly at the time I had hoped to nurse him before leaving, and I was concerned that if I left without feeding him he'd be a screaming hungry wreck before the time I'd be back. So it was either bring him with me or cancel my session. I called T and explained the situation and she told me it was "perfectly okay" if I brought him and that she "very much looked forward to meeting him." However, she was very brisk and professional about it on the phone so I was a bit wondering how it would go, and whether or not she'd turn out to be a baby person.
Well, as soon as she stepped into the waiting room to call us back to her office she started cooing over him.
"Ohhh, he's so cute! He's so beautiful! What a wonderful baby. Awww. . ." etc. It was adorable. Then she started fussing over helping me move from the waiting room to her office, "Do you need any help moving things, HIC? Can I carry anything for you?""Uh, sure, you can carry my purse if you want. Thanks." lol, it was sweet.
Once we were in her office I asked her if she wanted to hold him and her eyes really lit up. She said it had been a long time since she'd had a chance to hold such a little one. She just sat there holding him and staring at him for awhile (looking for all the world like a proud grandparent which of course will not help to lessen my transference any :P). After a bit I asked her teasingly, "Can you do therapy while holding a baby?"
"Uh, I think so. Let me know if I get too distracted."
But the session actually went really well. It was more of a low key, maintenance kind of session which may have been part of why. Baby stayed asleep the whole time, lol, and even though he can sleep through most anything both T and I spoke more slowly and quietly than normal out of instinctive deference to his drowsing state. It gave the session a very relaxed and natural feel. There is also something beneficent about the presence of a sleeping infant. And just seeing T holding him and noticing how gentle and almost reverent she was with him was very special for me.
At the end of the session I asked if it was okay if I continue to bring him with me sometimes. "It's perfectly okay with me," she said (and I could tell she meant it), "as long as you don't mind me getting distracted and staring at him occasionally."
And so, I think I'll be bringing him with me next time and perhaps thereafter depending on how things go. I'm glad T liked him so much. I feel like I've come a long way since I was posting her nearly a year ago, all nervous about having to tell her I was pregnant!
Heldincompassion
