A freaking mess.

His blotter has so much scribble on it, it would be a miracle to find anything written there. There are files everywhere and his desk is piled high with files.

There is a huge desk where he hits his knee on the drawers constantly and then there is a chair adjacent to the desk where the patient sits. There is also a leather couch and two big comfy armchairs where he does his hypnosis. Plus a big bookcase that has a mess of books inside and the drawers are full of drug samples.

It's a nice office. High, tin ceilings, dark wood paneling, large fire place and lots and lots of books. The building has lots of therapists and massage therapists in it, so there's a nice feeling to it.

T1 I talk to on the phone as she is 1000 miles away, but if I recall correctly from high school 16 years ago, it was a small office with a desk along the wall where the door is, two wicker chairs and a sofa, and a rug. a few end tables but no coffee table. She had a Monet Water Lillies painting on the wall. Her sofa is blue with little white flowers. I believe her favorite colors are blue and green based on her office environment and the clothes she used to wear when I was seeing her in person.

T2 has her office in her basement of her home. The walls are very white and I have been tempted to recommend a soft yellow paint color to her (I'm an interior designer). She has a lot of books and eclectic pieces of antique furniture. She sits in a Herman Miller ergonomic chair. I sit on an uncomfortable and ugly sofa. In her waiting room there is an antique bookcase that I really like, but she keeps it locked and I cannot get to any of the books, which I don't like. In her office she has a beautiful dresser that I like to stare at when I talk.

I've decided that her favorite color is red based on things she keeps around her office (art work, rugs, etc). She also likes to wear bright red sweaters sometimes.

T works from home, its a small room upstairs, with bookshelves along one wall and a couch and T's chair set at an angle to face me, if we stretch our legs out together our feet would touch.

Lovley question!

T`s office seriously looks like a mini- labrary. Bookshelves coveres the walls, from the floor to the roof. Two huge windows. Its in the second floor, so i have to go up the stairs to get there. Its a bit small. One ok couch with lots of pillows and blankets, a desk, and a tiny table between us. T sits in a brown leader chair and the patients sits in a BIG antiqe armchair. Its lovely! Its a comfy and "warm" atmosfhere there. A little dark? Oh, and a little waiting room also, and one other office too, where another psychtherapist works, also in private-pracic. Its a little kitchen there as well, were i can get water etc. oh- and a little bathroom. yep, thats all!

So interesting reading about what your T's offices look like. My T is in a suite in a professional building. In his suite, there are only therapists. The women therapists have nice offices. Color, warmth. My T has the largest corner office with two large windows. He has a large plant that's threatening to take over the room. But the walls are white (I'm a total color person.) And the couches are black. It so needs some warmth!!!! It's a bit sparse also since the office is so big. I kept thinking that's the reason I get nervous talking to him. But's that's probably because it's just me, being nervous. LOL!!!

My T has some chairs lined up against the wall right inside the door of his office so it's almost like he's checking to see which one I pick to sit in. On the left wall as you're sitting he has his desk there (piled with papers) and he uses his desk chair to sit in when he talks to me (moves it in front of me a few feet). There's a little round table with tissues on it in the middle of the lineup of chairs. The smell in his office is great and I comment on it sometimes but he said it must just be cleaning supplies and insists he does nothing special. He has a small bookshelf in his office and a small bookshelf in his waiting room.

t1, dusty shelves, he/big chair, me/miserable shorter sofa, so i looked up at him....ugh. paid after session, i put card on arm of chair, he takes it and leaves to billing area, i follow a bit later and sign/scribble a sig and leave. t2, she always was getting water and seemed more nervous than me. too lit office, miserable love seat, her in nicer chair. sleepy? who knows, dark, freudish office, leather chairs. dbt gal, too bright. weird armoire i stare at. ugly tiffany lamp i stare at, and THE MOST OFFENSIVE PICTURE RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME OF A WOMAN HOLDING HER HANDS TOGETHER IN FRONT OF HER MOUTH like she is saying 'ohhhh', but the way the side profile of her hands look, it looks like a georgia o'keefe painting of a (vagina). over her mouth. ugh. SO BAD. and so humiliating to stare at this woman saying 'oh'. then, you find yourself putting your hands in the same way she is. i bet t counts how many times clients do that.

horrible picture. 'nuther miserable love seat.

i've paid all at end of session. always awkward. why cant they bill you monthly. so much more respectful. the whole silly process. she has my card number, why the dress rehearsal each time?? just bill me, c'mon, i trust YOU with tons, can't you trust me to pay you??

bad, bad mood today. dreading tomorrow, i don't know that we are going to make it if i don't feel more kindness coming my way.

blah. jill

jill

Jill, perhaps you could come up with an arrangement with your T to just bill you once a month and skip the weekly formality? I cannot see why she wouldn't be open to that.

OldT had the most wonderful office... it was my home. It was in a very old stone farmhouse. The reception area was long and narrow and had two saggy couches that I never sat on and some nice chairs where I used to sit and study while waiting for my son. It had persian rugs over wide board hardwood floors and soothing pictures on the walls, a straggly plant and a tall vertical fishtank with fake fish in it that would swim around and around. My son loved that. In the back corner was a toychest with lots of Legos and toys. A bookshelf for children's books and magazines and then a few adult magazines.

His office was medium size and the windows looked out into the parking lot but there was a "green space" between the two with large trees and shrubs. The office was painted a warm beigy color with white trim. There was a huge fireplace with colorful tiles around it and a warm wooden mantle. His floors were hardwood also and covered with a crimson persian rug. There was a large armoire that contained his computer and it was usually closed. There is a off white shabby couch that I hated to sit on and a french chair that I used all the time. There was a coffee table between his chair and the couch and nothing in between his chair and the french chair and I preferred it that way. It was also closer to him. We sat about 3 feet apart. Next to the french chair was a table-lamp where I would plunk down my keys and sunglasses and water bottle. There was his clock on it and a box of tissues. His chair was an older brown leather that had wheels on it and rocked and swiveled too. He sat in front of the fireplace so I got to look at it and the mantle and picture when I was trying to think or to avoid his eyes. Next to me was a narrow bookcase and a small file cabinet. I loved that office. It was warm and cozy and safe (I thought) and I miss it terribly. When I left it that horrible day I had NO idea I would never be allowed back and I had no opportunity to say goodbye to it. To take a last look around and to fix it in my mind. To touch my chair, the door, to look at my gifts to him on the mantle...

NewT's office is basic, modern, new, and with not much character to it. Walls are white. Behind me is a full wall bookcase to the ceiling. Tons of books which I do like to see. He sits in his desk chair... I have no idea what it looks like. His desk is basic, no frills but usually neat. He has a computer on a low file cabinet. There is a newish black leather couch which I tried but it's too darn low and not comfy at all. Cold. Across from his desk are two big floral queen anne chairs. I sit in one of these and there is a small round table between them with tissues and a small plant. I feel very neutral about this office right now. I don't like that it's too bright and he now draws the blinds for me. OldTs office was woody and dark and it suited me. Outside of newTs office there is the reception area shared with 3 other Ts. Basic and comfortable with lots of nice mags to read. No dog. Very quiet. No toys. Just an office.

TN

Draggers, Your T's office sounds enchanting!

Lol now that I'm officially out of lurkdom I can post on some of these fun threads - I've been dying to add my two cents worth for ages so here goes.

My first impression of psychoT's office (I am no longer seeing this therapist) was overwhelmingly one of darkness and gloom and coldness. An impression that stayed with me through all 19 sessions with him. It was a large high ceilinged room in a big old house that had been converted to business offices but his was the only therapist 'business' there. It had huge bay windows in one wall but the room faced north so the light that came in wasn't sunshine but reflected light so the room would always be dark and gloomy, and he had gauze curtains over them to prevent people on the street outside being able to look in, trouble is the curtains blocked out even more light.

And he sat with his back to the windows so what light that came in was directly in my eyes so I could never see him clearly, most times he was just a silhouette. (Lol I fixed that eventually by moving to another chair where I could see him properly - there's a whole thread about it somewhere...)

What's weird is that the whole room was actually quite comfortable and tastefully furnished - interesting paintings on the wall, a fireplace (with what looked like a real fire set to go for the winter), a nice but dark coloured rug on the hardwood floor, pot plants in the corner, a couch, a chair and his high level black office chair (from where he could look down on me sitting on the couch!)

One day I came in and it was quite dark outside and he had the lamps lit and for the first (and only) time I felt the room was actually quite cosy - or would be in winter when the light outside wouldn't be so bright as to make the room so gloomy. I actually mentioned this to him, that I thought the room was quite pleasant today and he said 'ah so you now feel comfortable with me'. wtf? No matey it's because you've got the lamps on! When he finished with me that was one of the things I was pleased to leave behind - the unmitigating gloominess of that room.

Anyway he had a point about seeing a room suddenly as cosy and inviting - when I think about all the different Ts I've seen and what their offices/rooms were like - it's been so much less the room itself and so much more to do with the demeanour and approach of the T whether I liked the room or not. I suspect a lot of the gloominess I experienced in psychoT's office had a lot to do with how HE was and how we related, rather than because of the room itself.

Ha ha I once came in and specifically looked at the wall behind where I sit because I was sure he had a clock there that he kept looking at during sessions, but in fact it was a painting (and a really interesting one at that). He noticed my looking and commented on it, and again made a smartarse psychoT 'interpretation' that I must be feeling more comfortable or settled or something that I would now start taking notice of the surroundings. Wrong again matey, I just thought you were clock watching and not focusing on me as I want you to.

Current T works from a room in her house (most of the Ts I've seen work from home rather than from a separate office) but it's not the usual room she uses so it's temporaray as far as I understand. It's very small, with a chair for her and a sofa for me and another chair beside her, a small desk and a sidetable, a full wall shelf of books (eek I think! My gaze hasn't stretched much beyond her head so it's all a bit fuzzy). She also has a big box of stuffed toys which she pointed out to me one day when I came in with Claude my stuffed toy cat - wouldn't see that in psychoT's room! And at Christmas she had some Christmas decorations on the table and desk which I really liked to see. And the room is light with filtered natural light but not too bright, and definitely not gloomy! And she has a big fluffy orange pussy cat who is usually around when I arrive so I stop and say hello and give him a pat or two. I definitely feel comfortable in that room - if you don't count all the feelings I don't want to be feeling while there!

Hm another LL novel. Maybe it's TMI but what the hell it's nice to write about lighter things for a change.

LL

WELCOME BACK LAMPS!!!!!!! WOHOO!
lets make a welcome party for lamps,
i`ll bring some music again, who can fix the cakes? And funny-smileys?

Welcome dear Lampers,

Good to have you again - I'll be there at the party froggy,
I'm just off to make a chocolate cake ....



What does my T's room look like? Hmmm difficult - we seem to be a bit nomadic, but that's really another story

starfish

Welcome back LL! You have been missed. And not a novel at all... I enjoyed reading about both Ts offices. What is interesting is that your psycho Ts office sounds like my oldT's office which I loved and felt like home to me. The darkness for me was safer and cozy and I loved his fireplace and the paintings on the walls, the old wooden floor, the lamps. He had shutters so the bottom was closed but the top was open and let in enough light.

I didn't have the problem of him sitting in front of the light and blinding me but I have that problem with NewT and it has been really hard to focus on him or to see him at all. It was like he had an "aura" of light around him that hurt my eyes. I didn't want to change seats as the couch is low and not comfy so I told him about the problem and he closed the blinds for me. He told me to remind him in case he forgets. It did make a real difference in that now I could actually see more of his expressions and reactions w/o the darn backlight blinding me.

It really is good to see you here again. Hope things are going well with the new T.

TN

Wow thanks Froggie Legs and TN - it's nice to be back! I have so missed you guys

TN just finished posting another novel on your other thread - it's funny but when I was remembering psychoT's office it made me think of your description of oldT's office too - the hardwood floors and the fireplace... (I remember reading your description of it on another thread - ages ago - and was REALLY envious, it sounded so warm and cosy and appealed to my taste for antique architecture and furnishings.)

How bizarre that newT also appears as a silhouette to you - is this some trick of theirs I wonder? I certainly think so in the case of psychoT but your guy doesn't sound like he'd be into that kind of powerplay in therapy - maybe he would be willing to shift the furniture around? If it affects you then it must also be the same for his other clients - maybe they are too scared to mention it. Worth checking out how accommodating he can be.

hugs and kisses to everyone

LL

oops crossposted Draggles, thank you to you too

quote:

LadyGrey....my new T's office is absolutally stunning.a bit like her ......i wonder if their offices are reflections of the therapists....cos new T is beuatiful like her room..and interim T is a mental scatterbrain like his room and faith...well i take the fifth!

Interesting theory, Draggers! I think you might be on to something. Our environment truly is a reflection of ourselves.