Re: another suggestion

LL,

Actually, the approach of sitting there and being silent did work quite well actually. In our last session, my client did talk to fill the silence and I did stick to questions solely to clarify what she already said. While she does remain skeptical and hesitant, she did talk, which is an improvement. I told her that it was absolutely ok if she wanted to come in and not say anything if she wanted to and it was like a light bulb went off in her head that said "Hey I don't have to say anything" and she almost instantly relaxed. We did discuss her hesitations and fears about therapy and came to some interesting compromises that should help the relationship grow. She stated that she has a hard time putting things into words and feeling inadequate or unprepared for discussions that may arise. We agreed that I would provide her with a list of written questions and/or topics that we would discuss in the next session and she seemed to be more comfortable with that. We also agreed that she could write out her responses, reactions to the list and bring them with her and if at any point she didn't want to discuss them we could default to the written responses.
I saw her today and this format worked wonderfully. She was much more relaxed and seemed to be much more comfortable, and was able to discuss the topics on the list with me. I was quite impressed with how well this worked. Thank all of you for your input.
aather

Replies:

glad it helped! sounds like good progress! <:- o ........n/t, by LL, 5/10/00 Re:glad it helped! sounds like good progress! <:- o ........n/t, by , 06/05/04

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