Therapist: this is a good start
Unironically, that single response would tell them more than an entire average session.
It definitely told my therapist a lot when I said to her, “I can be honest with you because I don’t need you to like me. I’m paying you for a service.”
Me telling my therapist of my work that I hate capitalism
(I work in a bank)
(I’m trapped by my bad decisions years ago)
There’s nothing wrong with having thoughts like that when you first meet a therapist. It takes time to form a genuine connection that allows you to drop your guard - you wouldn’t tell such things any person you don’t know, and that’s ok. It’s important to feel safe during therapy.
If you are paying them, does it really matter if they like you or not?
Yes.
The quality of the relationship is the single biggest factor in what people get from therapy.
The money is by the by. Therapist isn’t like a Doctor, they need to genuinely care about their clients
Thanks for this reply. I really did not intend for my previous comment to be very contentious. I am not very experienced with therapy.
In my head, I think I’m trying to compartmentalize it a bit. Hypothetically, it shouldn’t really matter if the therapist likes you or not. The fact that they are getting paid should allow them to be ethical and objective in their job duties.
In real life, it probably does make a big difference whether they like you or not (to the patient, as well as the therapist themselves). Even if a bias isn’t supposed to exist, it probably happens more often than not; humans aren’t perfect.
Well like me is a bit far, but I would rather not you vomit all over the desk as I walk in, only for you to take out the blunt office scissors sitting in the top drawer and stab me in the neck as I turn to get some help.
