When To Give Space

Dear Therapist (no. 1)

I came to see you when I was young, new into high school, in fact. I want to thank you for providing a warm and supportive room in which I could relax and explore the things that were going on for me at the time. In particular I am thankful for the real life coping skills that you taught me to help deal with some emotional bullying that I was going through along with a lot of other stuff that all piled on top.

It helped how you mixed up sometimes where we were sitting or what we were doing i.e. sometimes making use of the whiteboard for drawing, sometimes venturing out to the balcony for some fresh air.

You helped me with meditation and breathing exercises that allowed me to feel some space in my feelings and thoughts and you taught me "the bubble" where I could feel safe at any time just by exercising my mind and imagination.

You let me cry and gave me room to work through my mixed up feelings. You always knew when to give space and when to comfort - for this I am really thankful.

Dear Therapist (no. 2)

I would like to express my gratitude to you for helping me through an excruciatingly hard period of my life. A time when I really needed support and people in my corner.

There was some take away that really proved helpful. I maybe could have learned some more ways to cope with my situation in every day terms, but our talks did help me to wrap my head around some basics that I needed to hear.

I didn't like how you wrote notes while we were talking. I felt I had to wait each time until you finished which resulted in me feeling a loss of connection.

I sometimes felt like we were headed in a deep dive in the wrong direction. All in all, while you helped me when I was in a difficult situation, I didn't feel I was getting enough from our sessions to continue.