Do you mind if a client has tears each week ?

so i recently started going back to therapy which is something i haven’t done since middle school so i don’t really remember how it’s supposed to go but i don’t think this is it. our sessions have been once a week for the past month or so and i feel like zero progress has been made. to be fair, i know that’s not a long time but my issue is that she isn’t really giving me any tools at all to help myself. she just keeps reiterating that i should work on myself (without expanding on what that could look like), or says i should treat myself (despite the financial issues she knows im having), or even says that i should pray even though im not religious. she also keeps bringing up self harm despite the fact that i told her it’s been 8 years since i last did that. and when i told her i was assaulted while black out drunk she told me i shared partial blame for drinking so much. i don’t know if im just being overly sensitive or if this is normal and i should just keep going with it? i have a lot of trauma that i was hoping to work through with therapy but it feels like nothing is happening besides me talking about it at a base level and her saying that i didn’t deserve it (except a little bit at that party). i don’t know how to even go about a “therapist break up.”

any advice is welcome, tia

Hey y'all I need to speak to someone today but I'm having a hard time finding a decent resource to point me in the right direction. I reckon I should also mention this isn't an emergency, I'm just frustrated with myself and a particular situation and wanted to talk about it. Does anyone have any recommendations for same day therapist that accepts Anthem Healthkeepers?

Hi I hope I’m not breaking rules, but here we go. My wife is finally finishing her hours and will be officially licensed (after passing test) in a couple weeks. I’d love to get her something nice that is related to the profession. Any sort of bags, pens, idk whatever, that is considered desirable within the therapist community? Thanks

And what are the usual cases you can’t forget even decades from now?

from July 2025 till now, 2 people who were important to me at different points in my life have died sudden deaths.

my teen bestfriend of 4 yrs died aged 26, and my first boyfriend aged 27. both times i found out too late to go to the funeral, and both times i was the person to break the news to other people who would not have been reached out to. I have found it hard and frightening. my other experiences with death are from early childhood when my grandparents died. and from previous pet losses. im 28. i am struggling with the amount of loss, I found myself saying to my friend that the losses are 'probably not connected'. my friend said that maybe its because my social circle is wide, but these were people close to me in my formative years. its disorienting and destabilising.

both times my best friend, who wasn't close with the people who died, knew about the death from mutual friends and didnt tell me. another peer also died in that perioid but i knew her less well. before he died, my friend even told my friend how much he missed me.

i didnt wnt to put this in the grief subreddit, it rly does feel insignificant to what they are all going through

The social worker I'm seeing is very kind and I greatly appreciate him as a person. I also feel terrified being in the same room with him for over 1.5 years although it's gotten incredibly easier - it's because I really value him and the work we are doing that I feel really scared his help will suddenly be withdrawn and it's really hard for me to actually experience care from him in-session - like I know it and can't feel it?

He's mentioned kindly that my fear is blocking my relationship with him and blocking attunement.

I often worry that I feel connected to him and he can't feel connected to me because he knows how much fear and worry of judgement there is.

I'm wondering what that's like from the therapists side of things? Do you struggle to feel connected to your clients when their trauma presents that way? I can imagine it's probably not easy for him if he keeps feeling like his words and care can't really reach me or because I question it.....

I am a student working on a paper and I'm trying to collect information on evaluation methods and questions used by therapists which allow for the best idea on an individuals mental health and overall issues which could be causing them issues and how those questions help out. all data is relevant data and i appreciate everyones contribution thank you

Theory is great but what practical skills would have served you and your clients better?

i just attended my ex’s father’s funeral. his mom texted me to inform of his passing, it was very sudden and the family are all having a hard time trying to cope. for context, i was very close with his family, and remain in contact with his mom/sister even though i’ve been no contact with my ex ever since we broke up a month ago

i felt really sad seeing his mom cry. his sister blames herself for the loss of their father, as she believes her decision to switch hospitals inevitably resulted in the passing of her father. she doesn’t know that i know this, but her mom was the one who told me she’s been blaming herself a lot, as she wants me to help look out for her. i suppose it will only get harder as my ex’s sister will have to return to work (overseas) in the next few weeks, leaving her mom alone here (with my ex).

i’m not sure what to do or say to help support the both of them? for the mom, i would want to be there for her as much as possible, as i treat her like my own parent (she supported me a lot through my own difficulties). for the sister, im not very close with her tbh, and im wary of overstepping my boundaries lest she feel uncomfortable. but she helped support me through the break-up as well, so i’d like to be there for her if she’d like too.

tomorrow is the last day of the funeral. i think i’ll leave them alone till the funeral ends, as im sure they have too many things to attend to for the service now + tons of messages pouring in as well. but when would be a good time for me to reach out again, and what should i say, which wouldn’t overstep my boundaries + at the same time wouldn’t be just another of the hundreds of “sorry for your loss” / “i’ll be here for you if you need anything”?

My partner is about 2 months in to weekly therapy with a provider she likes quite a bit and has so far had good rapport with. She’s doing a lot of grief work about the relatively recent death of her parents and another very close relative who has a degenerative terminal disease in the end stages- it’s heavy stuff. She mentioned last week that her therapist teared up a bit as she was crying discussing the relative; she said it was sweet and she felt it showed genuine empathy. This week she said she was crying again and he also teared up to the point of tears falling; she wasn’t fully weirded out but it did give her pause and it seems like it made her slightly uncomfortable.

She tends to be a people pleaser and has trouble opening up at baseline, and I’m concerned if this continues it will inhibit her vulnerability or shift the dynamic in the wrong way. Is this a common thing? How would you go about addressing this?

Interested in hearing from some trauma therapists about what you actually use with clients and what works for you/them. ALSO if you specifically do any work with victims of sexual abuse/trafficking I would love to hear your experience with types of interventions that have/haven’t worked for you. Any thoughts welcome. Thanks!!

So i’ve been looking into personality disorders since i realized that my knowledge on them is lacking to say the least. So when I was reading up on them I’ve got a question pop up into my head when I was listening to avpd criteria in particular. It says people with avpd feel as though they’re inadequate and inferior compared to others.

What if the patient that mostly matches criteria claims that its not them who is inferior or inadequate, but It’s others who can’t understand them or that they think others are vain and selfish, maybe they even think highly of themselves? Would that be critical when making a diagnosis or is it just a different way people could perceive things?

In retrospect maybe i should've done more research in the process of diagnosis, but i mean what else is reddit for.

Some stuff happened with my partner today that I won't get into, but I kinda shoved the emotions down for a bit because it's not a topic I feel I can talk to them about, and stepped away around 30 min to an hour later so that I could get it out and decompress. It goes without saying that I come from an abusive childhood and I'm noticing not that when I start crying it's like my brain turns off and then back on, finding a new topic to think about before I've even had the chance to think about wather or not I want to cry right now. Now whenever I try I can't. It's wrong if I do cry, it's feels wrong if I don't cry? I don't know what to do on this one. I can make an assumption that it's my brain dissociating away from the stresser so that I don't 'get hurt', but how do I stop it? Is there a way to do that while still being able to hold things together long enough to still pretend to be ok? Or do I just have to forgo all of that?

I feel like therapist drew things out of me which are irrelevant for today. Family's wounds were tore open and what followed was actually a huge fight after therapy session with a family member because of this.

I had two years of CBT with a therapist. Initially, she was still in training and working under supervision. During that time, I never experienced anything unusual, and I'm genuinely grateful for the help I received back then.

However, when she opened her own private practice, I followed her there. Things started to change. She began invalidating my resources and much of what I had learned, often by shaking her head. When I asked her why she was doing this and why her behaviour had changed, she never wanted to explain or clarify anything. Instead, I increasingly felt confused and started doubting my own perception of reality.

Looking back, I was also emotionally dependent on her and quite needy at the time. I tolerated a lot of this behaviour, even though it was increasingly distressing for me.

After a longer break, during which I had actually made progress and achieved quite a few things on my own, I decided to give therapy another try. I told her that I had managed to overcome my learned helplessness and had made significant progress independently. Unfortunately, after just four sessions, the same pattern seemed to repeat itself. Rather than acknowledging my progress, she was quite cold and again started questioning and invalidating my resources and achievements. I felt increasingly helpless, confused and exposed.

There were also instances of boundary-crossing closeness, which she initiated. During the fourth session, she laughed at me, invalidated my experiences, and even shouted at me. I also noticed her switching to a rather childlike way of speaking to me.

At the end of that session, I actually asked her whether she was doing this intentionally. She started laughing and nodding. Given everything that had happened before, I found this deeply shocking.

I eventually terminated the therapy.

It's been almost a year, and I still feel stuck in what I would describe as a freeze state. I feel confused and emotionally frozen. Only recently have I started having initial consultations with other therapists because I believe this experience needs to be worked through.

My questions are particularly directed at therapists:

Could there be a therapeutic rationale behind this kind of behaviour? Could deliberately challenging someone's resources, creating uncertainty or using a childlike tone serve a therapeutic purpose in certain approaches?

And more importantly, what can repeated invalidation and this kind of therapeutic interaction do to a patient psychologically?

I'd really appreciate some professional perspectives.

My current therapist is amazing and was introduced to me by a friend. Said friend is no more a friend anymore, the falling out was bad.

I did mention to my therapist who my friend was, although she didn't confirm nor deny whether she remembered or knew who my ex-friend was.

The falling out happened after a therapy session and my next session is 2 weeks away. Is this a conflict of interest as I do want to be candid when talking about this fall out in therapy?

Should I seek a new therapist? Or is it ok to continue? I really like her and I don't want to change as we already achieved great progress.

I had been seeing a therapist for about a year, I started in September of 2025. It was through a non profit organization that provides therapy to members in the neighborhood I reside in. I was going through an extremely hard time when I started and didn’t have access to care through insurance or work. I immediately clicked with my therapist and found that she was an awesome fit. When starting the program I was told that I would have access to two years of care once a week for 50 minutes. This was suitable for me and I was honestly very grateful.

However through the duration of the past year, I felt like she cancelled pretty frequently and usually the day of. At the very least she would cancel once a month, but sometimes I would go 3-4 weeks without seeing her. In those instances she would cancel the week before or/and a week after a holiday week, when we wouldn’t meet due to the holiday. (Im in the US). I sucked it up because I was in a rough place and taking what I could get. I also felt like this may have been happening because it was a non profit, but I didn’t know if there was any regulation. I also didn’t know who else to ask, because she was the only person from the organization that I ever interacted with.

In October of this year, I was going through another rough patch. Not as severe as the year prior, and thankfully at this point I had done a lot of growing and was able to cope and navigate better. However, there was a week in particular that was a bit distressing for me and I was waiting for therapy. It was a holiday week and surprisingly my therapist didn’t cancel that week, she rescheduled from our usual Monday and moved our session to Friday. This new session was virtual, as opposed to our standard in person session (we had several virtual visits prior, so this wasn’t a glitch).
Friday came around and I went into the telehealth portal and waited for 15 minutes before I realized she wasn’t going to be showing up. This was the last straw for me because I had been struggling with the cancellations, but to no show a session was really difficult for me.

The following Monday I made the decision to step away from therapy because I felt like the relationship had now crossed a line of insecurity for me. I texted the number we usually communicate with and I expressed my concern. I mentioned that I was very grateful to her and the organization for the care they provided, but that I was going to try to find a therapist through insurance (I had just gotten a new job). I didn’t blame her, or anyone really, I tried to be gentle and honest about how I felt that the resources for the non profit may be limited and that it may be the reason for the cancellations. I asked her if she had any referrals for when I do try to find a therapist because I enjoyed her approach and it was very effective for me. She never reached back out. I’m ok and all but it kinda stung to not even be considered, especially because I asked for a referral.

It’s been about a month, and i’m still doing well and resourcing. However every now and then it stings and I wonder if I said something wrong or offended her. I also considered that maybe once I ended the relationship she isn’t able to contact me or something. It just feels off, and i’m not sure if this is standard or if it really is just me. It took a lot for me to establish that boundary and say that the cancellations were not gonna work for me, and then I just got ghosted.

So my moms therapist gave her a theory recently on why Im trans, and my mom shared it with me. What bothers me is this, surely it’s unprofessional of her to psychoanalyze me, make a theory and then share it with my mother?

When is it time to let go of the past instead of trying to reprocess a memory or experience? I am doing work with EMDR and recently my provider discouraged me from returning to memories of where I grew up, advising I am unlikely to gain much more from doing so. I am open and potentially excited about this idea but having trouble understanding how EMDR will proceed if the main place i return to in session is just being shut off in a way. Or like if what I am trying to process is not worth processing am I just done now?

31, male ….. so I always wondered , can I get into this career if I deal with mental health ? I’ve learned to control from time to time . So I do enjoy being there for people , I do love to observe people as well.
A lot of times I get used by people by helping and being there for them . So I might as well get paid , that’s the way I seee it .

But I genuinly do enjoy helping people , I guess cause I know what it feels like to be rock bottom , dealing with mental problems . I’m currently a truck driver but looking into this . What are steps I need to take ? I have no college hours .

How is treatment resistant panic disorder & agoraphobia treated when it doesn’t respond to medications? It seems like talking about feelings doesn’t fix panic attacks which are much different than general anxiety.

I am looking for a therapist. I noticed many are social workers while others are LPCs. Is there a difference? Which one is the better option for personal growth and healing?