Looking at my last post, it sounds kind of snarky or self important to me now. I asked for advice, which you were kind enough to give me, and then basically said "yeah I already knew that". I had kind of an argument with my folks this morning and I was feeling pretty worked up, but thats no excuse. I apologize for being self important and inconsiderate.
My appointment went pretty well I think, or at least I felt better after I left. The therapist is an older lady. She gave me a list of her professional qualifications and her first stint in college was 1955-59, so she's probably ~75. I'm not sure if thats a good thing or not.
She's trained as a psychotherapist, and she told me that she does alot of somatic work. We tried an exercise while I was there, because I was upset about what happened with my folks. Basically she asked me to close my eyes and try to describe for her what I was feeling in my body, and what emotions I was feeling. Then she asked me to take some deep breaths and breath into the painful areas.
She participated in something called the Ark Training program for Psychotherapists for 10 years. She said it was a 40 day retreat that happened once a year, and participants worked on autobiographical writing and somatic work. I looked it up and found a detailed description of the program
here.
http://www.primals.org/articles/allan2.html said:
The Ark is the brainchild of innovative Philadelphia psychotherapist William Smukler, Ph.D. It is a 40-day intensive psychotherapy experience which also serves the purpose of training the participants in the basics of massed time therapy. Smukler is an expert at massed time therapy, a kind of therapy that can last for many hours or days, or even for weeks, as in the case of the 40-day Ark.
She said that she specializes in dealing with trauma and attachment, and early childhood/family issues. She has a background in Jungian techniques like sand play. She spoke briefly about studying "scientific theories on how the mind works" but that was at the end of the session.
As far as what my "issue" is an how she can help me with that, I might need a few more sessions to really tell. Since I haven't been to therapy before I have no point of comparison. I think that my "issue" or issues, have a great deal to do with narcissistic wounding. I have boundary issues, sexuality issues, self esteem/self importance issues. I got the sense that she has experience dealing with these kinds of issues.
The somatic exercise she lead me through was helpful, and it was basically a breathing exercise, a little bit like EE. Maybe this is my self importance talking, but mostly it was helpful to just have someone listen to me talk for an hour without interrupting me. My instinct is to give it a few sessions and see how things go. What do you think?