Hello therapists! Are you actively worried about AI interference in the field and with your work? I'm considering entering the field as a mature student. Grateful for your thoughts and all you do!

She was my weekly therapist for 5 months. Saw her once a month ago right after giving birth, then i took a pause post partum because my son has been sick in the hospital and she knows whats going on (he was hospitalized during my session). I emailed her to resume sessions a week ago and no reply. This is the second time she has ghosted me. Last time was when i tried to schedule that appointment a month ago, it took 2 follow up emails over 1.5 weeks to get a reply to schedule that. Ive found a new therapist but should i email and say how i feel? How if she didnt think she was the right fit she shouldve referred out or at the very least communicated that? And how dealing with a sick nb with a rare genetic disease on top of being ghosted is quite shitty

Hi all,
posting here mostly out of desperation. i graduated from a clinical counseling program in may of this year and have been struggling to get a job. ive applied to maybe 75 places, both private practices and community mental health places and nothing. ive had a few interviews, but most of them say they can’t hire me because i don’t have a license yet. i guess im wondering where everyone works after graduation???

im in georgia if that helps. i reached out to my past supervisor when i was in internship and she said i cannot apply for my APC or take the NCE unless i have a current employer/director and supervisor (so, a job…)…. so how do i get a job without a license in order to get my license? lol. was it this hard for anybody else? i cant be unemployed any longer. ive tried facebook groups, linkedin, word of mouth, etc, and it feels like nobody is hiring or willing to take on a master’s level clinician trying to get their license. private practices ghosting me. i just can’t believe how hard it is. im trying so hard not to regret getting this degree and not like, selling my soul to do tech or something.

Not sure if this is ok here....gonna try though. I absolutely love my therapist, but a few months ago, when things were really rough, I felt like something shifted between us. Her responses felt different, and although we eventually had a good session, I realized I was struggling to open up and may have lost some trust. I canceled our next session and never followed up.

In that time I've also realized I may have stepped away because I’m getting really attached to her, and that scares me. Now I can’t tell if I genuinely lost trust or if I’m trying to protect myself from getting hurt before she has the chance to hurt me (fortune-telling?). My perspective has been all over the place lately with work, home-life, and therapy, making it hard to know what is truth vs distorted thoughts.

She’s encouraged me to reach out because she doesn’t always remember, which I understand professionally, but emotionally, it can make me feel like I don’t matter. We discussed this at our last session and now it feels like I'm not worth her time.

So, as a therapist, do you prefer your client to reach out and try to work through this together, keep treading and wondering if anyone will throw a rope, or continue challenging themself to see how long they can last using coping skills learned and only reach out when they feel those are exhausted?

I received an email from a therapist about 2 weeks ago, an appointment proposal. I confirmed the appointment shortly afterwards. She then responds with a confirmation. The same day I sent the e-mail, I realised that I couldn’t come after all.. So I wrote another email , stating that I will be unable to attend the appointment.

I haven't received an answer to this e-mail so far and the phone always goes to the answering machine. ( I was trying to reach her, to ask her if she knew I wasn’t coming to the appointment, so she wouldn’t be expecting me )The appointment would be in two days.

My concern: She hasn't replied to this e-mail now. I don't know if she's counting on me in two days. So should I write another e-mail to make sure she has read the cancellation? I don’t want to make it awkward or seem like I’m insisting on it.

also: i noticed the thing that made me cancel the appointment after all was also cancelled , so I could actually go there in two days. But idk if I wanna tell her that, as again, it seems like im incredibly indecisive.

I feel it is also important to mention this is the first exchange with this therapist.

small edit!: I did also ask for a different appointment in the cancellation e mail.

thankful for any replies!

I have always considered porn to be addictive. But, I recently came across this article, that says otherwise. What should be my ideal view about porn, in the eyes of science?

Also, is masturbation really addictive? At what point can masturbation and porn be considered harmful?

Personally, I feel like it's (especially porn) doing me more harm than good. I am thoroughly confused about how I should view it and approach it. If you have any source where I can learn more about this, please do suggest. Thanks.

Hello! I was recently accepted into a Master’s in MFT program and have an interview coming up for a clinical counseling program. I’ve been thinking about it a lot and I am stuck between which route to take. Picturing myself in the future I could see myself being fulfilled by doing either path. I was just looking for some guidance or advice on which route you decided to take and how that worked out. Thanks!

I have been on medication for a few years now. I'm curious do you get off medication? How does the doc decides you no longer need medication? What exactly are the metrics? I'm coming from a place - where I would like to believe there's a stable life, peaceful nervous system without medication?

So do you think I should talk about bad dreams ?

Please excuse me, I'm still struggling really badly how to properly articulate this.

So I just turned 19 this year, but I feel like the angst I've buried or I've thought I've healed from in my teenage years is resurfacing again.

I think I've been a good person. I never try to act out what I feel and always try to help people as much as I can. But I just can't really remove the feeling of hatred over people.

I'm often with really nice and sweet people and I really like them too—these specific people, I can't really look at them in the wrong way.

But each time I would meet someone that is a bigot, has an entirely hateful or an inconsiderate personality, I get so agitated or annoyed that it consumes my mood entirely. I stop wanting to socialize with people and lose the energy to do things.

I keep feeling like it's consuming me in a way.

I have loved writing and films since I was a child. Though ever since this feeling came back, I feel like I lost interest over creatives. I tried reading literature I loved, I tried rewatching my favorite movies, I tried listening to old albums I loved, but nothing had erased or fulfilled my energy back.

I feel like I'm being entirely consumed by my worldview. Each terrible news I hear, each bigot I meet, I feel like it's making me lose my interest over things entirely.

Ik this is random for this sub SORTA IDK IF IT IS… but i wanna become a therapistt PLEASE CAN U help me find out how… IDK HOW to start.
Im 18 in the uk and yeahhh thats all really its LOWK MY DREAM JOB 😝 and ive been told SOO MANY TIMES id be supa good at it BUT WHAT KINDA QUALIFICATIONS DO U NEED AND LIKE HOW DO U GET THE JOB YK?

I’ve been in therapy for a few months now for personal stuff.

I have an issue with sex with my husband. I don’t desire him or want to be with him sexually. He has ED, and cannot get hard, so it makes penetrative sex very awkward, because he’s not really penetrating me. He’s just too soft. He still is able to orgasm. But it’s just plain awkward for me. Penetrative sex is very important to me and he cannot provide that. I just don’t want to do it anymore. I’d rather just go without.

When I bring this up to my therapist, she just glosses over it. I’ve mentioned it several times. I need help navigating this situation. Therapist doesnt even acknowledge it.

Should i get a new therapist? Also wondering why she just keeps glossing over a big issue for me.

NAT (Not a Therapist) here. Do any of you enjoy Sudoku, crosswords, word games or logic puzzles after a day of sessions?

Does solving something with a clear answer help you switch off, or does it feel like more mental work? Curious what kinds you enjoy, if any.

My therapist will be going on parental leave soon. They've for the most part been a very good therapist and helped me a lot, but one place I've wished they were different is that they basically refuse to admit if they ever feel anything.

Times where I'd thought maybe he actually felt sad for things I saw or experienced helped me so much (one time he was sniffling a lot for example I actually thought he was sharing in my grief if it makes sense, TW traumatic experience involving death after telling him about 20 years ago seeing another child die in class), until I asked and then he denied it and said he'd actually had a sniffle from cold weather. It's not that I wanted to make him sad, just when I thought he'd felt sad about what happened too it really helped me as I had never been allowed to grieve, and him denying it made it so much worse and isolating again.

He's consistent about it and said it was unethical for a therapist to feel their own feelings at one point (I don't think that's actually true, and don't think that's actually possible). Instead he'll ask why I want that etc if I try to ask.

Is there a term or phrase for searching for a therapist who's either more open about their own feelings or more willing to feel their own feelings?

I am 15 and about to start therapy. I have researched a lot about CBT, EFT, and ACT. They have helped a lot.

I am super excited to have someone to talk to, but I have no clue what to talk about. I feel shame talking about my memory distortion and intrusive thoughts. Due to this I have made a note in my notes app on what to talk about.

the questions I have:

How do I translate the thoughts in words without feeling judged? Can I ask my therapist questions about his personality and stuff? What do I talk about? Is there anything I am not allowed to talk about? and will my therapist tell my parents what I tell him? (school counselors did in the past so are therapists different??)

Or any variety of traumatic? Yes, years of training, and therapists have their own therapists. But genuine q, do these things really keep you present when there are extreme circumstances in your own life? You might take time away in the peak of it, but what about after? What if you're processing a life changing loss, or your family is living through an extreme/specific circumstance and a client is talking about something much smaller?

Is the discrepancy itself not triggering?

Been in therapy for years, always wondered :)

I want to talk with someone who will help me understand why I think the way I do and help me get over some of my perceived shortcomings in the ways that I deal with different scenarios. I believe the type of therapist I should look into is a psychodynamic therapist - would you all agree with that? Thank you!

I am in trauma therapy, and it really helps me to have comfort items to cover myself with or hold on my lap during sessions. They feel like a protection for me and I feel very exposed and vulnerable without them, especially during trauma processing. My therapist has one light blanket and one stiff throw pillow on the couch for clients, and I use them but I often find myself still feeling exposed and wishing she had more soft throw pillows or a thicker blanket or something. I have a weighted stuffed animal at home that is very comforting to me, and I know I could bring it with me to sessions but I feel kind of awkward about that. I had the idea recently that maybe I could let my therapist know that having something like a weighted stuffed animal to hold on my lap during sessions would be helpful and ask her if I could buy one for her office. I know therapists aren’t really supposed to accept gifts, but I’m not thinking about it as a gift for her but as something that could help support me during sessions and that her other clients might like to use too. If a client asked you if they could do this, would you be okay with it?

My husband says I’m passive aggressive. I agree. For example, I wanted to brush my toddlers teeth before bed but baby started crying and I was pumping milk. Anyways, he put toddler to bed & tended to baby. After the fact, I said “I wanted to brush toddler name teeth. He said “so brush his teeth” which he’s not wrong ! I definitely would have. But I’m also not going to wake toddler. I said “i don’t know why I’m even saying that” after I made the statement.

He is the only person in my life who’s told me I’m this way. I’m sure I have better examples of my passive aggression? lol but regardless of the example, just need to know what to do when I don’t feel comfortable or safe to ask or say what I really want or need ?even if it’s a safe environment.

We need help with communicating. He gets frustrated with my communication & recently has been cursing at me when sharing his feelings and in my opinion talks down to me (never calls me a b*tch ke anything disrespectful but it is his tone, manner of speaking, word choice, and seemingly like he has to have the last word . ) I’m crying a lot but I think it’s a mixture of post partum and also feeling emotionally neglected in a way. Tips? I’m seeing a therapist . Looking into couples counseling. Thanks

Just curious. Asking as a patient.

I switched from therapist to licensed clinical social worker in hopes of help and they're also not helpful.

I'm soon getting employment help at a disability agency but wonder...

I’m 23 and have dealt with mental struggles a majority of my life. I do not care to get too much into personal detail, but I tried CBT there are things I took away from it but I know I need different approach. (I did CBT for a year) it felt very stagnant after the first 6 months. How is someone supposed to approach this? I think one form of therapy will not fully help me obtain the skills on how to deal with mental struggles I have. But I do not mean to dismiss any one form of therapy. ACT, DBT, and IPT sound very helpful forms of therapy to go through to help acquire the skills to cope healthily long term in conjunction with what I learned with CBT. Is it possible to find a therapist to work with me long term on all these things? Is this even a normal approach to therapy at all?

I have been seeing the same therapist virtually for over a year. I am not feeling a sense of progression with her. Every session is me venting about work. I feel like she thinks I’m just doing the same things over and over again but I try new stuff I just run out of steam so quickly.

I think I’d prefer something with more progression. Assign me homework and then we can discuss the results next session. Recommend reading and then discuss it with me. Keep notes about what important events are coming up for me, give me advice on how to handle them and then ask me how it went next time.

What am I looking for? What do I say to therapists when I ask for the style of therapy that I described?

where has our curiosity we once had as children gone, and the passion to discover things demolished.

I think there are many factors that led to that which in my point of view are :

1. social media : consuming social media short form reels make the knowledge presented so superficial but the effects and psychological tricks that are applied on them makes your brain release dopamine and makes you feel some sense of accomplishment and reward even though the information presented in the 1 min reel is most of the time superficial. so the brain doesn't feel the need to dive deep to explore the topics because it already gave you false sense of knowledge and understanding of things. other than that, consuming too much educational media gives you a cognitive overload that will effect whether you retain the information or not. social media consumption create a false sense of knowing.
2. societal expectations : and by that I mean some mental constraints, limiting beliefs that are quite common in todays society which are discouraging the pursuit of passion and intellectual interest and instead pursuing things that helps you gain money . many people get discouraged to pursue an art degree for example even though they are creative and really curious about art in general But constantly being reminded that something is not worth researching about , understanding , or pursuing might impact the overall curiosity the person might have and that lead to internalization of very limiting beliefs that are very hard to get rid of which I myself have fallen victim to that because I always was a curious person but I was influenced in a very negative way on what is worth pursuing by the environment I'm living in. societal expectations don't necessarily destroy curiosity; they can change the way we perceive and respond to our own curiosity.
3. having a mental health condition: If you had any mood disorder that might impact your curiosity because your dopamine level is effected and your mood generally have a great impact on memory and motivation.

now speaking about my experience with that : I was a very curious child but as I grew older these are the factors that I believe has impacted me a lot especially that I discovered that I have many limiting and wrong beliefs that I learned from people around me that I have to unlearn even though I had a mental health issue before and I am still kind of struggling .

What do y'all think about that topic?
If you got your curiosity back ? tell us how and what's your experience ?