Scared of therapist(s)

[marta1234]

Right now I'm thinking back to my therapy and therapist. I wanted to know if anyone else has dealt/ deals with this particular problem and what has helped them.
I am afraid of my therapist. Not because we always deal with difficult memories for the session (although this does affect me), but more because she is a stranger. I'm starting to feel the effects of being scared and frightened of her every time I come in. Although I know that men trigger me and I feel afraid, sometimes older women with authority also become triggers and I feel scared again. To come back to my point, I don't know what to do with this automatic response. Is this something to do with trust?

[Hope67]

Hi Marta,
I was thinking about what you said here, and you asked if it was something to do with trust.  I don't know, it could be of course.  I know that I relate, in terms of having experienced some triggering thoughts when I was having therapy with a female T who, in some respects, was similar physically to my own M - and some of her mannerisms were similar too, and I know that I found that quite challenging, and some part of me was scared about that.  When I think back to this, I wish I'd been able to admit some of those thoughts to the T, so that we could have talked together about those concerns.  But I didn't feel able to address those things at the time, and so I didn't. 

What I would like to do is extend a supportive hug to you    I hope you're able to do whatever feels ok - to help you to feel less cared and maybe less triggered, but I feel sure it's hard to do that. 

Hope 

[Hope67]

Hi again Marta,
I made a typo error, I meant to say 'less scared' rather than 'less cared' - sorry about that.
Hope 

[marta1234]

Thank you Hope for your reply, sending you a hug too  I also relate to what you said, that you found some issues regarding to her similarity to your M but you didn't feel like you could speak about it. I'm also relating to that feeling, in today's session this issue of trust (?) but most importantly fear, and it came into my mind but I did not feel the need to say it nor the want or the courage to speak about it. I hope I can come to some kind of conclusion next time when I'll have my session.

[SadOldMan]

I understand. I'm about to go to my first session with a new therapist...I'm terrified.... 😕