Well it might be :P
Ask your therapist to explain their theoretical orientation. I dare you. You’ll maybe get the watered down suitable-for-all version. But, you might just notice a slightly pinched expression before they respond as they debate internally whether or not to embark on a rant. I recommend the latter. It’s highly entertaining. Jungians are best at this in my experience. :)
You’ll also get those who ask you “why that is important to you?” to which the answer of course is.. “well, because I’m trying to wrestle back some of the control that I so compulsively need and also, y’know, I want to draw cartoons about you.”
Ahem.
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I was recently asked which orientation I preferred at an assessment with a counselling charity. Being a counselling student I automatically said “oh, I thought you were all humanistic – that’s fine with me”. The guy laughed and said “no, I meant would you rather have a male or female counsellor!”. Fail…
Surely gender isn’t “orientation”?! lol :)
Love this one must ask my psychiatrist this. your cartoons are great!!!
Thank you very much!
Lovely to have you with us :)
Even though I anticipated the end of this one (don’t shoot me just ‘cos I’m having a good day!) I love it. The ‘internal debate…rant’ remark is so funny and so easy to picture. Isn’t it fun when you know you’ve thrown them and they’ve reacted physically before their minder kicks in ?
Well now, it’s not that I promote the torturing of therapists (much..) ;) .. some of my best friends are therapists.. etc ;)
Fantastico! Very personal question hah! Good one. As aren’t they all.
As a gestalt therapist, I choose to enjoy the experience of having no idea what my orientation is. ;)
lol! :)
My first draft of this post said:
Integrative therapists “do a bit of everything” and CBT types “get it all from books”
but I thought that might be inflammatory, even for me ;)
Ouch! Naturally I approve.
I’m imagining an alternative final frame where the therapist takes out a compass and replies “… currently North by Northwest” :D
lol! perhaps in future I shall steal that idea back off you :)
Thanks for the early morning chuckle. Loved this one.
You’re welcome.. and thank you :)
Ahh…behold the power of a big ‘ole chuckle first thing in the morning! I may yet find my way through this internship – please keep it coming :)
Hurrah! starting your day off with humour, has to be the only way :) Hope the internship is going well?
In the words of an earlier sage “so far, so good” thank you.
I was half-expecting the therapist to say “eclectic”, which is another way of saying “I don’t know what I’m doing” – LOL! Not really – I know a lot of excellent “eclectic” therapists out there, myself included. . . .
ha! I always visualise “eclectic” as being surrounded by loads of random junk… hmm.. perhaps that’s a future cartoon right there ;)
Ha! Eclectic also comes across as “I’m still making up my mind”. Or “Do you have a preference? Because I can be that.”
Oh I don’t know, I think of it as a challenge for an in-depth discussion of which bits of which theories are/are not approved of and in which situation… thereby spending many, many sessions in perfecting the art of avoidance :)
Mine told me eclectic when I first met her. I’d just started going back to school and was all of 5 weeks into my freshman year … it meant nothing to me. Now, as a senior, it means a lot and I keep meaning to RE ASK why eclectic .. she truly is eclectic having drawn from the good and filtered through the kind of not so good and thrown away the truly bizarre … to use what works for me as the client (which isn’t always the stuff that works for others).
I think eclectic/integrative makes the most sense, in that it is adaptable to each client as you say. There are definitely limitations to many of the other “schools” but.. ahh… more on that in future cartoons :)
Here and I thought that you were a “relationalist,” you know, since you look at therapist-client interactions from that perspective. Love your strip; I often print one out and hand it to my therapist to begin a session. I recently told her I’d decided I preferred to do most of my communication that way. Her response? “Hmm…”
PS–The “specialism” link goes to a find page… is this some joke I’m not getting?
hello!
Yes, WordPress had a brain fart and sent out a new post which wasnt a new post at all. This cartoon only updates on tuesdays and thursdays now, and I think WP is rebelling against that :)