talking about the past in therapy

[kaleda]

What are your Impressions on this scenario

A young man has had a difficult time in his past. He has carried around some painful experiences that have caused him problems in his past.

for some time he has been working on his problems with a therapist. the man has gotten to a point where he feels ready to talk to his therapist about some of the experiences that have really troubles him.

the therapist tells the man that this is not a good thing to do, the therapist thinks the man has been doing well in therapy and to talk about these problems would be counter productive.

From this basic information what are your impressions of this scenario?

[SWM]

if the client is ready to talk about thier expereiences that is a good thing, this should be encouraged not surpressed.

in this situation it is the therapist that is not ready to deal with the clients problems.

this client will have be having internal dialogue about their experiences probably talking through with himself and practicing telling his story. if any problems are likely to arise form the exploration of this material they would be happening in the clients mind and he would not be wanting to share his experiences.

[Shell]

I totally agree, Stan.  Psychotherapy encourages researching the root of the problems... so that they can work on the problems themselves.  If the patient feels ready to move on to talking about the experiences, then the psychotherapy has improved his stability and is encouraging him to move on.

The therapist should definitely recognize this sign as a positive one. 

[corwin137]

It's also an uncomfortable wrenching of common sense for me that...

A person feels bad.  They come in for therapy.

A therapist works on... everything but how they feel, ostensibly the thing that got 'em there.

Huh?

Not suggesting that there's not other dynamics and influence to be considered, but the exclusion of examination of the thing that got the person there?  Oy.