I went to therapy expecting to learn cbt on how to deal with intrusive thoughts and to learn how to cope with the anxiety caused by them. But the therapist keeps asking me about my childhood. She says that she sees a connection between events frommy past and what I'm going through now. There is nothing I can do about the past. Yes, I had a couple of bad things happen to me – no they weren't as bad as anything you hear on the news or as bad as what happened all the time to some people I know. I would honestly be whining if I even wrote about it now. Yeah, it was sad and scary, but there is NOTHING I can do about it now. Actually there was NOTHING I could have done then either. It was all beyond my control. So whatever. Delving into any past events or looking for defining moments is pointless – isn't it? There's nothing newto be felt about it or cried about. It's just a bad memory. Show me someone that doesn't have those. What has that got to do with these scary unwanted thoughts that pop into my head for no reason? How is remembering things going to get rid of these thoughts? How is going over the past going to stop me from checking that stove AGAAIN? All I will do is obsess over past events, trying to analyze them – going over every detail of something I didn't even understand at the time. And end up depressed about that? No thanks! I was actually asked, "Don't you trust yourself?" WHATTTT???? Really? I'll give it one more visit and if I don't see an acceptable effort on the therapist's part of trying to teach me cognitive behavior therapy, I'm not going back. I'll just do what I've always done my whole life – help myself.
Do we really need to go there?
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I don't mean to seem mean, but what the psychologist/therapist is doing seems completely correct. I am not a psychologist or anything but it's generally accepted that childhood events are a main cause of some serious issues. I think you should give them a chance to explore, and be open with them. You can't get better if you don't get to the beginning.
You should look for a therapist who specialized in CBT. If not, you're going to get talk therapy, which could help with past issues, but is probably not going to get you what you need to deal with your OCD. I am currently undergoing CBT and it's changing my life.
I would definitely look around if I were you. Especially if you feel this way after one session. The relationship between a therapist and a client is one of the biggest factors for success and you need to be able to put your trust in your therapist.
Thanks for all your replies! I did ask her at the very first visit if she was trained in CBT for OCD and if she'd treated many patients with OCD and she said yes to both questions. They also have a group therapy session that meets for six weeks at a time and goes through the OCD Workbook – she recommended that, but it's not going to work with my schedule right now. Hopefully I can catch the next session when it begins. I just expected more by this time along the lines of addressing the ocd symptoms. I know I have general anxiety and maybe that's what she's trying to address first. I just wondered how many of you had to travel down memory lane before you got the help you needed?