DebbieandRay
New member
Heh, the mysterious wisdom of therapists, eh?
Seriously, it sounds to me like Margaret's doing a good job so far. I think you and Ray both have a ton of baggage to unpack, and Margaret is only working with a limited fixed amount of time once a week. So she has to choose carefully how to use that time, and I think she is drawing on her knowledge and experience to help her decide each step of each session.
I agree.
In this (last) session, I see her as peeling away the layers of what's happening in the present, and following that train of thought into your childhood and how it relates to the present. In a future session, I bet she will dig into Ray's past. But she's probably not done digging into your past either (if she's as good a therapist as she seems to be).
I think you are right there.
One thing I've noticed is that Margaret is trying not to tell you what to do. After an entire session with you, her only instruction was for you guys to try to live in the moment. The rest of the session was made up of her asking searching questions, that I think were meant to help you analyze your own past and situation. This is what therapists generally do. They don't try to tell you what to think, they just ask questions that will help you figure stuff out.
And she does give us both a lot to think about.
It seems clear that it is important to Ray to maintain a positive attitude about life, to not dwell on the negative things, and to not make a big deal out of things and stir up trouble. He likes to be as passive as possible, even though passive people can be passive-aggressive at times (such as delaying things, shutting down emotionally, etc.).
Ray is the most passive person I have ever met. I don't think that he is the type to want a D/s lifestyle. What I think is that a lot of his thoughts are childlike. I do know that Ray had a couple of really serious head injuries when he was a kid. I think that may have something to do with how and who Ray is today.
I can also see that you suffered a lot of abuse as a kid, much (most?) of it from your sister and oldest brother. You witnessed a marriage between your (adopted) parents that was apparently alternatingly cold/distant and angry/discordant. And you probably learned to associate sex with getting people to love you.
When I was younger I learned that having sex with others was the best way not to be physically and mentally abused. I also learned that it made me feel good about myself, because I could please others. It taught me that I was worth something, that I had good qualities that other people liked.
Again I am sorry that you went through that abuse and that intense negativity. From your new posts here, I see that it was worse than I had realized.
Thank you.
I am curious to hear of what path Margaret will follow in the next session, and I feel hopeful that the sessions will pay off in time. Of course you know that this pay-off can only materialize very slowly. Unraveling your (yours and Ray's) past and present will be a painstaking process. The instructions you have to live in the moment this week are probably just as much of an exploratory exercise as they are a therapeutic exercise. Margaret will probably ask you (next week) how you felt when you were trying to stay in the moment and how that affected your interactions.
I agree, and my next post will tell a little about what I have already learned so far.
I also think Margaret will eventually dig into Ray's thoughts, feelings, and philosophies about sex, because that is a very complex subject and I think it has a huge effect on your relationship with him. He wants to be accomodating when you ask for sex, yet he also sees sex as beneath himself and he wants to remain aloof from it. So when you ask him if he wants to play, he probably has somewhat of a conflict inside. He doesn't know whether to please you or to "remain pure."
All of these things are food for thought, for sure.
I thank you for all of that food for thought. I do believe that Margaret will get more involved in Ray's past, too. I think that Margaret, yesterday, was trying to get to know me better through knowing where I have been. I think that our sessions with Margaret are going to be beneficial, too. They already have been.