Two Therapists

argumentative · 11-07-2011, 11:52 PM

In the past 6 months I've been diagnosed as having borderline personality disorder and depression, with outlying PTSD symptoms and bulimia.

I started seeing a private psychotherapist in February. Around the same time I was referred to psychotherapy services within the NHS, which was a referral to a team specifically for the BPD diagnosis.

I haven't found my private therapist - Daniel - very easy to trust, but I think it's getting better as time goes on. However, I'm finding that the more I trust and like him, the less inclined I am to be honest about what I'm thinking/feeling etc. There are some things (that I know I need to address) that I'm not sure I will ever be able to tell him.

I have one more preliminary appointment with the NHS team, but I've been offered one-to-one psychotherapy starting in September (time limited to 1 year).

At present, Daniel knows about the NHS referral, but the NHS woman doesn't know I'm seeing him. He wants me to agree to him contacting the NHS team and my GP to discuss my support and make sure everyone is on the same page, so to speak. I've told him that's not going to happen because I don't trust them talking behind my back... well, that's the simple way of putting it - we spoke about it for most of the session today. And since I don't have a named psychiatrist and my GP is useless (particularly since I've gone off meds and have no reason to see her), it seems pointless for them to be talking anyway. But he's OK with that, as long as I'm safe, i.e. not going to land myself in hospital again.

So now I have a dilemma. So far sessions with both of them have been difficult, but useful. The NHS woman seems to 'get me' straight away, which helps - she's more experienced than Dan. She also specialises in BPD. But I feel like I have done/can do some helpful work with Dan as well. I have some quite major trust issues with men, and I wonder if perhaps learning to trust him in the therapeutic relationship will be beneficial in itself.

Does anyone else have 2 therapists, or has done in the past? Or any advice which I should choose, if it comes to that?

Thanks for reading, sorry it's long! :)

finding_reason · 12-07-2011, 12:00 AM

having two therapists isn't a bad thing, but they should be aware of eachothers existence and an agreement should be made between yourself and each therapist of what you are going to work on in sessions.

its somewhat counterproductive if you don't have any structure around using two professionals, as they aren't aware of what is being covered or practiced in the other environment and can delay progress in some regards.

i have two therapists at present, one of which i do all the deep, psychological work with and the other i use the time to manage my day to day experiences so more practical things that need to be accomplished.

when i was younger i went into a day program for mental health issues and they made me not speak to my current therapist and it was awful i hated the restriction. i switched programs and it was decided that the ward therapist would do the individual work and my therapist would do the family work.

like i said there isn't anything 'wrong' with it, it's just about ensuring that you're getting benefit out of both. i understand that you don't want them to speak and that's fine, mine have never spoken but they do know about eachother.