Keeping Secrets from Your Therapist
When people enter psychotherapy, even if they're desperate and deeply in need, they don't fully reveal themselves in the early phases of treatment. As in any relationship, it takes time to develop enough trust so you feel safe making yourself vulnerable. A prudent reserve makes sense: how can you be sure the stranger sitting in the chair across from you won't judge or laugh at you? Sometimes people who struggle with borderline issues will disclose powerfully intimate information right away, but they nonetheless keep some deeply shameful details in reserve. Everyone does.
Like most psychoanalysts, I advise my clients early on to be as candid as possible, holding as little in reserve as they can. I tell them I know it's a difficult thing to do -- no one discloses 100% of their most painful feelings, thoughts and memories -- but they need to do their best. I acknowledge that it will take time to build trust, for them to feel I'm a safe person. As we come to know each other, they gradually disclose the more shame-inducing aspects of their emotional lives. Often their secrets relate to sex.