Aaand, this is partly why I can't deal with therapy.

"Um, do you actually like me, or is this all just transference?"

That made me laugh.

Congrats, occhi. I'm sure they liked you and I'm sure you did wonderfully. If I were in CA I'd be on your couch five days a week. :-)

Yeah- with therapists it's hard to figure out what's legit and what's them just doing their job. Unless they're off the clock. Then I hope they're being legit.

Congrats, occhi. I'm sure they liked you and I'm sure you did wonderfully.

Thanks! I was answering their questions and then halfway through my inner voice started saying, "You actually sound like you know what you're talking about! You're not even saying 'um' all the time like you usually do. Look at you, all professional and shit. Go, you!"

It was kind of cool. It's the first time I haven't really felt like a little kid in this field; I actually felt like I knew what I was talking about.

Look at me, all smart with the book learnin' and the people-talking-to experience! :-)

Also, I laugh and smile a lot most of the time, and was doing so at the interview, and one of the interviewers kept talking about how having a great sense of humor really helps, and how that's something they look for. So that seemed like a good sign.

Unless she was just trying to make me tell funnier jokes. Hmmm....

I'd be on occhi's couch too, but crashing in an annoying way.

The other part of why I can't deal with therapy is that it's both hard, and dogmatic (yes, I've tried several different people) - why can't they hear and accept my truth as truth? I guess that's the point, to change the truth. But geez. It's awful. I tried, I think. And I did get a little good stuff from one. The emotions as waves thing - ride it out and your state of being will change. That seems true.

That one lady seemed really talented. The others I just saw right through, and, they seemed to fear me. This one good therapist, the only thing was we disagreed about what my primary issue was. And I know I've said it before - "Are you sure you wern't abused?" Always came up again and again. Yes, I'm effing sure. So sorry I don't fit your textbook model.

I'm sure Occhiblu will be a great thearpist, etc, etc.

Congrats on a great interview! Interviews can suck, even when you think you are nailing it, some interviewers just give you nuttin' back.

Weirdest interview situation I ever had? I got interviewed by a crew of THIRTEEN people for a job as a bartender at a college bar. I ended up quitting school instead.

I got interviewed by a crew of THIRTEEN people for a job as a bartender at a college bar.

OMG, yes. I was once interviewed by 12, I think, and the guy at the end, who I could see mostly just in profile, was this totally intimidating Polish guy who looked like Mikhail Baryshnikov with the wise chiseled face and the piercing blue eyes and he had this ice-blue scarf thrown dramatically around his neck and every now and then he'd glare at me and narrow his eyes and say things like, "Zoh! Yew ahr completely unqualified fuhr haff of zis johb! Hoooooooooooow wuld yew hire someone to compensate fuhr yewr INADEQUACIES?!?!"

He probably had a better Polish accent than that, but you get the idea.

It turns out he was one of my biggest proponents at the hiring meeting, but man. That was not a fun interview.

Congrats on the interview. The world needs good therapists.

I once had an interviewer ask about my relationship with my parents. Had I been applying for a position as a therapist, perhaps that might have been an appropriate question; given that I was actually a baker at the time, it set off all sorts of red flags. However, I really needed the work, so I took the job.

It didn't take long to regret it.

It's a great to be, and feel, competent, occhiblu. Good for you.

I've seen two therapists and I need to go back! I'm feeling anxious. So anxious that my chest feels like it's caving in and I'm thinking inaccurately about things. Anxious, anxious, anxious! I swear, I didn't feel anxious until I hit 32 or 33. I can't complain too much because I haven't felt crippling anxious in a while. I have to keep telling myself that it will go away.

One of my therapists suggested that I would most likely be wonderful and fabulous sometime in the future and potentially dump my husband. I thought, "Woah, wait. I don't want to leave my husband. Do I?" I really don't.

The last job I interviewed for went sort of like, "Hi. You're hired." That was nice and easy.

Assuming that the occhiblu we see here accurately represents the person you are out there [waves hands vaguely toward The World], I imagine you're an amazing therapist and that any hiring committee would be keen to snap you up. You come across as that rarest of things: a person who actually listens to other people and responds to their concerns with honesty, intelligence, and compassion.

LoriFLA, I had a very similar experience. After only one session, a counselor tried to focus all our discussion on my relationship with The Fella. It was obvious that this guy got some stereotypes into his head and decided that A) a woman in her thirties must want to be married, 2a) her partner must resent her college career and 2b) bedistant and uncommitted, regardless of the client's statements to the contrary.

Since I had started counseling to deal with grief over my father's recent death, I was terribly frustrated by this. The same counselor diagnosed me as suffering from depression, when I was actually just coming out of grief from --- did I mention? --- my father's death.

occhiblu, congratulations! It's what you deserve, and it's great to hear!

Well done, occhi--you've worked very hard, and it's nice to see the confidence that comes with having learned and experienced as much as you have.

I'm with ya on talking to therapists in a non-therapeutic situation--try having one as a father. "You're friend's really depressed." "Dad, she's seven years old." Or, in the middle of an argument, "I'm sure you're imagining that/projecting your paranoia onto me/some other intimidating psychobabble." My response was usually "Gah!" stomp stomp stomp, loud shouty music. Even in my twenties when we didn't live in the same province.

Wait, you're not my therapist, why am I telling you...WOW! YOU'RE A NATURAL!

Super congratulations to you! Even if you don't get this position, you've gained a wonderful appreciation for your accomplishments. It's a true gift.

Wait, you're not my therapist, why am I telling you...WOW! YOU'RE A NATURAL!

Ha!

And thanks, all. It's for a part-time internship thing, so it's not like the end-all be-all of jobs, but it was just nice to have such a good interview.