At work and I got paid while talking to him!!! And it didn’t cost anything.
God, working for L.L. Bean is great.
Anyway, I spent a little over an hour telling horrible truths to this guy. Whew
It is really tiring, at least mentally when you go in and really lay it out for someone.
He asked me how I felt at the end of the session, and I thought about it, and my answer was this: “I feel good in that I was able to be utterly honest, but I felt uncomfortable saying some of the things that I did and I have the feeling that i’m going to be thinking about some of this stuff and it won’t make me feel that hot.”
He agreed with me but I liked that he didn’t say that it was either a good or bad thing that I would be feeling bad.
So, I get home and then last night I barely got any sleep because I was, you guessed it, thinking about what I had talked about with the counselor.
Some of the stuff I told him I’ve posted about here on the SDMB, but a few things had only been inside me until I let spill to him.
It just makes me feel a bit… off if that makes any sense.
I think it’s very cool of L.L. Bean to offer that to their employees. Keep talking to him (if you are comfortable enough) once you face those things & deal with them, it gets easier.
On a side note… did you ever ask the Girl out? If so, what did she say? If not, what are you waiting for?
just got back from mine, even after a year i still get the tired, drained and “off” feeling.
and for exactly the same reasons as you.
in my case though, having talked stuff out means that i DON’T have to think about it as much as before. once the 2 or 3 days post-counselling reflection are over the thoughts don’t seem to nag at me as much as they used to.
i’ve learnt so much about myself and how i cope with things, and have really focused more on doing things to make me happy than i ever have before.
be reassured that not all sessions have to be traumatic, you can go at your own speed, and you can open up in stages if the all-at-once thing is too overwheming.