Should I share with my therapist how bad I feel about the therapy

Hi, I'm a 33 years old trans woman (1 year on hormones, wearing male clothing, not passing as a woman at all.) I went to a therapy clinic's gender department to get official gender dysphoria diagnosis so that I don't need to pay for my hormones privately. However during that they quickly determined I need to "feel better about myself before we continue with the gender dysphoria treatment" and now I am with a general therapist within the same clinic. After about 10 sessions we determined I have a lot of issues and we settled first on body dysmorphia treatment for 10 sessions after which we are supposed to evaluate my situation and decide what's next. Right now we are 2 sessions in to the body dysmorphia therapy.

I feel emotional distance from my therapist. I told her before that I feel here like in a dentist's office. I feel like a "client" not too much as a human being. On occasion she did say "oh this must be really painful" at least few times, but I feel like this is somewhat a little forced from her even if she tries to hide that. I generally do not feel fully seen, I feel she does not really empathise with me on a human level, only as a client that has to be serviced. I feel very alone, and I don't really feel the support from her even though I think she is doing the things she is supposed to do. I am also afraid of stopping the therapy because I am under intense emotional pain with almost daily SI (not serious, just makes me cry a lot.) because I feel like this therapy is my last thread of support and grounding. I have only few friends, one is a mother with 2 tolders and one is friend who has his own deep SI issues . So I cannot depend on them for supporting me emotionally as much as I need. I recently lost a job and I'm unemployed and will not work for few months.

I want to give my therapist a chance, I think she is trying to help and empathises at least alittle bit with the pain on a general human level because I cry a lot. I am afraid of telling my therapist how i feel about her and this therapy because it might prompt her to try to be more warm and caring but at this point I know I will read it as disingenuous and simulated. And if I tell her that she shouldn't change how she behaves then I give here no way out and the relationship and the atmosphere during therapy because very awkward and very fake anyway. I tried last session to be the "good client" but I couldn't manage to fake it well enough because of my emotions and she noticed I was speaking less and taking more time to answer and asked several times "what are you thinking/feeling right now" and even acknoweledged "you are more quiet now, I don't know what's going through your head". I told her that I have doubts about how effective this body dysmorphia therapy will be (we were discussing how effective it can be because I feel my emotional reactions to my body are appropriate to the level of actual issues with my body) so I think she might not suspect fully or at all my thoughts and feeling about her and this therapy. So the option of not telling anything and continuning the therapy seems also very difficult.

It's all just a very... There is no way out, I can't tell her I feel not supported enough, I can't tell her why I can't tell her because that will lead to very difficult situation, and I can't leave because that will mean even less support. I have no idea what to do, I feel very stuck, and alone.

Posted May 11, 2025, 4:46 PM UTC

311
Loading comments…