<\/p>\n
\nComment by Kathy\u00a0on 27 Jan 2010 at 5:27 pm<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
Hello Karen,<\/span><\/p>\n
I cried when I read your answer to Lilly, the woman grieving in Pittsburg. I lost my therapist,too. He died one year ago and I haven\u2019t dealt with it yet. My entire year was a blur of confusion. No other therapist ever contacted me to offer help. I still feel as if I am grieving. My therapist was a kind elderly psychiatrist who died of pancreatic cancer at sixty one years old. I was his patient for eleven years. What bothers me most is we built a bond and he never told me he was dying. I saw my therapist once every two weeks how did I not know? I am taking this as an act of betrayal or a slap in the face from him.<\/span><\/p>\n
Unlike Lilly, my therapists secretary called and told me that he found out only three months before his death and appeared to be doing well. I can try to accept that. I mean three months wasn\u2019t that long. I went to the service and was glad I did. I felt numb but never made a scene and paid my respects. Lilly needs to do this even if her therspists family didn\u2019t invite her. I would appear anyway. Who will stop her?<\/span><\/p>\n
I respect my therapist and his family. I really wanted to tell Lilly not to wait for someone from his office to call her, it won\u2019t happen. Lilly, you need to take the first step and call the office to talk to someone. Dont be like me and make a mistake. I called for my appointment today, one year late but not too late. Thank you Karen for posting your empathetic answer.<\/span><\/p>\n
Karen, I\u2019m sorry for addressing Lilly on your blog but I am grateful for your wisdom which is far more balanced than my own. Just saying. You are a remarkable woman.<\/span><\/p>\n
Thank you,<\/span><\/p>\n
Kathy<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Dear Kathy,<\/span><\/p>\n
Thank you for sharing your story. I’m sorry for the grief you are experiencing. I can empathize with how you are feeling. As I read your story I noticed you mentioned that your therapist recently heard of his grim diagnosis shortly before his death. Therapists are human, too. He may have needed to process his own thoughts before sharing with his patients. He may have believed he had more time. I’m sorry that no support was provided for you. Hearing that saddens me. I might have felt the same as you but realistically I don’t believe for a moment that your therapist meant to betray you. And as for the feeling of being slapped in the face, he wouldn’t have done that. Please remember your therapist unconditionally cared for you for eleven years and was most certainly personally devastated by his illness. Please try to remember the good in him and not the dark thoughts you are currently harboring.<\/span><\/p>\n
I am glad to hear you have made an effort to seek counseling again after reading Lilly’s letter. I’m glad you chose to share your feelings here on my blog in hope for Lilly to hear you. I hope she has read this post. What your therapist’s secretary did, calling you to share your therapist\u2019s death, was what all therapists should do if there comes a time for such a call. After all, that is the respectful thing to do.<\/span><\/p>\n
Thank you for your compliments! Wishing you all my best as you re-start your therapy. I have faith in you. I am inspired by your determination to go back and help yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n
Karen<\/span><\/p>\n
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Comment by Kathy\u00a0on 27 Jan 2010 at 5:27 pm Hello Karen, I cried when I read your answer to Lilly, the woman grieving in Pittsburg. I lost my therapist,too. He died one year ago and I haven\u2019t dealt with it yet. My entire year was a blur of confusion. No other therapist ever contacted me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-karens-answers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1988"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1991,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988\/revisions\/1991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.switchingtime.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}