Apologize for being a few minutes late.
Be honest on the intake form. Sign the
consent without reading. This would be
dangerous if not for the trust you must
embody immediately at the start. Un-
fold yourself for caretaking. This is how you
grow: you enable the therapist to
heal you, no you heal yourself but with
indispensable guidance. You do it,
just not actually yourself. It's in you, the
knowing you need, not the regard,
love, no not love, care. What
missed you in your younger life, contact
never felt – you won't feel it
on this couch. You will feel those
precise needs that went unmet, the
question you were never asked. In your
rightful longing you will
sense what was always missing:
transference it’s called,
unless it's still missing, therapist
vividly empathic across the
wide hugless room. Enter
Xanax, prescribed for your tender
youngest inner child, opening a mindful
zen coloring book wondering what now?
Natalie Russ is a psychologist practicing in the Boston area, and an activist on the issue of harm in psychotherapy. She’s been a member of the PoemWorks community for thirteen years, with recent work appearing in Free State Review, Atlanta Review, Sugar House Review, and Unleash Lit. Her nearly completed manuscript explores themes of psychotherapy from both therapist, client, and harmed client perspectives.