In a world where disappointment is just a coin flip away, how do we deal with so many fractured fairytales?

A 2022 paper by Eliane Sommerfeld sampled 119 subjects about the disappointing disconnect they had experienced with their therapists and the resulting actions they took.

The focus was on four things:

Not surprisingly, the study found that disappointment with your therapist frequently results in the decision to end therapy before your goals have been fully realized.

Alexithymia (difficulty understanding and expressing your emotions) and difficulties regulating your negative emotions are often accompanied by passive or destructive responses to disappointment in therapy.

For example, "forgetting" appointments, self-sabotage as it relates to your treatment goals, and initiating inflammatory arguments rather than seeking to understand the meaning behind the therapist's words or accidental actions.

When your therapist disappoints you, it may throw you off course and out of therapy. If you let it.

A study by Matarazzo and colleagues posited........

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