I have been seeing my Psychiatrist for going on four years. It does not feel like I have been in therapy that long. But I think that is because I fucked around with it a lot for the first two years and didn’t take it as seriously as I should have.
So basically this man knows everything about me. I say things in there that I would never repeat outside of his office - as it should be.
When I first started going we discussed how it was ‘my time’ and his boundaries. That I could ask things about him but he would not necessarily answer and therefore I have rarely if ever asked him anything about himself.
Coming up on four years now a similar yet much more personal conversation about what I know about him came up in my last session. I mentioned I had some friends that simply could not believe I don’t even know how old he is, if he is married, if he has kids. Nothing. There are no photos in his office. A post card or two pops up here and there but I can never see exactly where they are from. He does have his diplomas framed on the wall but I only have fifty minutes, I don’t have any time to study them.
In almost four years here is a list of all that I have gathered with my careful, stealth, ninjaesque listening and observation skills.
- When I first started going he had a pair of John Fluevog shoes and I did comment on them.
- I once saw him driving a Subaru Forrester. [this is my favorite vehicle I was VERY jealous]
- One time I saw a Paul Frank shirt with the monkey face on it and I became afraid of how close we could be in age.
- He is not 2006 Canadian Bronze Figure Skating Medalist, Jeffery Buttle.
- He likes Martha Stewart.
- One year he had a car calendar.
- He will not comment on this post.
- I have seen camping equipment in ‘fresh’ shopping bags in his office as well as a tennis racket.
- He is very familiar with episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy.
- One day it slipped out that he had delivered babies, I HAD to enquire and he said he had a general practice at one point.
- I know he enjoys skiing because when he came up with one of my mantras it is ‘look at the spaces not the trees’ and we discussed skiing in general for a few moments.
- He does not like movies with violence and is not a Quentin Tarantino fan.
And that is all.
