Hello everyone,
I recently had an “off” experience seeing my therapist in public and I am most likely not going to see her again because of it. Am I overreacting by thinking of finding a new therapist?
It was, of course, an unconventional reason for me to deviate from my usual route to pick up my children from school. I had to report to my son’s school to meet with the school nurse concerning my son’s GI symptoms on a field trip. As I was walking toward the gate of the school I had seen a woman (about 60yards away) look at me twice and then minimally open the gate and walk quickly inside. The gate closed promptly and I had to buzz in, but I suspected this was solid practice because of safety/liability. Once I was buzzed in by personnel I approached the main doors and walked up to a conversation between the woman and a teacher. There is a secondary door past the two adults having a conversation about who I assume was the woman’s child. I began to wonder why the voice sounded so familiar. As I walked closer, I realized it was my therapist. She immediately looked away and stopped her conversation to turn 180degrees around and pulled on the locked door. It was like she had seen Michael Myers! She was frantically pressing the buzzer button and almost rhythmically pulling on the door (I counted 5 times). She ultimately was instructed from the speaker from the lock to wait and then when to open. She didn’t hold the door open and walked briskly up the staircase to the office. I am usually reserved with social interactions, but this was completely different. I sensed she was trying to ignore me entirely, and I felt as if it was an awkward experience for both of us. Then we both were in the office checking out our children and she proceeded to act like I didn’t exist although I was making lighthearted conversation with the staff and school nurse. This was my only therapist I have ever seen and she never prefaced what would happen if we had seen each other out of her office. Is this a normal interaction?
Backstory: I was previously in CBT regularly from April 2023-May 2025 (2 hour sessions a month) and then PRN until about December 2025. I had been juggling graduate school, clinical training, parenting etc. during the entire tenure; however, I had recently gotten too busy to follow up and had actually planned to. My original stressor and reason for beginning therapy seemed to no longer be an issue so sessions were the last thing on my mind.