Have you ever felt stuck?

We talk about being stuck in therapist circles. It's when sessions get stuck in a loop, and neither the client or therapist knows how to shift things once more. Sometimes (often, even) the client knows they're feeling stuck, but they may not know what that is or why it's happening. It might show up as feeling unsure, or resistance to exploring or changing things, or a heavy feeling that can't be pinned down well.

There are lots of different ways to help client and therapist move out of this stuckness, and a lot of it depends on the relationship between the client and the therapist, where in the process the client is, and what the stuckness is being triggered by.

Sometimes the stuckness is because there's somewhere the client needs to go, but the therapist can't go there. If there's an exploration or a subject that the therapist is avoiding, this can contribute to the stuckness of the client, because the client needs the therapist to go there with them. Maybe the therapist is avoiding difficult subjects because they don't want the client to get upset. It can be easy at the start of training to feel like you're 'making clients upset', or that clients won't like you, and this can block you from asking the questions the clients need to hear.