Mind Games

My psychologist has this weird "habit" if you will. He takes his shoes off and on throughout the entire session. He'll even stretch his legs out and dangle his shoes off his toes. While he does this I have to fight the urge to tear them off his feet and throw them out into the waiting room.

I have mentioned how much this bothers me and distracting it is. He swears that he doesn't even notice he does it. I have my doubts. My friend recommended my psychologist so we see the same one and compare sessions all the time. I mention that my blood pressure goes up every time he reaches for his shoes and I'm not focusing on the issues at hand. She mentions that he does not do that in her sessions.

Interesting.

Not to be outdone, I set out planning my next session for the trap. He's talking away and doing his shoe thing, this time doing extra-stretchy shoe lifts to the point where they are almost touching my knees. I force myself to keep eye contact and not mention the shoe habit. About 3/4 of the way through, he casually mentions, "Hey, I've been taking my shoes off and on and you haven't noticed." To which of course I exclaim, "HA! I THOUGHT YOU COULDN'T HELP IT!!!! I KNEW YOU DID IT ON PURPOSE TO FUCK WITH ME! NOW PAY ATTENTION TO ME!"

We go back and forth about the shoe habit/his listening skills until it finally dawns on him that I baited him and he fell for it. Which is so much more gratifying than....I don't know. Talking about my feeeeeeelings.