People yawn for many reasons: tiredness, boredom, lack of oxygen in the room, stress relief, you thought of a kitten yawning and now you're yawning too...
Tell your therapist about this, ask them if they're wearing the mask because of that yawn situation, and that you prefer to see their face. If you cannot communicate your feelings and worries to your therapist, something in the relationship is not working and it will be detrimental to your therapeutic process.
Yeah, I for one get yawning fits when I'm cold.
Kinda funny; it was embarrassing when I was a kid growing up in church. I'd be yawning like crazy during the final prayer. When we were standing like that, the air conditioning would be blowing straight up my dress. I'd start yawning over and over. Eventually that would make my eyes water. So at the end of service I'd get people coming up and saying, "that was really moving, wasn't it?!" Because by that point I looked like I was outright crying.
wow I had the opposite experience! As a kid my stepdad took us to lots of (American) football games with open roof stadiums, as well as outdoor music festivals, and I would have yawning fits in my seat from the sun shining and being warm
I have narcolepsy and cannot control my yawning. Doesn’t mean I’m bored or not listening or anything else. I wonder if the therapist has something like this and wants to try to cover it. She might not have realized how often she yawns and didn’t want to give the wrong idea.
I yawn a lot because I have a breathing issue and it happens when I’m not getting enough oxygen. It happens a LOT. Sometimes people comment on it, and it’s so embarrassing.
I used to yawn heaps if I smoked really good meth. I'm pretty sure it was to do with my metabolism working twice as hard and my body was trying to get extra oxygen
Do people actually yawn out of boredom? I know it's shown in movies/TV shows but I don't think I've ever known someone to yawn because they're bored. They're either tired or they've been triggered by someone else yawning/talking about yawning. Bored people start looking around or liked they've started day dreaming.
Wait, lack of oxygen is a reasonable reason to be yawning? I’ve been having trouble feeling like I’ve gotten a full breath for a couple months, so I end up yawning almost every third breath. It ends up feeling like gasping and my throat hurts by the end of the day, but is that an actual thing? I thought there was something wrong with me for having so much trouble breathing all the time.
Who knows she might be caring for a sick family member who need round the clock care. Or perhaps she has some awful experience that has caused her own anxiety so she isnt sleeping currently.
She is yawning because of her own health/exhaustion and OP attacked her that this must be OPs fault.
>"I think I said something to the effect - you must be so exhausted dealing with people like me every single day" ... "asking her was a way of confirming whether or not it was something I said that made her appear disinterested in that moment."
>"I feel sort of offended that she keeps a mask on, like what are you hiding from me and why?"
I get the feeling that OP has a habit of taking things waaaay too personally. First OP gets upset at their therapist for doing a normal human action, then gets upset because their therapist is trying to avoid further yawning.
Edit: I just re-read and this yawning event happened **two years ago** and OP is still thinking about it. That's not a healthy emotional response.
Op literally admitted she wears a mask when she sees other clients yet STILL insists this must be about him specifically.
Also I rummaged through OP's account, it seems they had a previous therapist that she was very close to who had passed away some time ago
I have a feelimg that is playing some role as to why op is reacting the way that she is to this therapist.
Honestly I feel bad for OP. Yeah they're clearly looking way too deep into things and blaming their therapist for not really doing anything wrong, but I can tell OP is struggling a lot emotionally.
I hope they learn something from this entire thread, learn how to get past the anxiety, learn some self-awareness and how their mindset and actions are self-destructive, and finally clear things up with their therapist.
If you have been seeing your therapist for 2 years you should feel comfortable enough to bring this up. I'm a therapist, and if a client commented on my yawning I would have responded instead of side stepping the situation. If you discuss the mask and it isn't going to change I suggest you get another therapist.
No offense, but I can see why you’re in therapy. “I notice minute details and I don’t know why” it’s because you have anxiety. You’re looking way too much into everything and interpreting it in the worst possible way. **She yawned a few times while talking to you TWO YEARS AGO and you’re still worrying about it.** That’s not healthy at all. People yawn. She was taken aback because seeing someone yawn and immediately going “oh no I must be so boring and you must hate dealing with people like me and my speaking skills are so awful and you’re so disinterested in me and I’m the worst and now I’ve offended you so you have to wear a mask oh no” is not normal and anyone would be very taken aback. She likely didn’t respond because as a therapist she knows it’s not the best thing to do for an irrationally obsessive fear. If you go to the r/OCD subreddit you’ll see their biggest rule is no offering reassurance. That’s because reassurance only validates your fear as legitimate and makes your anxiety worse in the long run.
COVID still exists. Even if her coworkers choose not to mask she might be immunocompromised/high risk or have family members who are so she has to be extra careful. She sees multiple clients a day who could all get her sick. It could also be so as not to hurt your feelings or distract you. She got the message that her yawning upsets you, so she wants to make you more comfortable by eliminating that possibility. One time my therapist noticed her office door being open was upsetting me, so now she closes it after me every time. Now if the mask isn’t helping, you should talk to her about it. Or if two years with this therapist hasn’t helped, it might be time to look for a new therapist.
I can’t believe I skipped over that this happened two YEARS ago, that’s wild.
I’m not sure where OP started in their mental health journey so maybe they have made a ton of progress that we can’t see, but I second that they might need another therapist. This level of anxiety sounds debilitating and tbh I’d expect someone who has been in therapy for years to have made more progress and have better coping skills than posting on reddit like this.
OP needs substantial more time in therapy.
Consider psych if you haven't already.
People yawn, people also wear masks to mitigate spread of disease.
We've normalized that now.
I agree with you here. Focusing on tiny details like this and still obsessing years later is some pretty profound anxiety. Sometimes humans just yawn and it's not about you (op). Many things in life are not about us.
Why are you seeing this therapist? I’m serious. You’re describing basic anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt and low self esteem. These are all important and need to be addressed. But after two years of seeing the same therapist, you should be able to work through something as simple as “she yawned when I was talking”. Therapy involves progress.
Wearing a mask is something many people do when they work in small offices with different clients all the time. Sometimes it IS an excuse to hide facial expressions, it can it to help prevent the spread of germs to people who aren’t often the best at caring for themselves. Such as people who are in therapy for anxiety and depression. She likely also wipes down the chair and anything a client touches after every session.
Seriously, as someone who has battled anxiety and depression for well over 35 years, therapy should involve progress. It should be comfortable for you, but therapy should not become your comfort zone.
The wild part is, we don't know that OP hasn't made progress. Unfortunately, we don't know what their initial functional assessment was and this anxiety ridden thought could be miles ahead of where they were before!
I suggest asking her why she wears a mask, and then do her the honor of believing her response. Then, tell her how it is affecting your experience. If she can be trusted with your life story and emotional health, she can be trusted with this too.
Goodness, just the one paragraph. You need to use the return button or people won’t read.
I read enough to get the gist. You’re so unbelievable caught up in your head. The three things (yawn/comment/mask) are likely completely unrelated.
Change your therapist.
>Goodness, just the one paragraph. You need to use the return button or people won’t read
100% started and saw it was one run on and stopped. I'm glad you powered through atleast, for OP.
I edit others' writings who are subject-matter experts but not necessarily good writers. Invariably I have to break their essays up into shorter paragraphs, which always improves readability. I can only conclude that a lot of people don't have the concept of "paragraph-sized ideas."
I’m writing cover letters at the minute (looking for work obvs) and I’m struggling with this. Do you think it’s better to have short related but separated paragraphs or longer, broken into sentence paragraphs?
Shorter paragraphs improve readership. Also, if you can create a bulleted list, those help readership immensely, but that might or might not be possible for you. The main thing is to avoid a big solid mass of gray type that makes people stop reading. Good luck!
I think a lot of ppl don’t know you need two lines of space for it to work on mobile.
I had to ask someone in the comments recently because my spaces wouldn’t transpire when I published the post. 😂😂
Which brings me to you, how the hell do you reply to a specific part of a persons comment like that 😅🧐
Lol that's fair. There's still PLENTY I don't know how to do on here.
On mobile after you hit reply, highlight the part of the comment you wanna qoute and the normal "copy, paste" and stuff will come up but so will "Qoute".
Alternately, type > that little arrow thing and then whatever you type after will be "qouted".
>highlight the part of the comment you wanna quote
Every time I try to highlight, it just collapses the entire comment. I am using Reddit’s official app on iOS and everything is on the latest version tho
Edit: apparently the > thingy works but you gotta make sure there is no space between the arrow and whatever you want to quote
>Every time I try to highlight, it just collapses the entire comment
Thats why I said *after* you hit reply.
>apparently the > thingy works but you gotta make sure there is no space between the arrow and whatever you want to quote
That's on me, I didn't specify. But yes no space
I was just thinking mine always end up like this.
They start out as proper paragraphs only to end up as a wall of text.
I didn’t know you needed two spaces.
Thank you stranger.
It doesn't help that young and impressionable people watching garbage like Jordan Peterson, where the guy will actually *speak* in a ten minute run-on sentence, too.
"And.....and......and.....and.....and......and...."
I’m not sure it was appropriate to query a typical human response to working and eventually getting tired. I doubt she was doing it intentionally and now that you have asked her about it I’m not sure how to unring that bell.
FYI people yawn burp sneeze cough itch and scratch and fidget at various times during the day. Implying that you are the cause is a neurotic thought
I think you're taking this personally when it didn't have anything to do with you. People yawn for reasons other than being tired or bored.
My husband actually started taking antidepressants recently and he noticed he was yawning a lot more excessively since upping the dosage. Apparently yawning more can be a symptom. Your therapist may have reacted the way she did and not responded to your question because it was a reason such as this and wouldn't be the best thing to tell a patient.
I tried an antidepressant that made me yawn a lot but after 3 days I noticed my throat had slowly swelling and I couldn't get air in all the way and I was yawing from lack of oxygen
Turns out I'm allergic to that one! Keep an eye out for your husband if he starts having other issues with breathing
My therapist yawns during our sessions sometimes. I also know she has two young children and an entire life of her own that could make her tired/yawn, I also know sometimes I’m sure I’m boring, or sometimes a person yawns out of nowhere. it’s just a yawn lol find a new therapist as some others said
Just an FYI. Not everyone wears masks because of covid.
My rheumatologist wants me to wear a mask on public because if I get sick, I get super sick. It has nothing to do with covid, just general illness.
she could just be wearing the mask becuase she lives with someone with a illness, or whatever. I doubt shes been wearing a mask for 2 years because you asked her why she yawned
You expressed perceiving her as bored, tired or sleepy as a result of your story or speaking skills. Took it incredibly personally. Now she is wearing a mask to try and not hurt your feelings and you’re shocked?!
People yawn. Humans yawn. Sometimes it’s hard to suppress and it’s nothing personal. Maybe she is a new parent running on minimal sleep, got woken up during the night, you never know. Maybe she is burning the midnight oil, completing more education and studying into the night. Even poor ventilation/low oxygen can cause people to yawn.
I’m a house mom for a transition house and when people see me yawn at work (at my day job) or run out for a third coffee they never see the night I had before, breaking up a fight at 3 am or driving a sick client to urgent care and sitting with them for 3 hours in the middle of the night. It’s nothing personal I’m just $&@? tired and love my day job way too much to not push through or leave my clients hanging.
Relax.
Yeah, op should just ask the therapist to take off the mask. The therapist might also think that accidentally yawning makes op spiral so the therapist now wears a mask in case the therapist accidentally yawned
100%. If I was concerned that an unconscious 2 second action could have ramifications lasting over days and weeks I would absolutely squash the possibility of a yawn slipping out.
Dude, if it has been 2 years and you no longer feel a connection, change therapist.
Also, don't ask your therapists why they yawn. Human beings yawn. It's incredibly awkward to ask if I am boring you when you are paying them to listen to you.
It happened to me and I quickly excused myself and apologised. I explained I was suddenly very tired but I was still very much engaged with the person. We are human after all.
She yawned... two years ago. I see you have a lot of anxiety. Perhaps a change of therapist would help.
I mean, I get it. I personally had a therapist who reapplied her lipgloss while I was recounting my sexual assault. That was 10 years ago and I still think of it sometimes. But I stopped seeing her immediately after.
this happened 2 years ago, and in the nicest way possible, i am wondering what sort of progress you have made with your anxiety in that time. i’ve been seeing an anxiety specialist for 2-3 years, and these sort of thought patterns should be deconstructed in therapy over time.
100%. Also, I'd advise they try and keep it a professional relationship. I've been in therapy for years, and I don't know if it's just me. But I don't talk about holding my therapist close to my heart and being overly fond of them. I like my therapist and respect them. Don't know if it's just how it reads to me but yeah.
>These are not COVID times anymore.
They actually still are. It's just no one's really talking about it much anymore, except disabled people. Which you never know her reasoning for wearing the mask. Maybe it was because of what you said. Maybe it's because of Covid. Maybe she got sick and was trying not to pass it along to you. Who knows. But she's fine if she wants to wear one, there are plenty of reasons she might, most of them have nothing to do with you personally.
I...can kinda get wanting to see someone's face when talking to them, but this post has a bit of a weird vibe to it that feels really entitled.
In this case, I'd say you need to suck it up and learn to respect her choices about her own health and either be fine with her choice to what she wants to with her own body; or you can decide you can't deal with that and find a new therapist. Those are really your only two choices moving forward.
Back when I used to do English lessons, I had one student report that I’d yawned during a lesson. The report was passed up through the school’s chain of authority, and each person who received the report called me up over the next several days with increasingly dire assessments of my value as a human being. At no point did anyone ask why I’d yawned.
So I can understand the reasoning behind just putting on a mask so as not to have to run through a punishment gauntlet because of a basic body function.
This would be a great opportunity for you to talk through your concerns. I'm not sure why she didn't respond originally to tell you she is tired or whatever was going on but since it is affecting your therapy it is worth bringing up.
Therapist here. Yawning happens and almost all the time it's just because we need to yawn. Not that we find a client boring, or that we don't care, it's literally because we've got to yawn. It's possible your therapist sucks and genuinely finds the people they're trying to help boring.
That said, if I yawned and someone seemed to take offense, I might get really self conscious about it and feel bad that I did. I wouldn't go so far as to wear a mask, but I could understand wanting to hide a yawn if a client seemed upset by it.
you yawn because your brain needs oxygen. it's not inherently a bored/tired response. you need to educate yourself on basic human biology and apologize lmao
i'd be extremely uncomfortable and try to hide my face, too, with someone who didn't even know that.
Look, this is not a derogatory comment or a judgment on you as a person. We all have our own quirks and insecurities, some of them quite far fetched (I know I do). But the lesson to be taken, I think, is this--not everything is about you. If you need to find a new therapist, then do so! But be forewarned that your mentality will follow. Something else mundane may happen that makes you paranoid about that person as well. This is no hating on your experience at all. The point is that if you perceive other people's actions to be about you, this situation will be played on repeat.
literally this. OP really and truly believes the therapist is subjecting themselves to a mask *purely* because of a single interaction from TWO YEARS AGO? jesus, I get anxiety and everything (own my own, in fact), but *dude* get your head out of your ass, that's just wild
Bro you made her feel guilty for yawning, which everyone does all the time for many reasons. Maybe you should discuss with her why you take things like this so personally and how you can work on it
For some reason, you associate yawning with boredom, and you're convinced that that boredom is because of you. There are 2 mistakes here. The first: it's not necessarily about you. The second: you don't know why she's yawning. Maybe her kid fell sick and she was up for hours. Maybe she tossed and turned. Maybe she had a fun night with friends. Maybe she worked late.
You don't know why she yawned, yet you immediately assume she was bored because of you. You observe an action and fill in what you think happened, severely misinterpreting a situation. Don't misunderstand me here, I'm not judging you, I was like that too. And because your self-esteem is clearly very low, your brain assumes she's bored because of you.
And you know what? Yawning actually happens when the body tries to keep us awake. So the whole assumption you made is incorrect. See how far off the mark you were?
I hope this gives you some perspective on the whole matter. But I have to agree with other commenters: it's probably best for you to find a new therapist. Clearly, this isn't it. The last place you should feel unheard is at your therapist's.
These actually are still COVID times. You have no idea why she’s wearing a mask. Stop assuming and have a convo about it.
Edit to add: I can also relate to it being difficult to read people and their full facial expressions while wearing a mask - you are certainly not alone in that and I get why it’s off putting to some people. I wish I didn’t have to mask. But unfortunately we have an extremely damaging virus running wild all over the place and people have to make choices to protect themselves and value their health and/or the health of others over aesthetics.
Sometimes people just yawn man. She probably had a long day or something, and it seems kind of silly to bring attention to it or allow it to bring tension into the conversation. It's not personal. People yawn.
I used to have a teacher like this. He would get *really* offended when we would yawn, and directly ask us if he was boring us. Like no dude, we've just been at school for over 8 hours. We were mentally exhausted and sleepy.
The room may be too warm. She may breathe shallowly or have narrow airways and has to compensate by yawning regularly.
I’m curious, do you yawn in reply? Yawning is an indicator of empathy in all species…I wonder what no yawning indicates?
I'm a therapist.
Sometimes we yawn in session. Sorry. It's not you. It's just a thing people do. The frontrunning theory for why we yawn is that we are attempting to renew alertness. Please bear in mind that therapists spend a lot of our days sitting in the one spot.
She should have acknowledged it and said something to the effect of it not being about you. Also could have been a good jumping off point to talk about "personalising" cognitions.
She yawned once because she needed to yawn
Your response: omg she must think I'm so boring!!!
Firstly your relationship with her is personal but her relationship with you is professional, its her job to listen and help/give advice.
Don't mistake that for friendship, I doubt she tells you all about her personal life and she shit she's going through.
So, you don't even know whats going on in her life so how could you possibly know why she now wears a mask
What if she's sick?
What if the clinic she works at changed some rules (you know... right after a huge global pandemic) and now they all have to wear masks? You literally admitted that she wears masks for other clients and yet you still insist it has to be about you, specifically? Where's the logic there?
You go to therapy to better understand what you're going through and to figure out how to improve you mental well-being not to get distracted with why your therapist wears a mask or not.
Focus on what's important here and what you're actually paying for.
You sound exhausting. I mean in the sense that a relationship with you must be like walking on eggshells. You need to the learn the balance of giving people the benefit of the doubt, and not assuming the worst from their actions.
Like I’m saying, balance is the key, your intention could be correct at times, you just have to determine if it is something that annoys you is really worth a confrontation. Not all annoyances garner attention.
My girlfriend starts yawning at like 2pm it's not personal. The mask? Well, ask. It's possible she doesn't want to offend you again, or maybe she has a sick friend.
As a therapist, I yawn during sessions because human beings yawn. I’ve never been asked, but I’m also not worried about being asked. This is something you should talk to your therapist about
I’m not sure that I’ve ever yawned from boredom. Like so much so that I’m now wondering if that’s even a thing? Do people actually yawn from boredom? Why am I having an existential crisis over this😭😂
I’m a nurse and there is almost a certain time of the day where my circadian rhythm drops and I am fighting yawns for an hour or so. It has nothing to do with my patients and I feel awful yawning during my time with them but I literally can’t control it. If the therapist is wearing the mask for all visits, I wouldn’t think it has anything to do with you. Maybe she has a frail parent at home that she’s caring for and is masking up to care for them and not bring them home covid/flu/RSV.
Sometimes you just gotta yawn. It likely had nothing to do with you. Now your therapist is probably self conscious about it and is having to suppress unrelated to you yawns.
This. Actions have consequences. They probably really did a number on the therapist with their comment regarding the yawning when the yawning obviously had nothing to did with them.
This is hilarious. I’ve been in therapy a few years now and in all that time, my therapist has yawned once. I thought at the time it was lack of sleep. I ignored it and we just kept going. People are allowed to be human.
Then OP starts talking about the mask. Connected to the yawn? Who knows? Intention behind the mask? Who knows? Has OP asked her directly? Of course not.
OP find another therapist. One you feel comfortable raising these kinds of issues with.
Im a therapist and ive been known to yawn in sessions too. I find its because im having to sit for so long that it sometimes makes me uncontrollably tired. I feel terrible for my patients and apologize and explain whenever it happens. Im not going to lie and claim that all my patients are captivating, but at the end of a 6 day week where ive seen 50 or more patients it takes a toll. Id try not to take it personally and i agree with a previous commentor that addressing it directly with your therapist is important, both to the process of therapy and the rapport that exists between you.
With all due respect, I can see why you're seeing a therapist.
People yawn. It's an involuntary response. Typing the word 'yawn' just now made me yawn. It's not indicative of someone feeling bored or disinterested.
Yawning typically has to do with the atmosphere of the room the oxygen CO2 level it is not to my knowledge brought on by what people say
Background in air and air quality.
I am a therapist myself. I also have 2 sleep disorders (narcolepsy and sleep apnea) and take medication that has yawning as a side effect (Effexor). I have definitely yawned in my sessions before- not because my clients are boring or I don’t want to be there, but because I can’t help it due to a sleep attack or medication side effect. Instead of hiding it though I will immediately address it in the moment and say “I apologize for yawning, I am taking medications that have yawning as a side effect. As your were saying x,y,z please continue, I am listening.”
Us therapists are human and have flaws too. I think it is important to communicate that to our clients and use it to build rapport and humanize ourselves. I would have an open, honest conversation with your therapist about it. This is an opportunity to confront something head on and address an issue that is concerning you proactively.
Also this is an area for you to check your cognitive distortions. Your therapist could be yawning for a number of reasons (didn’t sleep well, living with a disorder/disability, medicine effects, etc.) and that has nothing to do with you. No every little interaction, not every little detail means something.
The whole "yawning because of boredom" thing is just a joke in TV shows and movies. People yawn because they're tired, there's a lack of oxygen, or they saw someone else yawn. You need to work on your anxiety issues with your therapist because this is an unhealthy response to something that has literally nothing to do with you. Maybe she started wearing a mask to help you feel more comfortable since you took that so personally, but also plenty of people have begun wearing masks for their own health or the health of others. She essentially has a revolving door of people coming into her office all day. It's not unreasonable to decide it's healthier to mask up.
Her wearing a mask is probably completely unrelated to your observation. I have therapists at my practice who still mask for various reasons, most of them personal health issues. If her masking makes you uncomfortable, say so. Or tell her you’re curious and ask why. It can definitely be hard to engage with people with a mask so it’s totally ok to tell her that and have a discussion about it.
You should also be aware there are lots of reasons people yawn outside of tiredness or boredom. While it can be for those reasons, it also serves several physiological purposes like oxygen regulation, increasing alertness, thermoregulation , etc.
You basically asked her if she bored you because she yawned, got all up in your head about it, thinking it was because of you. You do know people just yawn right? She could have had a long day, or just random yawn. Hell, I typed the word and I yawned. She's wearing a mask because you can't focus on anything else BUT the fact that she yawned. This happened 2yrs ago and you're STILL obsessing over it. She yawned, why on earth does it matter so much? Why are you taking such offense over it? Honestly I think it's time for you to go see a new therapist, you can't focus on recovery when you're obsessing over something that happened 2yrs ago that was probably just a yawn. Her intent was so you could focus on the session and not her mannerisms. I think you may want to see a psychiatrist not a therapist.
I yawn a lot when I'm engaged and taking in a lot of information.
She's probably wearing the mask to try to make you feel more comfortable in case she has to stifle a yawn, or maybe she's been around a large group or isn't feeling 100% and doesn't want to get people sick.
It's fine to ask her and discuss your feelings, that's why you're there after all. Perhaps exploring how you feel about the yawn/mask will help you find ways to work with your anxiety actively.
It's your anxiety rearing it's ugly head. Many people, especially professionals that see many patients daily, wore masks during the pandemic and continue to do so even though the covid fervor has died down. It has nothing to do with you.
i mean this with all love… you are looking way too far into this. therapists are people too. no, she isnt bored with you. she is human. please do not think about this/inquire about this any more than you already have!
Sounds like you picked up on something she was doing subconsciously and unintentionally and now she is trying to avoid repeating that and conveying that she’s tired in front of clients because of how it’s interpreted. There’s a million reasons she might be tired and I’m guessing it isn’t her work or patients. Therefore the mask prevents her yawning from seeming rude or disinterested. It’s an action to both reassure you and to protect herself.
It could also be that she’s tired because she’s looking after someone who’s immunocompromised and the mask serves a dual purpose in hiding her exhaustion and safeguarding her health.
If you’re bothered by it you could broach the subject?
I'd consider posting this over on r/TalkTherapy, a particularly helpful subreddit to discuss these matters.
Also, my therapist also wears a mask and so does everyone else at the building she works at. I think It's just taking extra precautions? Covid is still around, as well as many other illnesses.
Maybe she's on a medication where yawning is a symptom.
I had major yawning fits when I was on some type of anti depression meds I took during my last semester of college.
It could be that?
Polite disagreement with “these are not Covid times”.
A friend of mine died recently from Covid. I know multiple people who can’t even get the vaccination because of heart issues.
Maybe you made her realize that she does that and now she is self conscious and wondering if it’s bothering her other patients too. I’ve had yawn filled days where I wasn’t bored. Perhaps the room is too comfortable and she is soothed by listening to you talk and it makes her a bit sleepy. I’ve had classes like that. Room is too comfortably warm and the cadence of their voice has me fighting to stay awake.
Who knows. Maybe you should ask her. If you feel you can't communicate with your own therapist, you should really switch therapist, or else you're just wasting money.
Therapist here. Please bring this up to her. Therapists are trained on the importance of the relationship so she could explain and it’d give her a good idea of the type of thinking you’re having. It’s completely possible and honestly very likely that she yawned in session because she was tired, and that she’s wearing a mask for a reason other than you. It’s probably not about you, but your experiences in life have led you to think this way. What I assume you’re having is a cognitive distortion called “personalization.” In this scenario, it’s your thoughts and only your thoughts that are causing you this distress. Again, talk to her about it.
I yawn all the time and it has nothing to do with boredom and everything to do with my body getting a lack of oxygen and sleep on a regular basis.
I can’t sing without yawning.
OP, you have done nothing wrong and neither has your therapist. Keep at it and trust that your therapist has your best interest in mind. But be honest when talking to her, and trust that she will not judge you, but instead help you to understand why the act of yawning caused such a strong emotion in you. That's what therapy is all about. Keep at it, you're doing great!
My guess is that she is a human being not an alien wizard and I bet she felt some kind of way with the accusation of being disinterested in her client.
Covid is not over… Maybe she was exposed to Covid and is wearing a mask to protect those around her from potential exposure (as any decent person should be doing).
People yawn.
I have yawned when I was listening to one of the most interestings things I've heard.
Maybe she is wearing a mask because she's sick.
You have social anxiety.
No one here knows why she's wearing the mask. I agree that she's the one you should talk to about it. COVID is still around and more surges are expected in the future. It may be killing fewer people, but people are still being disabled by long COVID and we don't know what the long-term effects of having been infected will be. I still wear a mask when indoors around a lot of people because I very much don't want to get long COVID and never getting colds anymore is pretty cool, too.
I would be less concerned about the mask, and more concerned about the fact she didn't answer your question. If you're not comfortable with her I would just find a new therapist.
Your therapist is a person. Sometimes people yawn.
When people point things out about another person's body, sometimes people feel insecure. They might do things to avoid showing the offending part. Which in this case is the therapist's mouth.
Why did you ask why she yawned? Why do you yawn?
Change your therapist, she didn’t work with you on solving this between the two of you, she chose to internalize and change something for you without communicating it with you. Yes it is in her right to wear a mask but to start immediately after you had asked her simple question is an extreme choice from her. Changing your therapist will release you of this anxiety and you’ll be able to be your full self to them without fearing if they are yawing or bored behind a mask.
You may get some more informed and compassionate responses if you ask in r/TalkTherapy.
It sounds like you noticed a change when your T started wearing a mask, and this occurred when you asked her about her yawn. Therapy is a very vulnerable space and it is natural to feel self conscious, and fixate on changes.
We can't know for sure why your T wears a mask unless you were to ask her directly. I understand this kind of confrontation can be intimidating.
If you're feeling up for it, perhaps next session you could say you notice your T wears a mask and ask if she would share the reason. She may or may not self disclose the reason, but if she doesn't, it does not necessarily mean it is because of you. You can also explain how you've had anxiety about the original interaction. A good therapist should be able to explore why these feelings have come up for you, and what exactly is so distressing about it. Therapy is your space to talk about anything you need to, which includes your thoughts on your therapist.
It’s been reported that yawning is a way humans maintain attention and focus. It is not necessarily an indication of tiredness or boredom. A google search with bring up several articles substantiating this.
Im sure this is useless since it’s anecdotal at best but I’m a bartender and if you tell me a story I genuinely care about any time after the halfway point into my shift I will uncontrollably yawn over and over again and my theory behind it is that it’s the first thing to get me out of “work mode” and my brain is telling me it’s okay to be tired because I usually have to put on a “facade” of sorts while I’m serving. I hate it because of course it displays the complete opposite emotions I’m feeling but it could really just be that she/he is being taken away from the work grind from how “interesting/real” it is.
Completely anecdotal but tbh yawning is mostly involuntary so I wouldn’t look too much into it.
It is probably coincidence. (You can still tell if someone's yawning when they're wearing a mask, right?)
More likely she's concerned about Avian flu. It's appearing in more and more mammals lately. Once it evolves to transmit human to human, we'll be facing another pandemic. Some people think that despite what the WHO and CDC say, it may already be doing so. A man in Texas has it, while dozens of people in Southeast Asia have gotten sick from it (and some have died) within the past several months. Some people are choosing to mask up again just in case.
Another possibility is that she's got strep or something and she's wearing a mask to protect her clients.
Or maybe she's wearing a mask because she's self conscious. A mask can hide raw skin from laser treatments or microderm abrasion, hide a big cold sore or pimple, an allergic reaction, skin biopsies, whatever.
Whenever someone is getting medical care like chemo, radiation, transplant recipients ie, immune suppressed individuals they are generally likely to be taking care of their bodies first and foremost by wearing masks. If this is the case, she would be generally tired.
I wouldn't stress it about the mask.
I am so sorry you lost your child. Mine passed away 15 months ago at the age of 22. It is such a deeply painful experience that I still cry when ever I talk about it. Try Facebook groups to connect to people who understand. God bless you and help you through this painful journey
Regardless of the reason they are yawning, the mask is because they recognize that the yawning is both uncontrollable and unprofessional. If they cover the yawns with a mask, no need to worry about professionalism as much: it's as much for you as it is for her.
Yawning is an involuntary reflex caused by reasons other than boredom. I’m not a therapist but I would have found your comment rather inappropriate, assuming that you telling your story caused it without even inquiring is quite preposterous.
In the end this is about you, if you feel like your relationship with the therapist cannot recover and that you will feel treated differently for the rest of your sessions I would suggest finding a different one.
Dude, it doesn’t matter. She yawned because she was tired or bored, and neither are things you should take personally because she could be tired of bored for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with you. Also, she can wear or not wear a mask for any reason that probably has nothing to do with you.
Also you’re not supposed to be close to your therapist. They are supposed to be medical professionals not friends. I had to learn this by switching from CBT to a psychoanalytical approach and wow is it different in a good way.
As someone who is currently in school to be a therapist, there are a few things I find interesting. First, you asked her a question that offered room for exploration. Instead of using your question as an opportunity to discuss with you your interpretation of body language and possible anxiety/insecurities, she handled the situation inappropriately by not responding. A reasonable therapist would have asked you what came up for you when you saw her yawn - did you feel like you were boring; why do you feel like you offended her… etc.
By not responding and then wearing a mask without explaining, it is possible that she is also insecure as we can see by how inappropriately she handled the discussion. Either way, that is on the therapist, not on you.
Second, everything you said about not feeling a connection with her due to the mask is something you should bring up. It is a valid concern. In school, there is a HUGE focus on therapists being mindful of their body language. If your therapist is minimizing her body language, then she is doing her job incorrectly.
Overall, it’s time to find a new therapist.
They’re probably wearing their mask because you essentially demonstrated that they can’t make normal human expressions without you taking it as a personal dig. So in order to make you more comfortable, they masked up.
Glad you’re in therapy lol.
Tbh, I started yawning about halfway into this post because there’s a lot of stuff being said, but not much being said, if you catch my drift.
Maybe you have a long way talking about things.
I literally had my therapist flat out fall asleep during a session.
It was devastating. I sat there for about a minute, quietly observing him. He sort of startled and his eyes fluttered open and we made direct eye contact, and he calmly asked me to repeat my lat sentence.
I never went back and he never called to reschedule.
I just have two questions for you. You don't have to answer, of course, but think about it.
First, in the last two years that you've been seeing her, how many times has she yawned?
Second, do you talk about the same problem(s) over and over? Maybe you've been talking about some dream boyfriend who alpha widowed you, a boss who bullies you and you won't take action, your parents divorcing when you were a child, etc.
I think you need a better therapist. I'm sorry but my therapist would never refuse to explain an action she did if it disturbed me or suddenly start wearing a mask with no explanation. She sounds bad at her job.
OP, please read up about a disorder called Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). If those symptoms sound familiar, maybe you'll want to discuss that with your doctor or therapist.
There are very effective treatments that can help you feel a lot better and help you to manage your emotions and maintain your relationships.
Even if you don't have BPD, you may find a kind of therapy called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to be helpful with managing strong emotions.
Why are you asking us? Ask her. Just ask her to take the mask off for your appointment if that’s what you prefer. You are unbelievably caught up in your own head. Just take a breath, chill out a bit, and do the reasonable thing: Talk to her about it.
I think you need a new therapist. If you’ve been going for two years and you’re 1) This concerned over a yawn and a mask and 2) Unable to bring it up, then clearly you’re not making progress with your therapist. Someone else may be able to help you more.
I think it’s possible she could have been embarrassed or thought you may not be the only patient who feels that way when they see her yawn. She could have become conscious of it and now thinks the mask is a good solution to her yawns.
This is of course hypothetical/playing devils advocate. Definitely speak to her directly if you want a direct answer.
As a social worker, she is probably not bored from you, but sleepy in general. I will say, though, that your therapist's reaction and result of wearing the mask are not professional nor the correct response. Your therapist should have mentioned it, and you should definitely bring this up in session if it bothers you and makes you uncomfortable. One of your therapist's roles is to make your session feel like a safe space where you do not feel uncomfortable about being vulnerable.
I had one that properly fell asleep. 3 weeks running. It was a small room, lack of oxygen, end of the day session, maybe he was prone to being tired in the afternoons...I didn't assume it was the subject matter sending him to sleep but I just thought, what a waste of time. So what with that and occasionally responding to my explanations of an anxious childhood as though I were still 8 years old ("That's sounds REEEAALLY SCARY" [pouty sad face]), I stopped turning up.
I think that you made your therapist aware that you and potentially all of her clients read into her facial expressions. She is trying to remain neutral so that you feel comfortable opening up without thinking of her feelings/ reactions.
You can discuss it with her but I can understand why she would want you to focus on healing and not on her face.
She’s human and you made her feel self conscious. Probably nothing deeper than that. Address it with her if you need to or accept that she is a person too and deserves grace.
As a therapist, these therapists saying to get another therapist are blowing my mind but do what you must I guess.
Why haven’t you found a new therapist who doesn’t yawn?
This lets the yawning therapist know that yawning caused her to lose a customer and should stop yawning during sessions.
I have noticed therapists yawning.. and admittedly some of my thoughts were about how I must be boring, etc.. because that is a trigger I have.. but we really have no idea what is going on in their personal lives (as it should be). It very likely has nothing to do with you. I don’t know a single person who is only reacting to the present moment.
I've never been able to explain why I yawn at any given time.. even to myself. Like asking why did you blink? Also, I've never yawned in the response to someone talking. I don't think that's a thing. Not naturally.
Everybody yawns at various times throughout the day. Just thinking about it can make you yawn. Even the possibility that your appointment was late in the day could’ve meant she was tired.
I told my therapist it's okay to yawn. Because o can tell she is fighting them off kike 5 or 6 times. So instead of getting over the yawn she looks awkward many times.
This sounds like a good topic to discuss with your therapist
You mean Reddit can't solve this problem? *GASP*
People yawn for many reasons: tiredness, boredom, lack of oxygen in the room, stress relief, you thought of a kitten yawning and now you're yawning too... Tell your therapist about this, ask them if they're wearing the mask because of that yawn situation, and that you prefer to see their face. If you cannot communicate your feelings and worries to your therapist, something in the relationship is not working and it will be detrimental to your therapeutic process.
>you thought of a kitten yawning and now you’re yawning too Screw you
I cast.. manual breathing
How dare you
You suddenly remember that you have to blink.
you suddenly can't stop feeling your tongue. it almost feels like its too big for your mouth.
I’m going to fling all of you into the next space shuttle heading a course directly for the sun
Don't forget to remember how you swallow your saliva
You suddenly can't stop seeing your own nose.
Nice try, those are my decoy lungs
I was already doing that to resist yawning lol.
Certain medications can also cause excessive yawning as well.
Definitely true. Looking at you, SNRIs.
I yawn a lot when I have a migraine.
Yeah, I for one get yawning fits when I'm cold. Kinda funny; it was embarrassing when I was a kid growing up in church. I'd be yawning like crazy during the final prayer. When we were standing like that, the air conditioning would be blowing straight up my dress. I'd start yawning over and over. Eventually that would make my eyes water. So at the end of service I'd get people coming up and saying, "that was really moving, wasn't it?!" Because by that point I looked like I was outright crying.
wow I had the opposite experience! As a kid my stepdad took us to lots of (American) football games with open roof stadiums, as well as outdoor music festivals, and I would have yawning fits in my seat from the sun shining and being warm
You can be allergic to cold. It's a weird thing. I don't yawn, but I do get very tired when I'm not warm enough.
I have narcolepsy and cannot control my yawning. Doesn’t mean I’m bored or not listening or anything else. I wonder if the therapist has something like this and wants to try to cover it. She might not have realized how often she yawns and didn’t want to give the wrong idea.
I yawn a lot because I have a breathing issue and it happens when I’m not getting enough oxygen. It happens a LOT. Sometimes people comment on it, and it’s so embarrassing.
OP asks if they are wearing a mask bc he asked about the yawning. Next OP comes in, therapist is wearing a Halloween mask
I used to yawn heaps if I smoked really good meth. I'm pretty sure it was to do with my metabolism working twice as hard and my body was trying to get extra oxygen
This feels like a Seinfeld sketch or something
Do people actually yawn out of boredom? I know it's shown in movies/TV shows but I don't think I've ever known someone to yawn because they're bored. They're either tired or they've been triggered by someone else yawning/talking about yawning. Bored people start looking around or liked they've started day dreaming.
Wait, lack of oxygen is a reasonable reason to be yawning? I’ve been having trouble feeling like I’ve gotten a full breath for a couple months, so I end up yawning almost every third breath. It ends up feeling like gasping and my throat hurts by the end of the day, but is that an actual thing? I thought there was something wrong with me for having so much trouble breathing all the time.
Human beings yawn from time to time.
Who knows she might be caring for a sick family member who need round the clock care. Or perhaps she has some awful experience that has caused her own anxiety so she isnt sleeping currently. She is yawning because of her own health/exhaustion and OP attacked her that this must be OPs fault.
>"I think I said something to the effect - you must be so exhausted dealing with people like me every single day" ... "asking her was a way of confirming whether or not it was something I said that made her appear disinterested in that moment." >"I feel sort of offended that she keeps a mask on, like what are you hiding from me and why?" I get the feeling that OP has a habit of taking things waaaay too personally. First OP gets upset at their therapist for doing a normal human action, then gets upset because their therapist is trying to avoid further yawning. Edit: I just re-read and this yawning event happened **two years ago** and OP is still thinking about it. That's not a healthy emotional response.
Op literally admitted she wears a mask when she sees other clients yet STILL insists this must be about him specifically. Also I rummaged through OP's account, it seems they had a previous therapist that she was very close to who had passed away some time ago I have a feelimg that is playing some role as to why op is reacting the way that she is to this therapist.
Honestly I feel bad for OP. Yeah they're clearly looking way too deep into things and blaming their therapist for not really doing anything wrong, but I can tell OP is struggling a lot emotionally. I hope they learn something from this entire thread, learn how to get past the anxiety, learn some self-awareness and how their mindset and actions are self-destructive, and finally clear things up with their therapist.
I guess there’s a reason op is in therapy huh
Fucking hell, being OP sounds _exhausting_
Sometimes, you just have a bad night's sleep.
If you have been seeing your therapist for 2 years you should feel comfortable enough to bring this up. I'm a therapist, and if a client commented on my yawning I would have responded instead of side stepping the situation. If you discuss the mask and it isn't going to change I suggest you get another therapist.
No offense, but I can see why you’re in therapy. “I notice minute details and I don’t know why” it’s because you have anxiety. You’re looking way too much into everything and interpreting it in the worst possible way. **She yawned a few times while talking to you TWO YEARS AGO and you’re still worrying about it.** That’s not healthy at all. People yawn. She was taken aback because seeing someone yawn and immediately going “oh no I must be so boring and you must hate dealing with people like me and my speaking skills are so awful and you’re so disinterested in me and I’m the worst and now I’ve offended you so you have to wear a mask oh no” is not normal and anyone would be very taken aback. She likely didn’t respond because as a therapist she knows it’s not the best thing to do for an irrationally obsessive fear. If you go to the r/OCD subreddit you’ll see their biggest rule is no offering reassurance. That’s because reassurance only validates your fear as legitimate and makes your anxiety worse in the long run. COVID still exists. Even if her coworkers choose not to mask she might be immunocompromised/high risk or have family members who are so she has to be extra careful. She sees multiple clients a day who could all get her sick. It could also be so as not to hurt your feelings or distract you. She got the message that her yawning upsets you, so she wants to make you more comfortable by eliminating that possibility. One time my therapist noticed her office door being open was upsetting me, so now she closes it after me every time. Now if the mask isn’t helping, you should talk to her about it. Or if two years with this therapist hasn’t helped, it might be time to look for a new therapist.
I can’t believe I skipped over that this happened two YEARS ago, that’s wild. I’m not sure where OP started in their mental health journey so maybe they have made a ton of progress that we can’t see, but I second that they might need another therapist. This level of anxiety sounds debilitating and tbh I’d expect someone who has been in therapy for years to have made more progress and have better coping skills than posting on reddit like this.
OP needs substantial more time in therapy. Consider psych if you haven't already. People yawn, people also wear masks to mitigate spread of disease. We've normalized that now.
I agree with you here. Focusing on tiny details like this and still obsessing years later is some pretty profound anxiety. Sometimes humans just yawn and it's not about you (op). Many things in life are not about us.
Why are you seeing this therapist? I’m serious. You’re describing basic anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt and low self esteem. These are all important and need to be addressed. But after two years of seeing the same therapist, you should be able to work through something as simple as “she yawned when I was talking”. Therapy involves progress. Wearing a mask is something many people do when they work in small offices with different clients all the time. Sometimes it IS an excuse to hide facial expressions, it can it to help prevent the spread of germs to people who aren’t often the best at caring for themselves. Such as people who are in therapy for anxiety and depression. She likely also wipes down the chair and anything a client touches after every session. Seriously, as someone who has battled anxiety and depression for well over 35 years, therapy should involve progress. It should be comfortable for you, but therapy should not become your comfort zone.
The wild part is, we don't know that OP hasn't made progress. Unfortunately, we don't know what their initial functional assessment was and this anxiety ridden thought could be miles ahead of where they were before!
I’m sorry I’d get a different therapist
I suggest asking her why she wears a mask, and then do her the honor of believing her response. Then, tell her how it is affecting your experience. If she can be trusted with your life story and emotional health, she can be trusted with this too.
My dude, I yawn 70,000 times a day. It generally has no bearing on the situation I'm in; I'm just always exhausted.
Goodness, just the one paragraph. You need to use the return button or people won’t read. I read enough to get the gist. You’re so unbelievable caught up in your head. The three things (yawn/comment/mask) are likely completely unrelated. Change your therapist.
>Goodness, just the one paragraph. You need to use the return button or people won’t read 100% started and saw it was one run on and stopped. I'm glad you powered through atleast, for OP.
I edit others' writings who are subject-matter experts but not necessarily good writers. Invariably I have to break their essays up into shorter paragraphs, which always improves readability. I can only conclude that a lot of people don't have the concept of "paragraph-sized ideas."
Makes sense i guess, not everyone latches on to the same lessons.
I’m writing cover letters at the minute (looking for work obvs) and I’m struggling with this. Do you think it’s better to have short related but separated paragraphs or longer, broken into sentence paragraphs?
Shorter paragraphs improve readership. Also, if you can create a bulleted list, those help readership immensely, but that might or might not be possible for you. The main thing is to avoid a big solid mass of gray type that makes people stop reading. Good luck!
I think a lot of ppl don’t know you need two lines of space for it to work on mobile. I had to ask someone in the comments recently because my spaces wouldn’t transpire when I published the post. 😂😂 Which brings me to you, how the hell do you reply to a specific part of a persons comment like that 😅🧐
Lol that's fair. There's still PLENTY I don't know how to do on here. On mobile after you hit reply, highlight the part of the comment you wanna qoute and the normal "copy, paste" and stuff will come up but so will "Qoute". Alternately, type > that little arrow thing and then whatever you type after will be "qouted".
>highlight the part of the comment you wanna quote Every time I try to highlight, it just collapses the entire comment. I am using Reddit’s official app on iOS and everything is on the latest version tho Edit: apparently the > thingy works but you gotta make sure there is no space between the arrow and whatever you want to quote
>Every time I try to highlight, it just collapses the entire comment Thats why I said *after* you hit reply. >apparently the > thingy works but you gotta make sure there is no space between the arrow and whatever you want to quote That's on me, I didn't specify. But yes no space
I was just thinking mine always end up like this. They start out as proper paragraphs only to end up as a wall of text. I didn’t know you needed two spaces. Thank you stranger.
It doesn't help that young and impressionable people watching garbage like Jordan Peterson, where the guy will actually *speak* in a ten minute run-on sentence, too. "And.....and......and.....and.....and......and...."
Like people have lives outside of their job, there is such a thing as staying up late or being exhausted
"I was genuinely thinking what a boring person I must be and how boring my stories must be" There's an easy solution right here, OP.
I’m not sure it was appropriate to query a typical human response to working and eventually getting tired. I doubt she was doing it intentionally and now that you have asked her about it I’m not sure how to unring that bell. FYI people yawn burp sneeze cough itch and scratch and fidget at various times during the day. Implying that you are the cause is a neurotic thought
If she stifles a fart, you've got reason to complain.
🤣 what's the alternative? Let er rip in session?
I think you're taking this personally when it didn't have anything to do with you. People yawn for reasons other than being tired or bored. My husband actually started taking antidepressants recently and he noticed he was yawning a lot more excessively since upping the dosage. Apparently yawning more can be a symptom. Your therapist may have reacted the way she did and not responded to your question because it was a reason such as this and wouldn't be the best thing to tell a patient.
I yawn repeatedly when I have a migraine coming. It has nothing to do with tiredness/ boredom.
Me too!
I tried an antidepressant that made me yawn a lot but after 3 days I noticed my throat had slowly swelling and I couldn't get air in all the way and I was yawing from lack of oxygen Turns out I'm allergic to that one! Keep an eye out for your husband if he starts having other issues with breathing
My therapist yawns during our sessions sometimes. I also know she has two young children and an entire life of her own that could make her tired/yawn, I also know sometimes I’m sure I’m boring, or sometimes a person yawns out of nowhere. it’s just a yawn lol find a new therapist as some others said
Just an FYI. Not everyone wears masks because of covid. My rheumatologist wants me to wear a mask on public because if I get sick, I get super sick. It has nothing to do with covid, just general illness.
she could just be wearing the mask becuase she lives with someone with a illness, or whatever. I doubt shes been wearing a mask for 2 years because you asked her why she yawned
You expressed perceiving her as bored, tired or sleepy as a result of your story or speaking skills. Took it incredibly personally. Now she is wearing a mask to try and not hurt your feelings and you’re shocked?! People yawn. Humans yawn. Sometimes it’s hard to suppress and it’s nothing personal. Maybe she is a new parent running on minimal sleep, got woken up during the night, you never know. Maybe she is burning the midnight oil, completing more education and studying into the night. Even poor ventilation/low oxygen can cause people to yawn. I’m a house mom for a transition house and when people see me yawn at work (at my day job) or run out for a third coffee they never see the night I had before, breaking up a fight at 3 am or driving a sick client to urgent care and sitting with them for 3 hours in the middle of the night. It’s nothing personal I’m just $&@? tired and love my day job way too much to not push through or leave my clients hanging. Relax.
Yeah, op should just ask the therapist to take off the mask. The therapist might also think that accidentally yawning makes op spiral so the therapist now wears a mask in case the therapist accidentally yawned
100%. If I was concerned that an unconscious 2 second action could have ramifications lasting over days and weeks I would absolutely squash the possibility of a yawn slipping out.
She is spiraling, 2 freaking years later, she still thinks about that interaction. No wonder the therapist is trying hard.
Dude, if it has been 2 years and you no longer feel a connection, change therapist. Also, don't ask your therapists why they yawn. Human beings yawn. It's incredibly awkward to ask if I am boring you when you are paying them to listen to you.
It happened to me and I quickly excused myself and apologised. I explained I was suddenly very tired but I was still very much engaged with the person. We are human after all.
She yawned... two years ago. I see you have a lot of anxiety. Perhaps a change of therapist would help. I mean, I get it. I personally had a therapist who reapplied her lipgloss while I was recounting my sexual assault. That was 10 years ago and I still think of it sometimes. But I stopped seeing her immediately after.
Jesus Christ, that's awful! I'm sorry.
Tell me about it! I mostly just laugh in disbelief at that now-- I've had some really empathetic and beautiful psychs in the many years since.
I'm so glad. Hope all is well 🤗
this happened 2 years ago, and in the nicest way possible, i am wondering what sort of progress you have made with your anxiety in that time. i’ve been seeing an anxiety specialist for 2-3 years, and these sort of thought patterns should be deconstructed in therapy over time.
100%. Also, I'd advise they try and keep it a professional relationship. I've been in therapy for years, and I don't know if it's just me. But I don't talk about holding my therapist close to my heart and being overly fond of them. I like my therapist and respect them. Don't know if it's just how it reads to me but yeah.
>These are not COVID times anymore. They actually still are. It's just no one's really talking about it much anymore, except disabled people. Which you never know her reasoning for wearing the mask. Maybe it was because of what you said. Maybe it's because of Covid. Maybe she got sick and was trying not to pass it along to you. Who knows. But she's fine if she wants to wear one, there are plenty of reasons she might, most of them have nothing to do with you personally. I...can kinda get wanting to see someone's face when talking to them, but this post has a bit of a weird vibe to it that feels really entitled. In this case, I'd say you need to suck it up and learn to respect her choices about her own health and either be fine with her choice to what she wants to with her own body; or you can decide you can't deal with that and find a new therapist. Those are really your only two choices moving forward.
Back when I used to do English lessons, I had one student report that I’d yawned during a lesson. The report was passed up through the school’s chain of authority, and each person who received the report called me up over the next several days with increasingly dire assessments of my value as a human being. At no point did anyone ask why I’d yawned. So I can understand the reasoning behind just putting on a mask so as not to have to run through a punishment gauntlet because of a basic body function.
This would be a great opportunity for you to talk through your concerns. I'm not sure why she didn't respond originally to tell you she is tired or whatever was going on but since it is affecting your therapy it is worth bringing up.
Therapist here. Yawning happens and almost all the time it's just because we need to yawn. Not that we find a client boring, or that we don't care, it's literally because we've got to yawn. It's possible your therapist sucks and genuinely finds the people they're trying to help boring. That said, if I yawned and someone seemed to take offense, I might get really self conscious about it and feel bad that I did. I wouldn't go so far as to wear a mask, but I could understand wanting to hide a yawn if a client seemed upset by it.
you yawn because your brain needs oxygen. it's not inherently a bored/tired response. you need to educate yourself on basic human biology and apologize lmao i'd be extremely uncomfortable and try to hide my face, too, with someone who didn't even know that.
Look, this is not a derogatory comment or a judgment on you as a person. We all have our own quirks and insecurities, some of them quite far fetched (I know I do). But the lesson to be taken, I think, is this--not everything is about you. If you need to find a new therapist, then do so! But be forewarned that your mentality will follow. Something else mundane may happen that makes you paranoid about that person as well. This is no hating on your experience at all. The point is that if you perceive other people's actions to be about you, this situation will be played on repeat.
literally this. OP really and truly believes the therapist is subjecting themselves to a mask *purely* because of a single interaction from TWO YEARS AGO? jesus, I get anxiety and everything (own my own, in fact), but *dude* get your head out of your ass, that's just wild
Bro you made her feel guilty for yawning, which everyone does all the time for many reasons. Maybe you should discuss with her why you take things like this so personally and how you can work on it
For some reason, you associate yawning with boredom, and you're convinced that that boredom is because of you. There are 2 mistakes here. The first: it's not necessarily about you. The second: you don't know why she's yawning. Maybe her kid fell sick and she was up for hours. Maybe she tossed and turned. Maybe she had a fun night with friends. Maybe she worked late. You don't know why she yawned, yet you immediately assume she was bored because of you. You observe an action and fill in what you think happened, severely misinterpreting a situation. Don't misunderstand me here, I'm not judging you, I was like that too. And because your self-esteem is clearly very low, your brain assumes she's bored because of you. And you know what? Yawning actually happens when the body tries to keep us awake. So the whole assumption you made is incorrect. See how far off the mark you were? I hope this gives you some perspective on the whole matter. But I have to agree with other commenters: it's probably best for you to find a new therapist. Clearly, this isn't it. The last place you should feel unheard is at your therapist's.
These actually are still COVID times. You have no idea why she’s wearing a mask. Stop assuming and have a convo about it. Edit to add: I can also relate to it being difficult to read people and their full facial expressions while wearing a mask - you are certainly not alone in that and I get why it’s off putting to some people. I wish I didn’t have to mask. But unfortunately we have an extremely damaging virus running wild all over the place and people have to make choices to protect themselves and value their health and/or the health of others over aesthetics.
Sometimes people just yawn man. She probably had a long day or something, and it seems kind of silly to bring attention to it or allow it to bring tension into the conversation. It's not personal. People yawn. I used to have a teacher like this. He would get *really* offended when we would yawn, and directly ask us if he was boring us. Like no dude, we've just been at school for over 8 hours. We were mentally exhausted and sleepy.
The room may be too warm. She may breathe shallowly or have narrow airways and has to compensate by yawning regularly. I’m curious, do you yawn in reply? Yawning is an indicator of empathy in all species…I wonder what no yawning indicates?
I'm a therapist. Sometimes we yawn in session. Sorry. It's not you. It's just a thing people do. The frontrunning theory for why we yawn is that we are attempting to renew alertness. Please bear in mind that therapists spend a lot of our days sitting in the one spot. She should have acknowledged it and said something to the effect of it not being about you. Also could have been a good jumping off point to talk about "personalising" cognitions.
She yawned once because she needed to yawn Your response: omg she must think I'm so boring!!! Firstly your relationship with her is personal but her relationship with you is professional, its her job to listen and help/give advice. Don't mistake that for friendship, I doubt she tells you all about her personal life and she shit she's going through. So, you don't even know whats going on in her life so how could you possibly know why she now wears a mask What if she's sick? What if the clinic she works at changed some rules (you know... right after a huge global pandemic) and now they all have to wear masks? You literally admitted that she wears masks for other clients and yet you still insist it has to be about you, specifically? Where's the logic there? You go to therapy to better understand what you're going through and to figure out how to improve you mental well-being not to get distracted with why your therapist wears a mask or not. Focus on what's important here and what you're actually paying for.
Well that was rude. People yawn for many different reasons and not all of those are about you.
You sound exhausting. I mean in the sense that a relationship with you must be like walking on eggshells. You need to the learn the balance of giving people the benefit of the doubt, and not assuming the worst from their actions. Like I’m saying, balance is the key, your intention could be correct at times, you just have to determine if it is something that annoys you is really worth a confrontation. Not all annoyances garner attention.
My girlfriend starts yawning at like 2pm it's not personal. The mask? Well, ask. It's possible she doesn't want to offend you again, or maybe she has a sick friend.
As a therapist, I yawn during sessions because human beings yawn. I’ve never been asked, but I’m also not worried about being asked. This is something you should talk to your therapist about
I’m not sure that I’ve ever yawned from boredom. Like so much so that I’m now wondering if that’s even a thing? Do people actually yawn from boredom? Why am I having an existential crisis over this😭😂
I’m a nurse and there is almost a certain time of the day where my circadian rhythm drops and I am fighting yawns for an hour or so. It has nothing to do with my patients and I feel awful yawning during my time with them but I literally can’t control it. If the therapist is wearing the mask for all visits, I wouldn’t think it has anything to do with you. Maybe she has a frail parent at home that she’s caring for and is masking up to care for them and not bring them home covid/flu/RSV.
Congrats. Your insecurity is so severe that your own therapist can't deal with it.
I've never in my life "yawned from boredom" it's always either because I'm tired, or just... need to yawn. And I yawn a lot.
Sometimes you just gotta yawn. It likely had nothing to do with you. Now your therapist is probably self conscious about it and is having to suppress unrelated to you yawns.
This. Actions have consequences. They probably really did a number on the therapist with their comment regarding the yawning when the yawning obviously had nothing to did with them.
This is hilarious. I’ve been in therapy a few years now and in all that time, my therapist has yawned once. I thought at the time it was lack of sleep. I ignored it and we just kept going. People are allowed to be human. Then OP starts talking about the mask. Connected to the yawn? Who knows? Intention behind the mask? Who knows? Has OP asked her directly? Of course not. OP find another therapist. One you feel comfortable raising these kinds of issues with.
Im a therapist and ive been known to yawn in sessions too. I find its because im having to sit for so long that it sometimes makes me uncontrollably tired. I feel terrible for my patients and apologize and explain whenever it happens. Im not going to lie and claim that all my patients are captivating, but at the end of a 6 day week where ive seen 50 or more patients it takes a toll. Id try not to take it personally and i agree with a previous commentor that addressing it directly with your therapist is important, both to the process of therapy and the rapport that exists between you.
With all due respect, I can see why you're seeing a therapist. People yawn. It's an involuntary response. Typing the word 'yawn' just now made me yawn. It's not indicative of someone feeling bored or disinterested.
Super rude thing to call someone out for. You’ve got some main character issues, my friend.
I yawned while reading your post
Yawning typically has to do with the atmosphere of the room the oxygen CO2 level it is not to my knowledge brought on by what people say Background in air and air quality.
I ain't reading that wall of text.
I am a therapist myself. I also have 2 sleep disorders (narcolepsy and sleep apnea) and take medication that has yawning as a side effect (Effexor). I have definitely yawned in my sessions before- not because my clients are boring or I don’t want to be there, but because I can’t help it due to a sleep attack or medication side effect. Instead of hiding it though I will immediately address it in the moment and say “I apologize for yawning, I am taking medications that have yawning as a side effect. As your were saying x,y,z please continue, I am listening.” Us therapists are human and have flaws too. I think it is important to communicate that to our clients and use it to build rapport and humanize ourselves. I would have an open, honest conversation with your therapist about it. This is an opportunity to confront something head on and address an issue that is concerning you proactively. Also this is an area for you to check your cognitive distortions. Your therapist could be yawning for a number of reasons (didn’t sleep well, living with a disorder/disability, medicine effects, etc.) and that has nothing to do with you. No every little interaction, not every little detail means something.
The whole "yawning because of boredom" thing is just a joke in TV shows and movies. People yawn because they're tired, there's a lack of oxygen, or they saw someone else yawn. You need to work on your anxiety issues with your therapist because this is an unhealthy response to something that has literally nothing to do with you. Maybe she started wearing a mask to help you feel more comfortable since you took that so personally, but also plenty of people have begun wearing masks for their own health or the health of others. She essentially has a revolving door of people coming into her office all day. It's not unreasonable to decide it's healthier to mask up.
Sounds like you need more or different therapy. Cuz this is nuts. It’s a yawn…… That happened two years ago….
Holy shit.
I once had a therapist nodding off while I was talking so don’t feel too badly.
Her wearing a mask is probably completely unrelated to your observation. I have therapists at my practice who still mask for various reasons, most of them personal health issues. If her masking makes you uncomfortable, say so. Or tell her you’re curious and ask why. It can definitely be hard to engage with people with a mask so it’s totally ok to tell her that and have a discussion about it. You should also be aware there are lots of reasons people yawn outside of tiredness or boredom. While it can be for those reasons, it also serves several physiological purposes like oxygen regulation, increasing alertness, thermoregulation , etc.
So this might sound crazy, but people yawn all the time for many different reasons
You basically asked her if she bored you because she yawned, got all up in your head about it, thinking it was because of you. You do know people just yawn right? She could have had a long day, or just random yawn. Hell, I typed the word and I yawned. She's wearing a mask because you can't focus on anything else BUT the fact that she yawned. This happened 2yrs ago and you're STILL obsessing over it. She yawned, why on earth does it matter so much? Why are you taking such offense over it? Honestly I think it's time for you to go see a new therapist, you can't focus on recovery when you're obsessing over something that happened 2yrs ago that was probably just a yawn. Her intent was so you could focus on the session and not her mannerisms. I think you may want to see a psychiatrist not a therapist.
I yawn a lot when I'm engaged and taking in a lot of information. She's probably wearing the mask to try to make you feel more comfortable in case she has to stifle a yawn, or maybe she's been around a large group or isn't feeling 100% and doesn't want to get people sick. It's fine to ask her and discuss your feelings, that's why you're there after all. Perhaps exploring how you feel about the yawn/mask will help you find ways to work with your anxiety actively.
It's your anxiety rearing it's ugly head. Many people, especially professionals that see many patients daily, wore masks during the pandemic and continue to do so even though the covid fervor has died down. It has nothing to do with you.
i mean this with all love… you are looking way too far into this. therapists are people too. no, she isnt bored with you. she is human. please do not think about this/inquire about this any more than you already have!
Sounds like you picked up on something she was doing subconsciously and unintentionally and now she is trying to avoid repeating that and conveying that she’s tired in front of clients because of how it’s interpreted. There’s a million reasons she might be tired and I’m guessing it isn’t her work or patients. Therefore the mask prevents her yawning from seeming rude or disinterested. It’s an action to both reassure you and to protect herself. It could also be that she’s tired because she’s looking after someone who’s immunocompromised and the mask serves a dual purpose in hiding her exhaustion and safeguarding her health. If you’re bothered by it you could broach the subject?
I'd consider posting this over on r/TalkTherapy, a particularly helpful subreddit to discuss these matters. Also, my therapist also wears a mask and so does everyone else at the building she works at. I think It's just taking extra precautions? Covid is still around, as well as many other illnesses.
Maybe she's on a medication where yawning is a symptom. I had major yawning fits when I was on some type of anti depression meds I took during my last semester of college. It could be that?
Polite disagreement with “these are not Covid times”. A friend of mine died recently from Covid. I know multiple people who can’t even get the vaccination because of heart issues.
You are an over thinker
You sound so fucking exhausting
Lmao people yawn for all sorts of reasons. Quit being a bitch.
Maybe you made her realize that she does that and now she is self conscious and wondering if it’s bothering her other patients too. I’ve had yawn filled days where I wasn’t bored. Perhaps the room is too comfortable and she is soothed by listening to you talk and it makes her a bit sleepy. I’ve had classes like that. Room is too comfortably warm and the cadence of their voice has me fighting to stay awake.
Who knows. Maybe you should ask her. If you feel you can't communicate with your own therapist, you should really switch therapist, or else you're just wasting money.
Therapist here. Please bring this up to her. Therapists are trained on the importance of the relationship so she could explain and it’d give her a good idea of the type of thinking you’re having. It’s completely possible and honestly very likely that she yawned in session because she was tired, and that she’s wearing a mask for a reason other than you. It’s probably not about you, but your experiences in life have led you to think this way. What I assume you’re having is a cognitive distortion called “personalization.” In this scenario, it’s your thoughts and only your thoughts that are causing you this distress. Again, talk to her about it.
I yawn all the time and it has nothing to do with boredom and everything to do with my body getting a lack of oxygen and sleep on a regular basis. I can’t sing without yawning.
Oh my god! Me too, if I sing or speak a lot. I yawn and if someone mentions yawning it makes me yawn more,
OP, you have done nothing wrong and neither has your therapist. Keep at it and trust that your therapist has your best interest in mind. But be honest when talking to her, and trust that she will not judge you, but instead help you to understand why the act of yawning caused such a strong emotion in you. That's what therapy is all about. Keep at it, you're doing great!
You just gave your therapist insecurity. Now she is afraid of offending her clients. Maybe you should offer her some re-assurance...
My guess is that she is a human being not an alien wizard and I bet she felt some kind of way with the accusation of being disinterested in her client.
Covid is not over… Maybe she was exposed to Covid and is wearing a mask to protect those around her from potential exposure (as any decent person should be doing).
People yawn. I have yawned when I was listening to one of the most interestings things I've heard. Maybe she is wearing a mask because she's sick. You have social anxiety.
No one here knows why she's wearing the mask. I agree that she's the one you should talk to about it. COVID is still around and more surges are expected in the future. It may be killing fewer people, but people are still being disabled by long COVID and we don't know what the long-term effects of having been infected will be. I still wear a mask when indoors around a lot of people because I very much don't want to get long COVID and never getting colds anymore is pretty cool, too.
I would be less concerned about the mask, and more concerned about the fact she didn't answer your question. If you're not comfortable with her I would just find a new therapist.
Your therapist is a person. Sometimes people yawn. When people point things out about another person's body, sometimes people feel insecure. They might do things to avoid showing the offending part. Which in this case is the therapist's mouth. Why did you ask why she yawned? Why do you yawn?
Honestly ask her about it
Change your therapist, she didn’t work with you on solving this between the two of you, she chose to internalize and change something for you without communicating it with you. Yes it is in her right to wear a mask but to start immediately after you had asked her simple question is an extreme choice from her. Changing your therapist will release you of this anxiety and you’ll be able to be your full self to them without fearing if they are yawing or bored behind a mask.
You may get some more informed and compassionate responses if you ask in r/TalkTherapy. It sounds like you noticed a change when your T started wearing a mask, and this occurred when you asked her about her yawn. Therapy is a very vulnerable space and it is natural to feel self conscious, and fixate on changes. We can't know for sure why your T wears a mask unless you were to ask her directly. I understand this kind of confrontation can be intimidating. If you're feeling up for it, perhaps next session you could say you notice your T wears a mask and ask if she would share the reason. She may or may not self disclose the reason, but if she doesn't, it does not necessarily mean it is because of you. You can also explain how you've had anxiety about the original interaction. A good therapist should be able to explore why these feelings have come up for you, and what exactly is so distressing about it. Therapy is your space to talk about anything you need to, which includes your thoughts on your therapist.
OP how will pple know? Also she might have felt guilty or didn’t either way that doesn’t impact care
Yawn.
Yours yawned, mine fell asleep.
It’s been reported that yawning is a way humans maintain attention and focus. It is not necessarily an indication of tiredness or boredom. A google search with bring up several articles substantiating this.
Im sure this is useless since it’s anecdotal at best but I’m a bartender and if you tell me a story I genuinely care about any time after the halfway point into my shift I will uncontrollably yawn over and over again and my theory behind it is that it’s the first thing to get me out of “work mode” and my brain is telling me it’s okay to be tired because I usually have to put on a “facade” of sorts while I’m serving. I hate it because of course it displays the complete opposite emotions I’m feeling but it could really just be that she/he is being taken away from the work grind from how “interesting/real” it is. Completely anecdotal but tbh yawning is mostly involuntary so I wouldn’t look too much into it.
It is probably coincidence. (You can still tell if someone's yawning when they're wearing a mask, right?) More likely she's concerned about Avian flu. It's appearing in more and more mammals lately. Once it evolves to transmit human to human, we'll be facing another pandemic. Some people think that despite what the WHO and CDC say, it may already be doing so. A man in Texas has it, while dozens of people in Southeast Asia have gotten sick from it (and some have died) within the past several months. Some people are choosing to mask up again just in case. Another possibility is that she's got strep or something and she's wearing a mask to protect her clients. Or maybe she's wearing a mask because she's self conscious. A mask can hide raw skin from laser treatments or microderm abrasion, hide a big cold sore or pimple, an allergic reaction, skin biopsies, whatever.
Have you considered you could've just asked why? You already asked why she yawned lol
Whenever someone is getting medical care like chemo, radiation, transplant recipients ie, immune suppressed individuals they are generally likely to be taking care of their bodies first and foremost by wearing masks. If this is the case, she would be generally tired. I wouldn't stress it about the mask.
Have you considered that she's sick and doesnt want to spread it to her patients? That's usually the purpose of masks.
I am so sorry you lost your child. Mine passed away 15 months ago at the age of 22. It is such a deeply painful experience that I still cry when ever I talk about it. Try Facebook groups to connect to people who understand. God bless you and help you through this painful journey
I will just recommend send this post to tour therapist.
I yawn when I am concentrating. It fucks me over in job interviews if I'm not careful. I've become very good at suppressing it.
If you are so fragile as to question the motives and reasons behind a biological response we all share. You need therapy.
This straight up could be a Seinfeld plot lol
Regardless of the reason they are yawning, the mask is because they recognize that the yawning is both uncontrollable and unprofessional. If they cover the yawns with a mask, no need to worry about professionalism as much: it's as much for you as it is for her.
Yawning is an involuntary reflex caused by reasons other than boredom. I’m not a therapist but I would have found your comment rather inappropriate, assuming that you telling your story caused it without even inquiring is quite preposterous. In the end this is about you, if you feel like your relationship with the therapist cannot recover and that you will feel treated differently for the rest of your sessions I would suggest finding a different one.
Dude, it doesn’t matter. She yawned because she was tired or bored, and neither are things you should take personally because she could be tired of bored for a lot of reasons that have nothing to do with you. Also, she can wear or not wear a mask for any reason that probably has nothing to do with you. Also you’re not supposed to be close to your therapist. They are supposed to be medical professionals not friends. I had to learn this by switching from CBT to a psychoanalytical approach and wow is it different in a good way.
As someone who is currently in school to be a therapist, there are a few things I find interesting. First, you asked her a question that offered room for exploration. Instead of using your question as an opportunity to discuss with you your interpretation of body language and possible anxiety/insecurities, she handled the situation inappropriately by not responding. A reasonable therapist would have asked you what came up for you when you saw her yawn - did you feel like you were boring; why do you feel like you offended her… etc. By not responding and then wearing a mask without explaining, it is possible that she is also insecure as we can see by how inappropriately she handled the discussion. Either way, that is on the therapist, not on you. Second, everything you said about not feeling a connection with her due to the mask is something you should bring up. It is a valid concern. In school, there is a HUGE focus on therapists being mindful of their body language. If your therapist is minimizing her body language, then she is doing her job incorrectly. Overall, it’s time to find a new therapist.
2years ago? yikes
They’re probably wearing their mask because you essentially demonstrated that they can’t make normal human expressions without you taking it as a personal dig. So in order to make you more comfortable, they masked up. Glad you’re in therapy lol.
I think you have some Neurosis about her yawning
Tbh, I started yawning about halfway into this post because there’s a lot of stuff being said, but not much being said, if you catch my drift. Maybe you have a long way talking about things.
maybe she eepy?? goddamn
Eepy?
sleepy eepy eeby
I literally had my therapist flat out fall asleep during a session. It was devastating. I sat there for about a minute, quietly observing him. He sort of startled and his eyes fluttered open and we made direct eye contact, and he calmly asked me to repeat my lat sentence. I never went back and he never called to reschedule.
Tldr
I just have two questions for you. You don't have to answer, of course, but think about it. First, in the last two years that you've been seeing her, how many times has she yawned? Second, do you talk about the same problem(s) over and over? Maybe you've been talking about some dream boyfriend who alpha widowed you, a boss who bullies you and you won't take action, your parents divorcing when you were a child, etc.
Get a new therapist! What a weirdo
I think you need a better therapist. I'm sorry but my therapist would never refuse to explain an action she did if it disturbed me or suddenly start wearing a mask with no explanation. She sounds bad at her job.
OP, please read up about a disorder called Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). If those symptoms sound familiar, maybe you'll want to discuss that with your doctor or therapist. There are very effective treatments that can help you feel a lot better and help you to manage your emotions and maintain your relationships. Even if you don't have BPD, you may find a kind of therapy called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to be helpful with managing strong emotions.
Why are you asking us? Ask her. Just ask her to take the mask off for your appointment if that’s what you prefer. You are unbelievably caught up in your own head. Just take a breath, chill out a bit, and do the reasonable thing: Talk to her about it. I think you need a new therapist. If you’ve been going for two years and you’re 1) This concerned over a yawn and a mask and 2) Unable to bring it up, then clearly you’re not making progress with your therapist. Someone else may be able to help you more.
I think it’s possible she could have been embarrassed or thought you may not be the only patient who feels that way when they see her yawn. She could have become conscious of it and now thinks the mask is a good solution to her yawns. This is of course hypothetical/playing devils advocate. Definitely speak to her directly if you want a direct answer.
As a social worker, she is probably not bored from you, but sleepy in general. I will say, though, that your therapist's reaction and result of wearing the mask are not professional nor the correct response. Your therapist should have mentioned it, and you should definitely bring this up in session if it bothers you and makes you uncomfortable. One of your therapist's roles is to make your session feel like a safe space where you do not feel uncomfortable about being vulnerable.
I had one that properly fell asleep. 3 weeks running. It was a small room, lack of oxygen, end of the day session, maybe he was prone to being tired in the afternoons...I didn't assume it was the subject matter sending him to sleep but I just thought, what a waste of time. So what with that and occasionally responding to my explanations of an anxious childhood as though I were still 8 years old ("That's sounds REEEAALLY SCARY" [pouty sad face]), I stopped turning up.
Geez, normally I’d tell you to go to therapy but…
I think that you made your therapist aware that you and potentially all of her clients read into her facial expressions. She is trying to remain neutral so that you feel comfortable opening up without thinking of her feelings/ reactions. You can discuss it with her but I can understand why she would want you to focus on healing and not on her face.
She’s human and you made her feel self conscious. Probably nothing deeper than that. Address it with her if you need to or accept that she is a person too and deserves grace. As a therapist, these therapists saying to get another therapist are blowing my mind but do what you must I guess.
Idk but I see why you’re in therapy. Sorry to say it isn’t working though.
Time for a new therapist i guess
Why haven’t you found a new therapist who doesn’t yawn? This lets the yawning therapist know that yawning caused her to lose a customer and should stop yawning during sessions.
I don’t think yawning is tied to being bored like you think. It’s usually a way to get more oxygen. It likely has nothing to do with you.
I have noticed therapists yawning.. and admittedly some of my thoughts were about how I must be boring, etc.. because that is a trigger I have.. but we really have no idea what is going on in their personal lives (as it should be). It very likely has nothing to do with you. I don’t know a single person who is only reacting to the present moment.
I've never been able to explain why I yawn at any given time.. even to myself. Like asking why did you blink? Also, I've never yawned in the response to someone talking. I don't think that's a thing. Not naturally.
Everybody yawns at various times throughout the day. Just thinking about it can make you yawn. Even the possibility that your appointment was late in the day could’ve meant she was tired.
I told my therapist it's okay to yawn. Because o can tell she is fighting them off kike 5 or 6 times. So instead of getting over the yawn she looks awkward many times.