[ladoglover]

I was taught that a therapist should point out the positives to the client and not dwell on the negatives. So when she said great job for self soothing she was trying to focus on what you did positive therefore she was not dismissing your feelings or not acknowledge them by saying that. What did you want to the therapist to do, dwell on the negative that yeah your sad that sucks? The therapists job is to help the client get better and one way of doing that is getting the client out of that negative loop they have by pointing out the positives. So then the client can be like oh you know what things are not black and white. I may feel horrible but there can still be some good at the same time . Like I was able to self soothe even though I felt really depressed. I do agree thought that the counselor needs to first acknowledge the clients feelings first then point out the positives.