Telling clients

As a general rule I don't like to share personal information with my clients.  I don't even keep family photos on my desk (other than a picture of Roxy) to keep my boundaries with them.  So when something so obviously personal like pregnancy comes up, it becomes a little awkward in the therapeutic relationship.  The most important feature of one's relationship with the therapist is that it is completely one-sided.  We are here to talk about you, not me.  But when there is a pregnancy in the room, it becomes very interesting and what people want to talk about.  And it becomes a lot of work to get them to focus on their own stuff.  When you work with kids you also get to deal with weird questions and even weirder name suggestions (one kid believes "Dinosaur" is the best name option).

What's funny to me is that despite the fact that I haven't been working to hide my belly, clients have only recently started to notice.  The reaction has been varied, from a 6 year old girl pretending to faint to an adult bluntly asking me if this was planned or not.  I have a book called "My Teacher is Having a Baby" that I found one day thrifting that has helped me to talk to my kids about it, but I always forget to leave out the part at the end when the teacher brings the baby in to visit.  I'm not sure I want the kids I work with to be around my baby, as I had to tell at least one of them what was happening so that she would be more gentle with me in her play and stop barreling into my legs.  Another one insisted that he would be able to take my baby home after he met it.  Soooo, yeah.  Maybe just a quick picture?

Overall the biggest question is always, "what's going to happen to me?," wondering if I'm going to quit the biz and reassign them to a new therapist.  My answer is always, you will do without me for six weeks, then I'll be back.  It's a little flattering to hear that none of them so far have wanted a new therapist, and that they are all relieved that I will be back.  I just hope I can keep my promise and come back after only six weeks like I plan to do!