Are You Too Attached to Your Therapist?

Do you think about your therapist between sessions? Check their social media? Spiral when they cancel? A licensed therapist explains why attachment to your therapist happens, why it's actually part of the process, and the exact signs that tell you when it's crossed into unhealthy territory.

In this episode of Ask Kati Anything, licensed marriage and family therapist Kati Morton breaks down the therapeutic relationship: the single strongest predictor of whether therapy actually works. She answers listener questions about feeling "creepy" for looking up their therapist, why therapy can feel transactional and fake, and what therapists are really noticing about you in session. Then she walks through the attachment ladder, the four stages that explain why your therapist starts to feel like the only person who truly gets you, and closes with a complete checklist of healthy vs. unhealthy therapeutic relationship signs.

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 What is the therapeutic relationship?

1:21 The #1 predictor of successful therapy

2:26 Q1: "I'm attached to my therapist and feel like a creep"

5:52 Attachment wounds: why your therapist fills the void

11:54 What your therapist is actually noticing in session

15:20 Q2: "I feel closer to my therapist than anyone in my life"

16:56 The attachment ladder: 4 stages of attaching to your therapist

23:13 Q3: "Therapy feels transactional and the care feels bought"

28:21 Why you need to put the phone down and just think