My own experiences in couples therapy align with the other two comments. In my experience it was used against me, as a way of not acknowledging the burden of the domestic labor. My ex husband refused to do laundry, dishes, essentially do anything related to maintaining the home. But instead of “hey, adults have to clean up after themselves” the therapy speak turned it into “your love language is cleaning, and his isn’t, so he doesn’t have to do anything.” His love language was “gifts” and “words of affirmation” also, so I also wasn’t “matching” his love language, because I wasn’t constantly praising and giving him things.
So you had to speak your husband’s “love language”, but he didn’t have to speak yours? Drag thinks the root of that problem is the idea that women owe men love, and men don’t owe anything.
Any tool can be used for good or bad. It’s a tool.
I’m sorry you experienced that, you shouldn’t have, but it’s not the fault of the tool, it’s the fault of those who used information improperly and abusively.
Do you think they would have come to a different conclusion with a different toolbox? Because I mean… you have to want to be a raging pile of shit to use tools in such a way as to make you more of a raging pile of shit…
It’s the same way most of the actual helpful clinical therapy language has been co-opted by abusers. It’s not the tools, it’s the abusers that are the problem.
My own experiences in couples therapy align with the other two comments. In my experience it was used against me, as a way of not acknowledging the burden of the domestic labor. My ex husband refused to do laundry, dishes, essentially do anything related to maintaining the home. But instead of “hey, adults have to clean up after themselves” the therapy speak turned it into “your love language is cleaning, and his isn’t, so he doesn’t have to do anything.” His love language was “gifts” and “words of affirmation” also, so I also wasn’t “matching” his love language, because I wasn’t constantly praising and giving him things.
So you had to speak your husband’s “love language”, but he didn’t have to speak yours? Drag thinks the root of that problem is the idea that women owe men love, and men don’t owe anything.
Any tool can be used for good or bad. It’s a tool.
I’m sorry you experienced that, you shouldn’t have, but it’s not the fault of the tool, it’s the fault of those who used information improperly and abusively.
Do you think they would have come to a different conclusion with a different toolbox? Because I mean… you have to want to be a raging pile of shit to use tools in such a way as to make you more of a raging pile of shit…
It’s the same way most of the actual helpful clinical therapy language has been co-opted by abusers. It’s not the tools, it’s the abusers that are the problem.