Impaired Therapists

Curt and Katie talk about therapists who become impaired – by substance abuse, cognitive decline, their own mental health concerns, burnout, etc. The challenges of addressing impaired therapists given the ethics codes, the lack of effective means to make complaints, and the difficulty in finding effective solutions.        

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

In this episode we talk about:

• The definition of Impaired Therapist
• The lack of recent research on the topic
• The types of impairment: substance abuse, cognitive decline, mental health concerns, burnout
• Why and how therapists can become impaired
• Looking at how therapists are more likely to have these impairments
• The responsibilities and challenges of observing impairment of others (especially depending on the role, supervisor, supervisee, colleague)
• The ethical responsibility to pay attention to your own potential impairment
• The challenge of making a complaint related to an impaired therapist
• Looking at the ethics code, with the responsibility to approach impaired colleague first
• How the interaction in the Facebook groups is not necessarily taking care of this responsibility well.
• The harm of shaming therapists – and the importance of supporting each other
• The impact of the power differential on having these difficult conversations
• The negative impacts on clients and treatment team members from impaired therapists
• What is the difference between impaired therapists and bad therapy?
• The importance of the response and introspection related to impairment
• What we’re supposed to do when we identify an impaired colleague, supervisor, or supervisee
• Who are the gatekeepers? Why is it important?
• A strange foray into the thoughts on vigilante therapists and the #cardigancartel