A Therapist Can't Say That EP 2.6: The Vulnerability of the Therapist as Client
Being in therapy as a therapist, and being a therapist for therapists, is a bit like magicians trying to entertain each other. We’ve studied the tricks and techniques. We’ve seen behind the curtain and we can’t pretend otherwise.
There is enormous pressure for each of us to do our own work in therapy in order to be good clinicians for our clients, but therapists are truly a special population. We carry the weight of other people’s stuff, and we’re much more likely to need to unload about our work in session. And yet, knowing what we know, it can be difficult to let go–about work or whatever we’re trying to parse through–without fear of being judged as bad therapists.
On the clinician side, we know, or at least sense, that therapists need something a bit more from us, but there’s no specific training in just what that is or how to give it.
So what do we do? How do we approach being in therapy as a therapist and providing therapy to therapists?
I’ve been mulling over those questions since my conversation with Dr. Elene Herrera in the last episode, and today I’m digging into where I think we can go from here.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
- How therapists’ inside knowledge of the therapeutic process and of being a therapist impacts our experience of therapy
- What needs to change on the macro level of our professional culture to better provide treatment for therapist clients
- Why we have got to stop being so quick to harshly judge each other if we want to be better clinicians to each other
- Why we need to accept and invite human messiness into our sessions with therapists as clients
- What we can do in session to break through barriers to get our therapist clients to be vulnerable with us
Learn more about Riva Stoudt:
Resources: