Do therapists go to therapy?

Most have gone to or continue to go to therapy, and those who haven’t been in therapy, are doing themselves and their patients a disservice. Therapy is one of the primary ways clinicians gain deep insight into the process, learn how to manage their own issues, and most importantly, learn how to keep their own issues separate from those of their patients. Therapists who think they don’t need to be in treatment themselves are lacking insight, self-reflection, and are at risk of (unconsciously) using their own patients to deal with their own psychological issues.

Without being able to understand their own issues, and without understanding the process as a patient, they are far less likely to do
it well. Being a therapist means hearing about people’s deepest darkest secrets, many of which may be painful and disturbing. This is likely to kick up feelings and past experiences from the therapists own life, and without having gone through their own therapy, may confuse their own issues with their patients.

If a therapist is having a hard time dealing with their own feelings and issues because of their work with a particular patient, they should ideally see another therapist to work on this in treatment.

2018-06-19T01:18:51+00:00 May 7th, 2018|