Posted by allisonf on August 18, 2003, at 22:26:23
In reply to therapy for mental health professionals..., posted by Penny on August 18, 2003, at 11:57:39
First of all, good luck to you as you start the process of becoming a therapist! Did I tell you a long time ago when we were e-mailing, that my goal is also to become a therapist/psychologist? So much of my therapy has been devoted to me accepting that I can become a therapist when I have mental health issues of my own. I worry if I am going into it for the wrong reasons...to solve my own problems rather than help others, because I admire my therapist, etc. But recently, I have really come to feel *so* strongly that my experiences battling depression, etc. are the *best* starting ground for empathy in this area. I think people like us have so much to offer other people who will be struggling with the same mental health issues we are today. Best of luck to you!! Keep me posted on your progress. I too am taking the GREs soon! Eeek.
So...to answer your question...my therapist has been in therapy. She talks about it occasionally. I know she also had a tough time deciding to become a psychologist and she had mental health issues in her family. She did have some psychoanalytic training and I'm assuming like Bekka said, that she had to be psychoanalysed to go thru it. I wonder tho if she is in therapy now. One time we talked about an episode of The Sopranos and how the psychiatrist in the show is also in therapy. My therapist seemed so unphased by it--as if it was common for therapists to be in therapy. Do you think this could be true?
My pdoc was also trained as a psychoanalyst but now he just does meds. I wish he was a bit more like yours and talked about his experiences with therapy. He is great at recommending books tho. Most recently he told me about "Mount Misery" by Samuel Shem. You shd ck it out--it's a really funny account of a psychiatrist in training.
Take care--Allison
poster:allisonf
thread:251832
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030814/msgs/251999.html