Posted by pegasus on February 23, 2004, at 13:42:27
In reply to Re: from Ms. Schmidt: therapist self disclosure, posted by Joslynn on February 23, 2004, at 9:11:07
I thought I understood that Ms Schmidt was saying that if the disclosure about sexual attraction was designed to somehow foster an environment that was therapeutically beneficial to the client, then it would generally be seen as ok. But, of course, it's easy to imagine lots of situations where that type of disclosure wouldn't be about helping the client's therapy.
My old T once told me that he would tell me anything about himself, if it seemed like that would be helpful for my therapy. And, at a couple of points in my therapy he did tell me very personal things, which - in the context of what we'd been talking about - did make a difference in how I approached those issues. I think in one case it was a misjudgement, and made me hesitate to self-disclose on that particular topic in the future. In the another case, it was very helpful, and really opened up some areas that had been difficult in the past. I appreciated him taking those risks, and I trust that he was motivated by helping me - not by gratifying his own needs. So that seems ok to me.
- p
poster:pegasus
thread:316425
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040218/msgs/316867.html