Sugar,

I really like this question.

In my opinion, the answer is yes and no (great, huh?) I think there is no one better to understand what you are going through than the person who has already walked thousands of miles in the same shoes. On the other hand, I think there are ways that therapists can get a lot closer to understanding than say, your friend or a spouse or Joe Smoe. And within the therapist realm, I think there is a wide range of "getting it" versus just not getting it.

I've worked in human services in a variety of capacities (never as a T). When I started I was very intrigued about schizophrenia and what it felt like. Of course, I couldn't ever know. What I did to try to get more perspective was read everything I could. I was extremely frustrated that I couldn't find any first person accounts (and btw this was long before A Beautiful Mind came out). And I finally, I found one and it was everything I hoped it would be. It described that first break in rich detail from the person who was experiencing schizophrenia's perspective. I really felt like I got somewhere, some kind of enhanced understanding that you don't get from textbook stuff or even a therapist's point of view on the illness. But naturally, I will never understand like another person with schizophrenia can understand (though it is probably a poor example considering the lack of social engagement nature of the illness, but you get the idea.)