I personally find it more comfortable knowing a bit about my therapists because for example One psychiatrist called me narcisistic because I told him about my public side. Because he had never worked with clients that have gone public and did the things that I have done and he had no personal experience of the behind the scenes of what it takes to be apart of such a life that I had and So he considered my experiences to be delusional and so forth. But then you have a therapist on the other end of the spectrum that has experienced problems of their own simular to what I had gone through and that therapist has been around the type of things that I would be telling her about including my going public she isn't going to see my corresponding with the likes of lawyers, doctors, published professionals other survivors and the behinds the scenes of my testifying in a government task force as being delusions and a narcisistic personality disorder. That therapist is going to be able to look beyond the textbooks and see me and my problems for what they really are. I had a therapist who did not realize I was experiencing flashbacks and the result was two involuntary commitments. She was very knowledgeable in working with sexual abuse survivors but had no hands on with someone who had experienced flashbacks in her personal life or with the clients in fact my file number was 004 - I was her 4th true sexual assault survivor that she was working with. Knowing some of the therapist personal life and background and experiences helps clients to know if that therapist is right for them. I don't expect to like each and every one of my therapists. In fact the one I have now I knew I was going to hate her just because of the circumstances that lead me to her. Whether or not I like a therapist doesn't figure in when I decide who to see. I look at background and life experiences that may be in common so that I don't end up locked in some nut ward due to that therapist not having personal or work experience with what that therapist is going to be experiencing having me for a client. Forget about me having to understand and put up with the therapist the therapist needs to have enough personal experience with the things that I had gone through and have done in order not to mis interpret what I tell them