I have a T who engages in a lot of self disclosure, but it is not detailed or extensive or in any way seeking a response from me. This T and one other T have both disclosed traumatic events, again in a very low-detailed way and without me feeling any pull to feel sorry for them or focus on them or react in any way to their disclosure. I might have said I was sorry that happened to them or something like that, but neither one of them encouraged me to focus on them.

Did it serve me? I am not sure. I know it didn't hurt me or upset me. I am sad that my T's had to experience something traumatic, but it was clear from their disclosure that they are healed from it. I do work exclusively with people who have been very, very traumatized, so I am practiced at learning how to respond to these kinds of disclosures. If you want to be a T, then I think it might serve you to practice learning to respond to disclosures. I think beyond professional training, I think the world might be a better place if everyone could handle disclosures of trauma with sensitivity and an okay-ness about them. There would probably be less silencing of survivors if that were true.

I think like with everything else, if you have a negative reaction to whatever your T does or doesn't do, it's not really a matter of what's right or what's professional. The point is for you to be able to talk with your T about it, understand your own reaction, and maybe understand her purpose behind her action or statement. And whether this served you or will serve you in the future as a client depends on your goals in therapy and what or who you want to be.