I just got back from session, worked up instead of feeling better. I'm working at a board and care facility for disabled adults with psychotic disorders. A resident ended up in a locked unit against her will after a series of sloppy and careless moves that involved different entities having power struggles with each other instead of caring about the resident, who frankly did not meet the legal requirements to be held against her will.

I was really bothered by the whole thing, every aspect of it, and felt like I would have to face a conflict when she got back about how to be genuine with her but not really allowed to say how wrong I thought things were and how badly I thought she was treated.

I expressed this in session since we are strongly encouraged to use our personal therapy for things that come up while being an intern. Also I am not sure that I would want to raise this with my supervisor since he has a very distant approach and I am also not sure if our relationship is confidential.

My therapist compared my experience to his experience as a resident in a locked ward. He seems to think that drawing this parallel somehow helps. He ended up just saying that with these "lifers" as he called them, this would be one of my challenges, to handle the fact that they no longer have autonomy.

I don't feel like anything got resolved. In fact, I feel worse. One of the things that has been happening is that I feel a divide between the clients and how the "system" treats them, and I am clearly aligned on the side of the clients. When my own therapist starts feeling like he is also aligned with the "system" I start to feel very alone and demoralized.