Yes, he has talked about his own struggles. I've worked with him a long time, and over the years there have been occasions when he shared parts of his own story with me as they were relevant to what we were discussing. He's spoken of his divorce, his intense phobia of snakes (some great stories there), his struggle with a congenital vision problem that made reading difficult, issues he had with his own children, grief over the death of his cousin, etc. These were topics that came up as similarities to things going on in my own life, offered up one at a time, in very small bits.

The way he revealed that kind of information was appropriate and helpful. I've had other T's I tried who revealed too much, too soon, too inappropriately, that completely turned me off, so how a therapist goes about discussing their own life has to been done after a certain level of comfort and trust is reached I think -- at least for me.