I always thought of self-dislosure as personal. The question, "Does your therapist self-dislcose?" made me think of a therapist telling a client about personal stuff-- history that he thought would help the client, family issues, where he went on vacation, etc. My therapist never disclosed anything personal to me, only that he doesn't like 'American Idol.' (Long story, lol. He said, "I don't think it would be too much self-disclosure to tell you....") But anyway, I have always been very content with the fact that he does not disclose personal information. My 1st therapist would disclose personal information here and there-- where she went on vacation, what colleges her kids were going to, etc. I didn't like it. I ended up focusing too much on the personal stuff I know and there ended up being a lot of unnecessary transference there.

I know that when I end up doing individual therapy with clients, I will keep with the concept of not disclosing personal information. As far as group therapy, which is what I'm doing now, I do disclose little bits of information. For example, when I am doing music therapy, if a client asks me what type of music I listen to, I will tell. It facillitates conversation among group members. It's different in group therapy, especially in an acute inpatient setting, as you may want the clients to model your behavior. I would not do the same in an individual setting.

So what is the point of this? Yes, you might be asking yourselves that at this time, lol... The point is, I always thought that my therapist never self-discloses to me. Then I found out that he does, in fact, self-disclose. He self-discloses quite often.

There is the here-and-now type of self-disclosure. The disclosure of emotion. So, so important. When my T tells me how he is feeling at the moment when I tell him something; when he feels along with me; when I can see it so genuinely in his face-- he is engaging in self-disclosure of the here-and-now of his emotions.