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Originally Posted by here today
The doctors were told to wash their hands thoroughly before they examined patients after they had been doing autopsies. As horrifying as it sounds today, they did autopsies as well as the patient exams with their bare hands, back before anybody knew for sure about “germs”.
Based on my experience, the equilvalent of “germs” include therapists’ shaming, invalidating, belittling behaviors, many of which are probably reactions when the therapist is (possibly unconsciously) feeling defensive. I think it’s unrealistic to expect even the best-trained therapists to be able to screen themselves well all of the time.
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Well said and I think this is an apt analogy -- surgeons needing to wash their hands, therapists needing to cleanse their neuroses.
I would add though that even if a therapist has done extensive therapy of their own, that is no guarantee whatsoever that they are psychologically and emotionally healthy. Their therapist might have been messed up, and theirs before, like a dysfunctional family that passes its pathology through the generations. Or any number of things could have gone wrong, the very things that we as clients go through.
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Originally Posted by here today
I agree that the problem is systemic. It is not reasonable to put the problem on the clients’ back, though. I’m not sure what the solution is – I could suggest some things but the real issue is that the mental health profession needs to address the re-traumatization issue. I’m confident there are psychologists out there who are well-trained and could conduct a thorough study, if there were sufficient public outcry (not likely) or if there are people within the field who are concerned, like Semmelweis was.
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Strongly agree.