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Old Apr 15, 2016, 01:14 AM
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Ididitmyway Ididitmyway is offline
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Member Since: Jul 2011
Posts: 2,071
There seems to be two separate issues here.

One is the actual question of whether a therapist can take a client further in their healing/development than a therapist him/herself has been able to achieve.

The way I could answer this is just sharing what I know from my personal experience. In all my therapies I could always see clearly when the current therapist had approached his/her limit in how much he/she could help me. There was always a point at which I felt like we were going in circles and were chewing the same gum with no additional insights or any information I could use. At those moments, it did feel like I had outgrown the therapist and had gone further in my healing/development than they'd gone in theirs, so I'd realize that I needed to move on to something more suitable to who I had become. I wasn't always easy to leave because of the attachment to the person and to the process but eventually I'd leave because the wiser part of me knew it was necessary.

A while ago my answer to your question would've been be just "no". At this time, I prefer not to think in terms of comparisons of who's done more personal work, the therapist or I, because that is of no concern to me. What is of concern to me is whether the situation serves me or not. If it doesn't serve me by my assessment, I simply recognize the reality for what it is and try to move on.

As a therapist, I've also tried not to be obsessed about bringing myself to a certain developmental level in order to work with clients. This kind of attitude creates a lot of self-criticism and harsh self-judgement that doesn't help either the therapist or the clients. I've always been engaged in my personal work more than anyone I know, not because I feel that it's my obligation to do so but because I want to do so, because it makes my life more interesting and fulfilling. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, I've always been doing my work to the best of my ability. Setting some kind of "standards" and beating myself up for not reaching them doesn't make any sense to me. From my experience, healing can't be forced. It has its own pace, rhythm and "schedule" for every individual and it is what it is whether you like it or not.

Which brings me to the second point and that is how your therapist is doing her job. She is judging you for not doing the personal work she believes you "should' be doing in order to be an effective therapist. Ironically, she seems to have forgotten that part of being an effective therapist is to listen with empathy and compassion and to try to understand your struggles as opposed to telling you what you "should" be doing. Your being a therapist doesn't mean she should express less empathy and compassion for you than for any of her other clients.

My major "litmus test" for all my therapists had been whether I'd do to my clients what they were doing to me and if my answer was "no" it was a clear indication that my therapy was going in the wrong direction. You mentioned in one of your posts that you wouldn't treat a client the way your therapist is treating you. This is important to think about.
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