I am also surprised that being in therapy is not a requirement for any training programs in the US, whether it be for a masters, phd or an md. I do think therapy is one of those things where it's hard to understand what the client experiences in any way unless you've been through it yourself. Granted, everyone's experience differs so much that even then there's no guarantee that that will make a difference with a lot of therapists. It's not always because they haven't been through therapy either- sometimes it's just youth and inexperience (especially where child behavior is the case). So many therapists make a clinical issue out of something that is just a normal part of development that it's alarming to me.