My T has self-disclosed quite a bit about his trauma history. He actually told me the Cliff Notes version of his story at the end of our very first session. Most of the time I find that his self-disclosure to be very beneficial. I remember thinking at the end of the first session that if he was able to overcome his past, perhaps I can overcome mine.

He has self-disclosed too much, though. When he told me the "full" version of his story, it was more than I could handle. He said later that he said what he did in an effort to show how intimately he empathized with what I was going through. But it left me feeling sad for him. I wanted to take care of him and felt like I was a burden to him because I spent so much time talking about topics that were probably triggering to him.

What was most helpful was for me to discuss this with him. Now he doesn't self-disclose as much, but at this juncture in our relationship, that's probably for the best.