For me it's not a black and white issue. I am not against self-disclosure in principle, but it has to be done mindfully, not habitually like in normal social situations. As a therapist I know that the rule of thumb with self-disclosure is to do it only if the therapist has a good reason to believe that it would benefit the client. As a client, I felt the same way about my therapists' disclosure of personal information. Most of the time I didn't want to know anything about them. Occasionally though I needed to know if they could relate to my experience because they have experienced something similar and then I'd just ask them. The gave me the information I needed every time I asked and it was minimal, just enough for me to know that they do "get it", and that's all I needed.

I don't feel like I need to know something personal about a therapist in order to experience them as a real human being and not a blank screen. In most cases I much prefer to see their humanness in their behavior, in how they treat me and in their views on life, on suffering and healing. There is so much a person can communicate about themselves without sharing any personal information that no self-disclosure is needed with the exception of the situation I described above.