Thread: Love in therapy
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Old May 23, 2018, 12:28 PM
Ididitmyway's Avatar
Ididitmyway Ididitmyway is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by junkDNA View Post
I agree and I think maintaining objectivity is one of the most important things in any therapeutic relationship. however I also think it's one of the hardest things

my former pdoc told me he had lost objectivity and could not be my pdoc anymore

once a mental health professional has lost their objectivity... I think treatment goes out the window

but I do think it's something that can be slightly out of control until it becomes apparent... and stepping back from that is probably very hard as well
I agree. I would even say that complete objectively is impossible to achieve and maintain. As humans, we always look at everything through the lenses of our experiences and biases, at least to some extend. It also has been shown scientifically that our physical sense such as hearing, sight, smell, touch can detect a very limited range of sensations/information on which we base our view of the world, and so our view of the world and other people is very limited.

However, when one is in a professional role, he has to be aware of those limitations and make his best effort to detect how his feelings, beliefs, attitudes etc might affect his view of his clients and his work. When he is making this effort then he is fulfilling his responsibility to stay objective. Any "big" or fairly intense feeling like love, whether it's platonic or not, or anger or frustration will affect his ability to do that and so, when he detects it within himself, he is supposed to refer the client to another practitioner, as, at this point, he is unable to do his job.

I'd also say that if therapy was done differently, it it was more like a consultation where T answers specific questions/concerns and gives his professional opinion on the situation as opposed to engaging in a "therapeutic relationship" and endless analyses of that "relationship" and endless unfocused talks about how the client feels at the moment and what happened to her during the week, most of which goes nowhere, then no strong feelings would ever arise on both sides.
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