In a way, the human condition comes out in therapy, intensified to the nth degree. Whatever unfillableness, longing, memories of violence, awareness of mutability and fear of impermanence we have, whatever fragilities, are summoned from the unconscious while our defenses against them are dismantled. The cliche of therapists is one can only take a client as far as one has been oneself. It becomes dangerous when you have a trauma client in the hands of an inexperienced clinician or someone with a personality disorder matched to a therapist with secure attachment and training in CBT only or a SU client with a burned out and spiritually exhausted T who phones it in for the requisite 45 minutes. Poor fits and mismatches not just between client needs and therapist, but even between modalities of practice make it more of a gamble than it should be, and a drastic gamble for those with SH SUI and psychic pain on an excruciating level. It is a conundrum bc those new to therapy do not know who and what they need, and not all therapists seem self aware about their limits . I still think healing can take place within the client-t relationship if the t has done his/her own work , feels a sense of calling/ meaningfulness about the work, and has depth and breadth of training relevant to the case .