T's with emotional problems

I think I am aware that some people here are mental health professionals, on some level. Could you discuss the problems, advantages, disadvantages, of people with some unresolved emotional matters treating "patients" or "clients"?

You can tell me to go away if you think this discussion is not appropriate here.

I am not a mental health professional as such, I use my psychological knowledge to help people with serious severe physical disabilities. I chose to work in this field because of the complexities and challenges.

Now to practice, I have had to go through police checks and a very tough medical. The occupational health department have access to all my past history if they wish. As a British Psychologial Society Member I have to be fit to practice.

I have had problems in the past and occasionally dip but I know how to keep myself fit and well and I am always mindful how well I need to be to continue to practice. I believe that I have extra insight into peoples problems and a heap big load full of empathy but I do really believe that anyone working in my field needs to be in as tip top condition as they can be. I am a human being though!

That's good!

I wish all mental health people saw us in the same light.

I am only a client. But my T is also a client. He has fought an amazing battle - and continues to win each day. For me, because he has shared a small amount of his struggle with me, I have a lot more respect for what he says. I don't think a T has to have walked a mile in the clients shoes to be able to help them, but I do think it can make a huge difference in certain situations. Because my situation involves CSA and PTSD, having a T who also has a past of CSA and has ongoing PTSD, I am able to feel that when he says he is sorry that I am having a rough day that he does know what I am going through for real - not just book knowing or experience in seeing it from others.

I think that--just like any field--the T with life experience and practice dealing with his or her own personal struggles will be more empathic and possibly better able to help you rather than someone who hasn't struggled at all. T's must have supervision and it is in their supervision (if they're not still in regular therapy) that they can continue to unload any stuff that naturally will be triggered in the intense treatment of others. I would hope that they can deal with any unresolved emotional issues that arise and compartmentalize enough so they don't interfere. But inevitably their crap will enter the relationship because, as Peg said, T's are human too! However, if a T's emotional issues crop up again and again then he or she would have to seek special help or take a break for self-care.

i think, like in any profession, there are good Ts and there are bad Ts.
and there are good Ts with emotional problems, and there are bad Ts with emotional problems.

i'm currently debating whether i want to continue studying to become a registered psych (or if instead a career in academia might be better suited for me). our honours year is incredibly stressful, which means i find out about a lot of my friends' emotional problems that i wouldn't have otherwise found out about. lots of therapy cases here!! that cliche about people going into psychology because they're crazy...

i think if a T has had appropriate (useful) therapy, then their past experience could be useful. but i don't think it's necessary and i don't think it's a virtue (i.e., that they'll necessarily be more empathetic). it scares me the number of registered psychs i know who i would not want treating me - but maybe they are able to hold it together for their clients(?).

i think the hard thing is in knowing when you need to step back yourself (as a T) and having the courage and decency to do so. i think a lot of Ts practice when they shouldn't be practicing because a) they've studied 7+ years for this and b) it's their livelihood. i used to volunteer as a crisis counsellor (on phone) and eventually i gave that up because i wasn't able to commit to my responsibilities properly. it was a difficult decision for me because it felt like i was admitting to failure. i wonder how much more difficult it would have been had i spent years of training and needed the income from it also.

from a client's point of view.... austin-t has a personality disorder (OCPD) and because i'm very similar to him it's been immensely useful. i don't feel like a freak when i tell him the way i do things, because usually he's laughing right alongside me and one-upping it. there have been occassions though where he's been super controlling, and i wish he didn't have it. i don't think he's been aware when it's been interfering and damaging to my therapy.

at the same time, though, pdoc doesn't have any emotional problems but there are things that are hot buttons for him too, where he won't be as good a pdoc because of what we're discussng. countertransference and all that. so maybe there are problems regardless.

one thing though is that pdoc has never experienced depression himself, but i believe him more when he says he understands what i'm going through. because he understands what I, uniquely, am going through - what my depression is. Austin-t has gone through depression (not long term) but when he says he understands it feels more like he's projecting his experiences onto me - and relating to me from where he stands, instead of coming close to where i am.

i dont know, just a few thoughts. good topic, pachy .

MY best friend in college struggled with eating disorders during high school and college, body image, self-esteem etc. She went on to become a clinical psychologist (PhD) and is now - after 20 yr - in private practice with a focus on eating disorders.

I think you are going to find both sides - mental health professionals who are taking care of themselves, and others who are not. Just like real life.

Resolved is certainly better than unresolved..............

Most definitely.

i think this pretty much says it. everyone has issues; it's whether or not a T chooses to work on their issues that makes a difference in their interactions with their clients. i see it as more of a continuum of health rather than a black and white issue of some Ts having no unresolved issues with others having issues. from what i can see there is a vast array of Ts with some being quite healthy and others being downright dangerous and lots of Ts in between of varying competency/emotional health.

I don't think any T feels they have "unresolved emotional matters" or they would not feel ready to be a T? I have been all the way through therapy and consider myself "resolved" but I do not know what the future holds and whether there will be times when I will want someone to discuss my problems with. However, that being the case, it won't be problems stemming from things I dealt with in therapy; if those are dealt with, they don't accidentally/suddenly "come back". However, I am, by birth/nature a more anxious person. What was resolved was how I dealt with experiences that made me anxious as a child, before I could understand them in an adult manner. My nature cannot be changed, it's part of who I am. I know that now and can generally be aware and deal with my thoughts and feelings in a healthy, adult fashion; soothe, encourage, reassure myself, but if you were to suddenly call on me from a podium in a large room with a large audience and ask me to come forward and speak. . .

i dont think there is any advantage to being in treatment with a therapist who has unresolved issues, unless that person is in therapy.

i personally dont want to see a therapist who has never had his/her own therapy...

Even "having" therapy guarantees nothing. Having it is what goes in, or tries to; what signifies is what sticks. Teaching is not equal to learning. Which is why lots of letters after a person's name is insufficient evidence of accomplishment, I regret to say. Schools, in some cases at least, do not want to take the (sometimes considerable) trouble to monitor results. That's what I think, anyway.

Agreed that is not a role of the training program, at least at present. I guess the university gives the degree based on achievement of certain requirements and after that, the state gives the license based on some combination of coursework, a licensing exam, and a certain number of hours of supervised experience with supervisors who are trained in supervision. There is no official "aftersight" after the person is licensed, unless they commit some ethical violation or are grossly negligent and it can be documented. After being licensed, the T stays in business based at least in part (I hope) on his results and competence. If a T is not effective, clients will not stick with him/her, not recommend to friends and colleagues, etc. So this kind of T might be marked by a pattern of having clients only for a few sessions or months. It's kind of an informal way--a marketplace way--of weeding out those who are incompetent (they won't be able to make a living, so they get out of the profession). At least in theory.... And the insurance companies may look at a pattern like this--clients routinely "complete" therapy after only 6 sessions!--and say, "hey, this T is highly efficient, we definitely want him as part of our preferred provider network."

I wonder if that is how it was for my first therapist? I found her through my EAP, and not knowing anything about therapists, I assumed she was fine. But now that I have had a good therapist, I understand she was very ineffective. In fact, I believe most of her business was in providing acupuncture services. (Perhaps I was her only psychotherapy client?) Surely she did not intend to be an acupuncturist when she got her MSW, so perhaps she was such an ineffective therapist she had to learn a new skill--acupuncture--to support herself? Or she ended up hating being a therapist so she branched out?

Actually, it could work that way. A very very good therapy might achieve results in quite a short time. Probably not 6 sessions, though.

Starting this thread was prompted by something in a book I just read, The Center Cannot Hold, by Elyn Saks. She is now a tenured professor at the University of Southern California Gould Law School.

Her story is that of someone in and out of what she herself called florid psychosis, which she managed to combat with medication and extensive psychoanalysis, in a heroic struggle lasting many years (and continuing to some extent even now). Towards the end of the book she wrote that she was in training at a psychoanalytic institute, thinking of becoming a psychoanalyst herself. But she changed that idea since publishing the book (in her own name, not a pseudonym), feeling that it might be unfair now to treat clients.

So, that is what prompted my question: thinking as a potential client how I would react to someone whom I thought might still have major challenges of her own. Would that person be able to help me if I entered some kind of crisis? Would that person know herself well enough to be able to see me (or any client) as I am and not replace the actual me in her mind with some person she saw through her own fears as "bad"?

This is not to put down Ms. Saks, since from her writing I see her as just about as honest a person in telling about herself as I have ever read. But my judgement is that there are a lot of people, in and out of this profession, who do not really know the sources of their own feelings and thoughts. When I feel confident I can see these people and not be overly upset by them. If I am not confident, they can evoke a huge amount of fear, since they claim the danger is me and people like me, not them. And I feel they can get a lot of people to agree with them.

TMI?

I think many people go into 'psychology' for the wrong reasons, maybe some feel the right reasons? I'm not sure. ie. Maybe with fanciful ideas that they can cure others! Or do the psychology degree to help themselves rather than helping others. Here in the UK there are about 55,000 psychologists but only about 12,000 are practicing psychotherapy. That's an awful lot that fall on the way side.

I think some go into it for the money, top chartered psychologists get paid heaps of money and then they can become obnoxious. I'm a little psychologist, I have no wanting to earn big bucks (pounds) I just enjoy helping people. Sometimes I enjoy it too much and overwork myself, simply because there is a drive in me that would like to do this 24 - 7!!

Yeah, I do think the right reasons for wanting to be a psychologist have to be there in the first place.

Sorry for rambling ((((( pachy )))))

Now how can I make lots of money being obnoxious?

(Hmmm. We have some radio and television personalities over here who do that and make scads of money...)

pachyderm the psychologist? I wonder...

The very idea would give some people an unconquerable panic attack...

He he! You made me smile! Hugs to ya!

I outed myself as a T here awhile back. And yeah, I'm in therapy. Unresolved issues? Hell, we all have those. I started therapy years and years ago. Never did I consider becoming a T until many, many years had past and I earned my Masters and my liscense. I started therapy again when life brought more issues up.

I know that my own experience as a client has positively impacted my work. I 'get' what it's like. And I know first hand that as long as a person is alive, there is hope. I give a unique perspective to things during case meetings.

And how I work in crisis? I'm at my best. Today was all about crisis. I know how to take care of myself, and can be fully present with my clients when they need it. I know what it's like to feel abandoned. I also know what it's like to feel connected and safe in a therapy relationship. My own therapy has taught me to be stable, strong, and that anything is possible.

Nearly every single therapist I know has been, or is, in therapy. We practice what we preach- self-care. And, yeah, if my mom is dying and I have unresolved issues that pop up, I'll seek out someone to help. No one is perfectly sane. I know of psychiatrists and therapists who have killed themselves. I'd bet money they weren't in treatment.

I know I'm good at what I do. I work with the very ill and the very poor. High needs, high levels of suicide. Yet every day I walk in with hope for all of my clients, and with a sense of dedication and purpose. I also know that for now, my T helps me. None of my clients know I'm in treatment. Nor should they, necessarily. What matters is that I'm skilled, compassionate, and dedicated.

Sorry this is so long. Today was a 12 hour day because- yep- clients in crisis. And tomorrow I'll do it again, and my heart will be 100% there.

having therapy is no guarantee of the therapist being balanced or at least equipped to handle his/her emotional issues....but it certainly raises the odds, in my experience.

I was reading an interview with psychologist Victor Yalom (son of Irvin Yalom) and I liked his thoughts on ways a person can prepare themselves for a career as a psychotherapist:

Expose yourself to as many teachers and supervisors and personal therapists as possible. One of the most powerful ways I think we learn is to be in personal therapy, to be able to have the experience of how therapy works from the client’s perspective, to be able to observe first-hand how another therapist operates, and how it can really make a change in one’s life. I think there is no better teacher than a good personal therapist.
http://contemporarypsychotherapy.org...nterview-with/

I do think the experience of being in therapy oneself can teach a lot about the therapeutic relationship and the different types of therapy. This information may be harder to garner or internalize if obtained only through lectures and books.