Is therapy an easy job?

Do we get to only answer based on your limited interpretation of therapy or do we answer based on a more realistic assertion of what therapy involves?

Oh! I do not think you are wrong. The solo practitioner with no colleagues with whom to consult could get away with it for a long long time. If not indefinitely, if they were subtly bad.

yes - knowing that it's absolutely crucial you say the exact right thing, at the exact right time, in the exact right way... or you might retraumatize the client, might undo months or years of patient progress... the pressure is probably intense.

look at all the threads here on PC where people recount a misstep from T and the damage it does. I can't see them sitting back taking it easy. and as for 'enjoying themselves' - frankly that shocked me - it would take a pretty despicable person to enjoy seeing so many people in so much pain, day after day, year after year. This doesn't even bear thinking about.

Originally Posted by sittingatwatersedge
this completely dismisses the idea of the enlightened witness, the compassionate guide. Without which - IMO - therapy will not work.


Yup... I rest my case!

I am always impressed at how much my T is paying attention during my sessions. Not only is he paying attention to what I say, he's noticing how I hold my body, every flick of my eyebrows. In the beginning I thought he just sat there, but he's working the whole time.

Happily there are other theories that work just fine for me.

I think being a therapist is just like any other job. Those who are good at it make it LOOK easy, but in reality, it comes with its own set of challenges. To the outsider, or even clients, it may look like a cushy job, sit in a chair all day and nod your head, throw in a few words, collect the money.

In reality, for them to be effective and good at their job, they are always analyzing EVERYTHING clients say, and observing everything we do. As someone mentioned, I was shocked the first time my T pointed out some of my minute body language. It made me think "he saw that? OMG I thought he was just relaxing listening to me babble".

Therapists also have work to do keeping their licenses current, reading up on the latest trends and changes in the field, perhaps consulting with other colleagues if they have a difficult or challenging client, and managing the business side of their practice. Just managing the business side (scheduling, finances, etc), can be a part time job in itself.

However, if a person really loves their job, then to them, it's easy and they make it look easy as well.

I think you are right. And I think bad Ts aren't rare.

I think only in the sense that all jobs could be easy. It depends on what the worker puts into/wants from the job. I had a friend, a therapist, talk to me about how, sometimes, it's kind of boring, like watching grass grow :-) and I can't think that working with that is particularly easy? It would be kind of like doing one's filing or returning phone calls, a very necessary part of the job but not easy by virtue of not being very interesting, not primarily why you are there.

For therapists, I would think, the job is the relationship pretty much and I don't know about you but I don't find many of my relationships "easy"

I can see how it would be boring as all get out.

wow, if the relationship is the main thing, the relationship that T and I have never resembles watching grass grow. volatile

No, I'd say it's one of the hardest jobs there is.

What makes any job hard or easy? I really think all jobs are about the same. If you like it and chose it then although there are parts which are boring or more challenging or easier, it is probably okay for you. If you didn't choose it specifically, dislike it, or are unsuited for it, then it is probably hard for you.

I think if done properly and truly trying to met the needs of your clients, it would be emotionally draining and also weird that you could end up with stalkers.

I work with victims of domestic violence. Sometimes the people I have worked with are killed by their abusers. From this perspective, the part that I see as hardest would be having people die when you tried to save them, having people hurt themselves, and having to commit people in an attempt to keep them safe.

I see the biggest problem is that therapists think they have the right and ability to interfere and make arrogant misguided attempts to keep other adults from exercising free will.
I am on the other side of the established mental health community in legal battles. I often represent those who are in the process of being involuntarily committed. I fight to keep the system off of my clients. I seriously do not view it as a good thing or "keeping someone safe" to impose one's own values on someone who is choosing differently.

Um... I have no idea what you mean here.

You don't approve of the way I do therapy?
Or have I triggered you?

I don't think my T agonises over this at all - at least not with me. If she triggers me accidentally, I'll come back to her with it, and she seems to be fine with that. But I'm more aggressive than the average patient, maybe.

this makes me wonder.......do T's prefer the intense/weird/deep stuff? like is that what they WANT? im always thinking "im not going to bother T with this. its too much. i have too much intensity" ...... is that why they become T's? because they enjoy the deep deep stuff.

I wonder how common that is. I suppose there's really no way to tell...

pita sometimes stands for pain in the a ss.

Yeah, my T always seems enthused about the sessions I regard as agony. He's all, "Great session! Good work." And I am exhausted and dragging myself out of there.

Yes. My T is constantly working with me in sessions too. He's told me that if this was a job where he just sat and listened to people complain he would not be in this line of work at all. He says he is a T because he gets to work WITH the patients and see them become better and not just languish around in self pity.

My t gets very emotionally involved in her work. She takes it seriously and goes above and beyond with her clients to help them (heck, she invited me to come overseas to visit me and spend over a week with me out of all her own free time!!! ) its hard on her when her clients go through things. She has cried through things with me. It isnt just a job to her.
Our sessions on trauma work are emotionslly draining on her as well as me.