How intelligent do you have to be, to be a therapist?

I saw a discussion on another thread about whether being a therapist is easy.

"Easy" is a relative term.

Therapy takes sustained attention, which is easier for some. Results are not immediate, which could be hard to deal with.

It's easier on the body than throwing a sledge hammer around, but it's probably very trying at times in other ways.

There must be some reward in it because all the schooling that Ts suffer through is expensive and takes a long time and a certain level of intelligence, all of which could be applied elsewhere into a more lucrative career.

I believe that you are committed to being a T, then you need to accept the full weight of that responsibility. That means you can't just disappear on people or flake out. You have to get your own emotional life in order, which is not required of other skilled jobs.

This list shows that psychologists are higher average IQ than economists, but lower than attorneys, computer analysts and doctors.

Therapists are the same IQ as actors. With therapists, I think some acting is required.

The Audacious Epigone: Average IQ by occupation (estimated from wordsum scores)

What do you think?

IQ ain't everything. I knew someone who wanted to do counselling psych, and the problem she was having was passing the basic stats course. A lot of people have trouble with things like that and some people consider math aptitude an indicator of intelligence or a particular type of intelligence.

I don't think intelligence as a linear scale captures what makes a good therapist. How about emotional intelligence. How about compassion. But as Breggin points out, schools aren't even selecting for that. They're going for people who did the best on standardized exams, which seems not the most relevant thing, but, hey, schools are institutions.

I don't think it's an easy career at all and isn't something most people can do. Especially if the T works with highly mentally disturbed patients.

-Hope

Not very in my experience.

I also do not think it is a hard job. It seems a trained monkey could do it just as well as most of them. One has to be able to sit for long periods of time and that is really about it. They blame clients for every mistake they make (client unwilling to change, client resistant, client is borderline or other label, client depressed, client misunderstood etc.) and there is no oversight unless a client complains to a board or sues. Clients are often made worse by the lack of honesty and transparency in what therapy is and what the therapist is doing which only benefits the therapist, not the client.

With respect, I think this is a very narrow view, or deliberately reducing down what goes on in the room.

I want my therapist to be smart. I don't mean an academic genius (fine if they are, but not essential) though I want them to have an excellent background in solid training, which of course involves degrees.

When I say smart, I mean it in a broad way. I want someone who can engage my mind first, because that's how I make initial links to another person. I don't want to be the smartest person in the room - I want an equal, somebody I know can challenge me articulately when I go off on a million tangents, somebody who is astute enough to notice and can shrewdly (and kindly, but that's a different thread) guide me back to the path. I want someone with well-honed emotional intelligence for sure - sensitivity to know when to be extremely gentle, and when I can be pushed into taking a leap of faith.

I have yet to meet this mythical trained monkey who can do all of the above. My bloody awesome therapist, on the other hand, can.

I was just giving my opinion and experience.

SD- if you don't allow the T to talk ever, how could you possibly gauge how intelligent she is? When you have a condescending attitude in the relationship, you're standing on a very tainted, uneven foundation.

-Hope

She did talk at the beginning. It was not until relatively recently, a year or so probably, after her stating that it seemed I did not want her not to talk, and I agreed I did not find her talking useful, that we started doing it that way. And it is much better.
I do not believe that I am condescending to the therapist. If anything I find most of them condescending and patronizing to clients.

I have not found the woman completely useless in a bigger picture. She does stay back and she does not care which means I can tell her things I do not tell others who are real to me. I find that reasonably worth what I pay her. Also I do try some of her tricks (and tricks from other therapists I interviewed) on students and clients and they are often not unsuccessful. I admit I am always surprised because they fail with me, but I assume since she tries them regularly, they might work with some people and they do. (and I, an untrained person or monkey in the mysteries of therapyism, seem to be able to perform these skills from time to time with not unsatisfactory results).
I am always glad they work when I use them because it makes students happy and thus my life easier, but it saddens me for humankind.

I think they need to have average intelligence to qualify. A high emotional IQ is imperative to do the job in my opinion.

i wonder why most of u keeeeep on posting things to reduce Ts job sooo bad and saying ridiculous suff. if u dont think is needed or waste of time just don go!! or are u trying sooo bad to have people agreeing with u caz deep down u know ur wrong?

p.s.: this isnt directly to OP but also to many posts ive been reading here.

most of us? Vast over-generalisation i think. Everyone apart from one person has answered positively about what is needed to be a therapist.

I don't even think I was unpositive in the end. I just don't think they have to be very smart or that their job is hard.
Certainly I suppose individual ones can be smart. And what constitutes hard in a job will vary from person to person too.

As a mathematician, I am naturally pleased with this survey! That doesn't prove it is right, however.

Exactly! I'm sure when you said a trained monkey could do their job that you meant a really, really clever trained monkey.

I did point out that I, an untrained monkey, have had not unsuccess in applying their wily tricky ways at times to others. So giving the trained part was my attempt at an olive branch. And I did limit it to only most of them, I did not say all.
Or perhaps it is more like the devil quoting scripture to suit his purpose?

sigh... if only we could pay them in bananas.

Equine therapy relies on untrained horses.

I think intelligence can be assessed in multiple ways. My T is extremely smart. Most people can't hold a conversation with me. They can't follow my train of thought and I lose them. My T can not only keep up with my thought process, but can predict where I'm going. That takes intelligence and skill!!! I also normally catch onto all the techniques right away, but I just discovered this week something my T has been doing for weeks now. She has been ignoring the most important topics in my e-mail. And I figured out why: because she doesn't want me to write...she wants me to talk

Some T's are smart. Some T's are dumb. My T sucks at math (horribly), but she's still smart. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. I used to tutor learning disabled adults in math. You know what I learned from them? EVERYONE has the capability to learn...it just comes easier to some and some it takes longer to grasp. But it in no way means someone isn't intelligent.

do they take bananas as payment?

I think as a profession, it's all over the map. Some of the most dysfunctional and aggravatingly stupid people I know in my town (a University town) are therapists. Why? Because there is a great shortage of jobs, and too many ways to get degrees that legally allow one to practice. The same cannot be said for other professions. A few of the most adept people I know are therapists. The profession is far too inclusive, the entities that pretend to provide oversight are minimal and too many charlatans fall through the cracks. If one is careful, there are ways to increase the odds of finding an ethical and qualified practitioner, but the onus is definitely on the consumer.

Lots of horses do actually like bananas...!

Untrained horses are pretty good therapists I'd say. They reflect back what what they see and experience in the present moment in a really honest straightforward way.

I'd also say that actual therapists would be most helpful if they had a good level of emotional intelligence, at the very least.

I believe you must have some intelligence above average. All of my Ts have been very smart. My newest T blows me every time.

I think an average intelligence would do it. Definitely need some acting ability and a stone cold heart. Anyone can learn how to lie and manipulate people. I used to believe T could help but after learning more about how it works, I find it to be rather dishonorable indeed. Maybe 5% of T's are genuinely in the profession to help. IMHO

PHRASING!!!