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View Poll Results: If you were a therapist, what would be the hardest part of the job for you?
Being patient 11 18.97%
Being patient
11 18.97%
Dealing with insurance companies/discussing money 11 18.97%
Dealing with insurance companies/discussing money
11 18.97%
Remaining calm and grounded 7 12.07%
Remaining calm and grounded
7 12.07%
Interacting with clients 2 3.45%
Interacting with clients
2 3.45%
Trying to think of what to say to clients 7 12.07%
Trying to think of what to say to clients
7 12.07%
Empathizing with clients 2 3.45%
Empathizing with clients
2 3.45%
Dealing with emergencies outside of session 2 3.45%
Dealing with emergencies outside of session
2 3.45%
Other (please elaborate) 16 27.59%
Other (please elaborate)
16 27.59%
Voters: 58. You may not vote on this poll

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atisketatasket
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 03:04 PM
  #1
If you were a therapist - or are a therapist - what would be the hardest part to deal with for you?

Me, it would be coming up with the right/useful thing to say to a client.

I threw up a couple other options that occurred to me in the poll, but feel free to submit an "other."
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 03:20 PM
  #2
For me it would be being patient. I work in healthcare and have always struggled with this, especially with myself.
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 03:51 PM
  #3
I'm okay working for an organisation, but I dread working for myself. I hate anything to do with finances/marketing and I have no business head at all. Just making sure I pay the right tax etc will be a pain for me. The whole idea puts me to sleep.
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 03:54 PM
  #4
The hardest part for me would be being emotionally present for each client, all throughout the day. I'm very sensitive and can tune into others' emotions easily but it is extremely draining. I wouldn't have anything left to take care of me. Which is why I'm not a T, even though I have the training.

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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 03:59 PM
  #5
For me, first - I don't want to sit around while people yammer on about their feelings.

Secondly - I would be quite outdone when stupid pointless things worked. Sometimes I try saying the stupid empty **** the woman has tried at me - to my students. And it quite often, mysteriously to me, works - they pack up telling me how much better they feel. I have to stop myself from yelling at them "stop - I just made that **** up- don't fall for it. I didn't mean it. I don't even really know what it means. Come back here and continue feeling bad rather than letting my drivel work."
I don't of course, because if it helps end the emotional angst at me from a student, I am mostly for it = but I am torn. And I am baffled at how it helped them. Like seriously I want to say- "that was the most basic pedestrian made up thing ever and you are saying it helped - are you messing with me? Do you have a brain?" But I have found that students rarely mess with me like that, and they tend to think me asking if they have a brain is an insult - so I refrain. Again, I don't know why but there we have it.

And then I become indignant and pissed off that the woman is just phoning it in = seriously did she really think that crap would help me somehow? She really is just spewing stuff out without any thought and hoping.
So, third, I would feel like a charlatan.

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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 04:57 PM
  #6
I'm similar to Mobius, I empathize so readily that other people's emotions are contagious for me. Generally if someone else is crying I will find it very hard or impossible not to cry (sometimes even when it's a little kid, it all depends on how they sound and whether they're being adequately cared for by nearby adults). When there's a crisis I can put my emotions aside but it's like they're a ticking time bomb that might blow at an unknown moment. I certainly couldn't make it all day, and even if I could, what a nightmare for the people I'd come home to.
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 05:01 PM
  #7
I said remaining calm and grounded. I think I'd get too caught up with my clients. I'd be the T answering texts at 3 a.m., who wouldn't feel like I could limit them because my client needs me. I'd feel guilt over those I couldn't help. So...that's why I'm not a T--even though I'm good at reading people and empathizing (my T has commented on this), so in some ways, I'd be a good one. But I feel like it would be at the expense of my own mental health/life...
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 06:08 PM
  #8
I dunno -- sitting still and not giving in to bodily tics? I can't seem to stop shaking my legs rather violently for the life of me -- I imagine that might potentially distress a client or two.

Current T scratches herself quite openly (armpits, underside of breasts etc) -- I find her lack of adherence to rigid social norms quite charming, I must say.

Former T on the other hand would be very still (almost lifeless) and then suddenly erupt into some wild gesticulation and then equally suddenly stop it. And, then very precisely, with very rigid robot-like movements, pick up her gas-station coffee cup, hold it in a precisely precarious fashion and wait for the precise moment (when I wasn't watching and yet, it wouldn't be impolite for her to drink the awful liquid because I didn't seem terribly distressed) to drink it in equally precise movements. It was......disturbingly fascinating.
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 09:28 PM
  #9
Other. For me it would be setting and kindly holding boundaries. I think I would want to be very available yet would know that I can't do that for 30 or so clients or however many a t sees. I think I would have to be like T2 and T3 and have no outside contact other than returning calls during normal hours and I think there would be some people that I would think need more than that. Because of my conflict over that, I would likely be abrupt.
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 09:50 PM
  #10
Other- knowing when to trust a client and when a client needs IP.

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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 10:05 PM
  #11
Self care/boundaries.
My boundaries as a veterinarian are abysmal and clients text/call/email me all hours of the day and night with questions etc.
My T is so strong yet so kind and yielding. She knows exactly what she can give and that is all.
I just give til I pass out from exhaustion.
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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 10:09 PM
  #12
Listening to the patient who goes on and on about the same issue and feeling sorry for themselves but never really working on the issues.....id probably tell them to get a pet, leave and come back when they were serious about healing and truly moving on in their life. A pet would help them more than any therapy at that point.

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Default Sep 14, 2016 at 10:18 PM
  #13
Trying to "fix" their problems or walk them through their issues. I always want to fix a problem for someone and make them feel better. I really don't think I could be a therapist because I would stress myself out or run my clients away by being too (what's the word?) maternal. ??

It would not be a good fit for me.

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Default Sep 15, 2016 at 12:19 AM
  #14
Humility.

I'd want to be clever and I'd enjoy being looked up to. (Patients who didn't look up to me would be terminated.)

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Default Sep 15, 2016 at 01:43 AM
  #15
The hardest part for me would be boundaries. I'd probably be too empathetic and too emotional to remain a strong, stable person for a client.

Also being patient. I don't do well with drama, manipulation, anger, rudeness, attention-seeking, etc.

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Default Sep 15, 2016 at 03:28 AM
  #16
I can't be a T. I have great difficulty extending unconditional positive regard to people who malinger (different from factitious disorders and psychosomatic disorders), and people who feel their mistreatment of others is their entitlement.
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Default Sep 15, 2016 at 04:47 AM
  #17
Holding back from immersing myself in their problems.
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Default Sep 15, 2016 at 06:38 AM
  #18
For me most likely a practical element: working with exact appointments all day every day. Always having to be present for each client when I am required to, in ways they want me. I've worked highly flexible and autonomous times in my whole career and like it this way (I think by default, why I choose to work this way), so this aspect would be hard to get used to. Also, I would probably struggle if I had too many clients, probably would not see more than 2-3 per day, I am too much an introvert for more. But I actually think that working as a therapist part time might be interesting for me.
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Default Sep 15, 2016 at 07:32 AM
  #19
Impossible to answer. One would be only projecting their own woundedness into a fantasy scenario.
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Default Sep 15, 2016 at 08:17 AM
  #20
Quote:
Originally Posted by _Mouse View Post
Impossible to answer. One would be only projecting their own woundedness into a fantasy scenario.
No; I think those who answer are demonstrating self-knowledge.
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