Do you think it’s possible to hurt your T?

Therapists are individuals just like we are. You can't lump all of them in that catagory. There are good T's , there are bad T's. They're human beings with feelings. Sure you'll find some with a huge ego, but if you can't get past that, leave him and find another.Simple, no?

Some of us are indecisive and poor judges of character.

Understanding their professional role doesn't protect the therapist from being hurt or traumatized. Yes, they've had training but they're still human beings. All the training in the world doesn't protect them when they're trying to talk a violent client down. Things happen that are out of the therapists control; sometimes violent things. Is that because they "don't understand their professional role"? There are many scenario's and no one can generalize the whole profession.

Maybe you don't think therapists care enough about a client for that client to be able to hurt them. I disagree. " It's not in their role to care about you as much as you want them to". Well I must be lucky. I don't put my T on a pedestal but we both think a lot of each other, as most human beings need some validation.
also hope that not all clients are so naïve to believe the therapist always , deeply cares . Some do some are more reserved. They are human differences.

I specifically put physical assault by a client aside because it is an extremely rare experience that doesn't reflect the general reality of therapy.

I also didn't say that clients are unable to hurt their therapists. I said the exact opposite. My exact words were "of course, it is possible to hurt them." My post was about making a distinction between a hurtful experience and a real trauma that takes years to heal. Hurt can occur on different levels. Just because you hurt somebody doesn't necessarily mean they got traumatized.

Yes, therapists can be and do get hurt by clients, because, as you said correctly, not everything can be controlled and therapists are not trained to "control" every situation. They don't, however, get traumatized in the same way clients do unless they forget what their professional role is and take clients cases personally. A therapist has the power to traumatize a client for life, but a client doesn't have the same power over a therapist. It is not a "generalization" of the profession. It is a description of a certain reality of the therapy process.

To say it's a generalization of the profession is like saying that it's generalization to state that the main goal of a politician is to get re-elected. The whole purpose of a political career is to either keep the same job at a public office or to take a higher office at some point and to maintain your position there. The purpose of therapy work for a therapist is to be able to look at a client as objectively as possible, which naturally prevents a therapist from getting too personally involved. And when you are not personally involved with someone deeply, they don't have the power to hurt you to the point of traumatizing you while they still can hurt you somewhat.

As to your personal example, just because you and your therapist think a lot of each other doesn't mean you have the power to traumatize your therapist. Thinking a lot of someone is not the same as caring about them in the same way you care about your family and friends and all significant others. I thought a lot of most of my clients. I admired their resilience, I respected them for being committed to working on themselves, I liked them personally and acknowledged their good human qualities. I was committed to doing my best to help them. But I never, not once, cared about any of them the same way I cared about people in my life who were close to me, which means that none of them had the power to traumatize me and none of them did. My therapists were the ones who caused me traumas that I am still trying to heal. My clients never did.

For every actual assault there are many, many potential assaults. Fear is not the same as injury, but it does hurt.

I am closing this thread while the team discusses it. Please do not open another thread on this topic.

I am reopening this thread. However, if any personal attacks or disrespect occurs it will be closed and stay closed.

Please be respectful to everyone.