Help for Therapists
Being a therapist can be really over-stimulating. All of us bring our own wounds into therapy and while we’re actively working to help others, our stuff inevitably gets stirred up. We need a place to work with what comes up for our own peace of mind and personal growth. Doing our own work allows us be regulated and present in the room with our clients. It also makes it more likely that we will have enough energy left over for living our own lives fully.
It can be really challenging to find a therapist as a therapist. You want someone experienced and discreet. You may have concerns over how small our community is as therapists– am I going to see this person at every training I attend? I understand these worries and have experience navigating them.
As therapists, we are lifelong learners— both taking trainings to satisfy our own curiosity and desire to improve and taking continuing education classes to maintain licensure. But you learn in a different way in your personal therapy. You are working on yourself while also maintaining a connection to what it feels like to be a client. How vulnerable it is to sit on someone else’s couch and cry. I personally learned and continue to learn so much from being in therapy and consider it an essential part of my self-care as a clinician.
Therapy for therapists is not supervision. It’s not about discussing cases, but it can be discussing feelings and memories provoked by the work that you can’t talk about anywhere else. Especially when we are handling something heavy in our own lives– the death of a parent or a beloved pet, a health crisis, a bout of depression, a marital rough patch– it is so helpful to have extra support and a place to bring all the big feelings.
It’s a loving and kind thing to do for yourself– allowing yourself to have support.
I’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in working together.