Table of Contents
Can a therapist cause damage?
A therapist might hold certain biases or assumptions and impose those on the client. While there are times where therapists knowingly exploit or harm their patients, such cases are thankfully quite rare. What is more common is for well-intended therapists to inadvertently cause harm without even realizing it. When a therapist becomes dismissive, defensive, disrespectful, or argumentative when you question what they say, they are bad. Therapists must model healthy relationships and objectively listen to what is being said to them. Dismissive behaviors cause people to question themselves and can lower self esteem. Some types of unethical behavior seen in the therapy space are: Violating confidentiality. Abandoning you as a client. Contacting you outside of office hours. Your relationship with a therapist can be one of the most meaningful, insightful, and productive collaborations you’ll have in your life. But it should ultimately come to an end — and that’s by design. “Therapy isn’t supposed to be forever,” says licensed therapist Keir Gaines. “There is an endpoint.”
Do therapists get upset over clients?
Therapists do get frustrated with clients from time to time, but some can handle difficult clients better than others. This may be due to training or inherent personality traits. We walk a fine line of being on your side but making sure that you are grounded and can maintain proper boundaries. So yes, we as therapists do talk about our clients (clinically) and we do miss our clients because we have entered into this field because we remain hopeful for others. If you work with two therapists it’s in your best interest that they communicate with each other. This coordination helps your therapists plan your treatment and diminish any confusion or harm that could occur when working with two professionals at the same time. The process of therapy may cause you to experience uncomfortable or painful feelings, such as sadness, guilt, anxiety, anger, or frustration. Counseling may bring up painful memories. It might disrupt relationships.
Do therapists have personal problems?
Just because they’re trained, doesn’t mean therapists don’t sometimes need help themselves. In fact, the nature of their job places them at higher risk for emotional distress. In short, therapists often need just as much — if not more — support than the average person. Individuals fear judgment, change, the unknown, and what they might discover in therapy; additionally, they’re too prideful to admit they need help. Additionally, some people doubt the efficacy of mental health treatment: They’re uncertain it will work or misunderstand how it works. Therapist burnout is a phenomenon in which therapists feel emotionally exhausted with a lack of enthusiasm for their work. They report that it takes a great deal of effort to do their job and maintain healthy boundaries with clients, and many feel there isn’t enough time in their schedule to complete all their work. A more recent study shows therapists prefer clients who are motivated and open-minded above all other qualities. Several therapists in a recent study shared characteristics with those they described as their ideal client. We walk a fine line of being on your side but making sure that you are grounded and can maintain proper boundaries. So yes, we as therapists do talk about our clients (clinically) and we do miss our clients because we have entered into this field because we remain hopeful for others.
Can therapy do more harm than good?
Treatments that focus on experiencing or releasing powerful emotions can be helpful for some, but harmful for others. This form of emotional catharsis has been found to result in an increase of negative emotion rather than a reduction. About 75 percent of people who enter psychotherapy show some benefit from it. Psychotherapy has been shown to improve emotions and behaviors and to be linked with positive changes in the brain and body. Clinical deterioration can be caused by many factors external to the therapy, and failure to benefit from therapy does not imply harm. Negative effects of therapy are common, may be short-lived, and emotionally distressing experience may be an intrinsic part of good therapy (Schermuly-Haupt et al., 2018). The process of therapy may cause you to experience uncomfortable or painful feelings, such as sadness, guilt, anxiety, anger, or frustration. Counseling may bring up painful memories. It might disrupt relationships.