Psychotherapy Questionnaire

I got tagged via email from a fellow psychotherapist. I'm supposed to answer these questions from the perspective of being a shrink. (I'll do this as well as I can, given that I only have 3 days to go before I'm on vacation for 8 days!)

1. I've never: given up on a client, unless I'm clear that I lack the skills and/or experience to truly help them.

2. If only: there were more hours in the day and I didn't need to sleep. I really and truly love being a therapist and wish it wasn't so darned exhausting. Sometimes I have to stop because I've run out of hours, but I haven't yet run out of a desire to listen. Oh, and another "if only" is "If only it were okay to call a former client up after a couple of years and say - So, how's life going? Are you okay?" Sometimes it's hard to have people leave and never know what happened to them.

3. Once, somebody told me that: the most important thing about being a therapist is to bring your authentic self to each session. Clients can see right through artificiality and NO good therapy will happen as a result.

4. It would suck if: I hurt a client as a result of bad therapy. I don't think it's happened yet that something I did caused actual, long-term emotional harm. I don't think I could sleep at night until I had made attempts to rectify that.

5. My feelings would get hurt if: I had a less cast-iron ego.

6. I kinda wish that: I had a magic wand. In therapy, I will often ask clients, "If you had a magic wand and could magically change this situation (substitute "this relationship, this child, this husband/wife") how would it look?" While it's a reach for some people to access magical thinking, most of us can imagine and feel the sense of relief that comes with the powerful sense of having a "super hero" tool, such as a wand.

7. The best thing that happened in a session: would be hard to pin down. There are so many times when I can see that a client's life has moved forward with a big leap or even a small stumble and all of these times need to be celebrated. Overall, I think the best thing that ever happens in a session is that a client has the guts and the bravery to show up. It's really tough work and kudos for anybody brave enough to turn up week after week to tear the scab off emotional wounds.

8. The best thing that could happen in session: is a realization on the part of the client that it was worth it to show up that day.

9. The Psychotherapy profession needs: more and longer clinical training, more clinical supervision, and a greater focus on therapists healing their own family of origin hurts.

10. The Psychotherapy profession could do without: inept therapists, untrained, and using hokey, unscientific, untested and invalid clinical/therapeutic concepts which waste a client's time and money.