But it is also true that increased awareness can come from, among other activities, reading a good novel.

In therapy, as in life, every change we make is about awareness.

We are also fearful that we are imperfect and lack understanding of others — that in fact, our understanding of others may be critically flawed through personal bias. I believe that by undergoing therapy we are preventing ourselves from engaging in further psychological colonization of traditionally marginalized groups by creating a situation for ourselves in which we are able to address our own corrupted natures and exorcise them as much as possible before unconsciously turning our shadows lost upon our clients. We must realize that we enter into the healing relationship not as beams of light, but as human beings who may become co-opted by our own leser natures.

Freud, for example, did self-analysis but only because as he was a pioneer, there was nobody else who could analyze him. Then we have yoga, meditation, tai chi, religious faith, prayer, exercise, healthy diet, bioenergetics, massage, using art as a way of personal expression, working for the common good, or just talking to a friend, family member or significant other.

It seems to me that all of the above resources can be instrumental in helping people to feel better and get to know more about who they are. Some of them I have personally used with some success. However, I would have to ask myself, why would I have chosen to become a psychotherapist, investing all this time, energy, effort, and dedication, if I didn’t believe in its use for my own personal benefit and growth? The answer is simple, at least for me.

Thank you again for a great discussion on a fascinating topic.

I think personal therapy should definitely be a requirement for licensing as a therapist. In my view, no matter how good one’s childhood was, there will be blindspots in the therapy office. I wouldn’t teach someone to fly if I, myself, were not a pilot. And to say I taught myself would not instill confidence in most students! Even doctors have reported on the huge shift in perspective when they have become a patient (eg: read The Anatomy of Hope, written by a doctor who totally changed his medical approach after having been on the other side as a patient).

Therapy isn’t the be all and end all and certainly is not the only road to self-awareness and insight. It is one way, but not the absolute way, and I think too many therapists overstate the value of therapy as the path to enlightenment, if you will.

Sure it’s probably helpful to have spent some time in the chair to better understand the process from the client’s perspective.

However, on the other hand, if I want to be a heart surgeon, do I have to have had open heart surgery first to “understand” what it’s like to be a patient? Or if I become a lawyer, do I have to have been sued or prosecuted to understand? Absolutely not.

To piggyback on what someone commented earlier, we need to be emotionally healthy and live stable lives to do excellent work with our clients. If going to therapy is a tool that helps you do that, great. But it’s not the only path to emotional health.

The comment written by Sally von Erffa also raised an important point about the fact that therapists and their clients are not isolated people but members of a larger society and culture, which means that issues related to culture, race, and social class inevitably become a part of the work in therapy. I wonder then about those therapeutic dyads in which their members may have different backgrounds, and how this may allow for an appreciation of the subtle ways in which cultural bias can be enacted. It is in this regard that part of our own personal therapy as clinicians is to become cognizant of misconceptions and projections on the different “other,” and examine areas of ethnic, racial or religious prejudice based on personal experiencies. Besides benefiting the client and avoiding countertransference pitfalls, it will enrich the therapist’s inner world of feelings and knowledge and make her/him a more effective healer.

I, too, believe that understanding the process of therapy from the client’s standpoint is essential to forming good therapeutic alliance, as well as knowing how to shape one’s business communications with potential clients.

But more importantly is the self awareness and healing that is possible so that we are not using our work as therapists to heal ourselves, and so that we aren’t tied up in counter-transference issues to the detriment of our client’s care.

I agree that most therapists want to do healing work. I also believe that those who don’t think they need therapy probably shouldn’t do it themselves.

Graduate programs should include at least a brief period of personal therapy as part of their process of education.