2 answers
Lissy
Student
Kendall, Florida
1
Question
Asked
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What is it like to be a psychologist/therapist?
Just curious if any therapists out there have any experience or advice
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2 answers
Angella chepchirchir
SEO, MARKETING, ANALYST , psychologist
76
Answers
Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya
Updated
Angella’s Answer
Hello, congratulations on your first step towards career selection.
Being a psychologist or a therapist is quite and interesting and perhaps a rewarding career as you have the ability to touch on people's lives abd transform them.
Some of the experience I have include;
Helping others: As you have the ability to touch on a live, it is very rewarding to see them grow positively.
Building solid relationship with clients as it involves trust, open discussions, improving how clients relate with you and ability to speak up.
Emotional; Some clients have undergone very traumatizing challenges that might be very paining and put you into different and emotional scenario as you have put yourself in their shoe.
Continuous learning process as you tackle new issues daily giving you more experience.
Ethical discipline growth; Psychologist and therapists come across many clients situations and they should keep them anonymous and their personal information private and confidential.
Generally, therapist or psychologist experience do vary due to client origin, population, setting, or expertise. Therefore, it is important to understand which field of psychology do you want to fall into and work towards getting skills, get experience through internships and mentorships, and work on your practical skills.
Success in your career as a psychologist or therapist...
I hope this will work best .
Thank you for choosing career village as your career advisor.
Welcome for more questions and feel free to ask for clarification again.
Regards,
Angella Chepchirchir
career village advisor.
Being a psychologist or a therapist is quite and interesting and perhaps a rewarding career as you have the ability to touch on people's lives abd transform them.
Some of the experience I have include;
Helping others: As you have the ability to touch on a live, it is very rewarding to see them grow positively.
Building solid relationship with clients as it involves trust, open discussions, improving how clients relate with you and ability to speak up.
Emotional; Some clients have undergone very traumatizing challenges that might be very paining and put you into different and emotional scenario as you have put yourself in their shoe.
Continuous learning process as you tackle new issues daily giving you more experience.
Ethical discipline growth; Psychologist and therapists come across many clients situations and they should keep them anonymous and their personal information private and confidential.
Generally, therapist or psychologist experience do vary due to client origin, population, setting, or expertise. Therefore, it is important to understand which field of psychology do you want to fall into and work towards getting skills, get experience through internships and mentorships, and work on your practical skills.
Success in your career as a psychologist or therapist...
I hope this will work best .
Thank you for choosing career village as your career advisor.
Welcome for more questions and feel free to ask for clarification again.
Regards,
Angella Chepchirchir
career village advisor.
Nathaniel Wander
anthropology/psychotherapy/writing
35
Answers
Portland, Oregon
Updated
Nathaniel’s Answer
I will repeat most of what I wrote to a student who asked about the stresses of being a therapist: it sums up most of my sense of what it has been like to be one.
It has been my experience that most if not all of the stresses of offering therapy come from not maintaining good boundaries: for example, taking on the concerns of the patient as if they were yours, not theirs. D.W. Winnicott, the British child psychoanalyst, wrote a brilliant short book called Holding and Interpretation. Ninety percent of the work of a therapist, he reasoned was like a mother's holding of an infant, providing a sense of safety, security, continuity. The therapist holds her/his client not physically, but in attention, in caring, in memory. S/he needs to remember, however, that she is 'holding' not 'absorbing,' 'holding' not 'becoming.' No matter how much empathy, how much attention, how much memory the therapist provides, s/he must then remember to 'let go' when the client walks out the door, and one way to assist her/himself in this is through getting supervision from a peer group or more advanced therapist.
The flip side of this is the therapist not guarding what crosses the boundary from her/his side . A successful therapeutic relationship may feel like a parent-child interrelationship or even a friendship, but it only 'feels like': it isn't either. A failsafe I acquired in grad school is to scrutinize carefully what you want to say to the client, the interpretation, in Winnicott's scheme. Do you want to say it to your satisfy your own need, or is it information the client needs? I have found this question invaluable, especially together with Winnicott's emphasis that interpreting, while critical, is junior to holding.
A final stressor combines boundary-crossing aspects of both 'taking on' too much and 'giving out' too much; that is wanting more than the client wants, working harder than the client does. The therapist is only the guide, not the pilgrim. While s/he needs to do the work of offering good guidance and the caring that the guidance offered is appropriate and useful, the client has to chose the journey and undertake the work of it. The best way I have found to protect oneself from this kind of stress is to evaluate one's work by professional and ethical standards, not by client accomplishments or lack of them. Clearly if one's clients consistently fail to thrive, the therapist is failing ethically and/or professionally. If one practices high ethical and professional standards, however, clients will thrive, whatever that means to them.
It has been my experience that most if not all of the stresses of offering therapy come from not maintaining good boundaries: for example, taking on the concerns of the patient as if they were yours, not theirs. D.W. Winnicott, the British child psychoanalyst, wrote a brilliant short book called Holding and Interpretation. Ninety percent of the work of a therapist, he reasoned was like a mother's holding of an infant, providing a sense of safety, security, continuity. The therapist holds her/his client not physically, but in attention, in caring, in memory. S/he needs to remember, however, that she is 'holding' not 'absorbing,' 'holding' not 'becoming.' No matter how much empathy, how much attention, how much memory the therapist provides, s/he must then remember to 'let go' when the client walks out the door, and one way to assist her/himself in this is through getting supervision from a peer group or more advanced therapist.
The flip side of this is the therapist not guarding what crosses the boundary from her/his side . A successful therapeutic relationship may feel like a parent-child interrelationship or even a friendship, but it only 'feels like': it isn't either. A failsafe I acquired in grad school is to scrutinize carefully what you want to say to the client, the interpretation, in Winnicott's scheme. Do you want to say it to your satisfy your own need, or is it information the client needs? I have found this question invaluable, especially together with Winnicott's emphasis that interpreting, while critical, is junior to holding.
A final stressor combines boundary-crossing aspects of both 'taking on' too much and 'giving out' too much; that is wanting more than the client wants, working harder than the client does. The therapist is only the guide, not the pilgrim. While s/he needs to do the work of offering good guidance and the caring that the guidance offered is appropriate and useful, the client has to chose the journey and undertake the work of it. The best way I have found to protect oneself from this kind of stress is to evaluate one's work by professional and ethical standards, not by client accomplishments or lack of them. Clearly if one's clients consistently fail to thrive, the therapist is failing ethically and/or professionally. If one practices high ethical and professional standards, however, clients will thrive, whatever that means to them.