Can the therapist’s lived experience help the patient? In principle, everything seems to indicate that it may be positive to provide it. However, it is an issue that not the entire profession agrees with. From the psychoanalytic perspective, we try to avoid influencing the transference-countertransference processes that are established between the therapist and the patient, so that the patient can work on his or her personal history without conditions.
However, most therapists include their personal experience, to a greater or lesser extent. This must always be done with the patient’s permission and always at their service, with the exclusive intention of helping them.
Is this practice useful?
The disclosure of personal aspects or experiences by the professional during the therapeutic intervention is called “self-revelation”, a phenomenon that in English is called “self-disclosure”.
The first thing the therapist should ask himself is whether this practice is in line with his therapeutic style. And secondly, if it is beneficial for the patient in front of him.
There may be patients for whom it is good and others who reject it or feel that it takes away their importance.
What advantages can the therapist’s self-disclosure have?
Provides a model
The therapist’s explanation of how I can overcome a crisis or difficult moment can be very helpful in therapy. However, it must be made very clear that this experience is personal and non-transferable, it only serves to offer ideas. The patient must discover his or her own path and resolve things her way.
Normalize an experience
The psychologist’s experience can help the patient feel understood, to correct his or her mistaken belief that no one has experienced or felt something similar, and also to normalize an experience that is experienced as strange or something to be ashamed of.
Facilitates trust
The patient can open up more easily if he sees that the therapist reveals some of his personal experiences and that he becomes involved in the process in this way.
Humanize the therapist
Many times, patients tend to idealize therapists, as if they had no problems and were prodigies of balance absolutely immune to conflict. Obviously, that is not so.
And what disadvantages can the revelation of that lived experience have?
Interferences in the process
As mentioned before, these types of revelations run the risk of distracting, of diverting the true objective and intention of the therapy, which should be focused on the well-being of the patient and not on the exchange of experiences.
Role confusion
The therapist runs the risk of reversing roles and the patient ending up advising him. Thus, the goal of self-disclosure should be for the patient to feel understood and accompanied, and not the psychologist.
Crossing the limits of the therapeutic relationship
If lived experience is used, it must be in a measured and perfectly chosen way. Psychological intervention cannot become a coffee chat between two friends. The therapeutic relationship has its limits and the commitment to the patient to always seek their well-being with care and respect.
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