Imagine how you might feel if you were to be treated with condescension, with skepticism, with arrogance, or with any other form of disrespect, when you are in a particularly vulnerable condition, and when you are actively seeking help. Not only will such an experience be harmful to you, but it will also tend to sour you to methods and practices which can, when done well, be of significant benefit to you.
This is where the nature of the therapeutic relationship between client and therapist is of paramount importance. Regardless of how well your therapist may understand theories and techniques, the healing potential of any of these are likely to be lost if the relationship between the two of you is insensitive, or aggressive, or in any way expresses its inherent power differential unskillfully. In short, no one wants to be treated badly.
Just a couple of days ago I happen to see Mr. Bush on TV at one of his farewell press conferences, in which he was asking, rhetorically, if it isn't "pathetic" to hear or witness someone expressing "self pity". It's safe to say that, whatever else Mr. Bush may be good or bad at, he would most certainly not make a good therapist with an attitude like this. If a client in therapy were to be related to with this kind of insensitivity, aggression and arrogance, we can rest assured that the experience would be a damaging one.
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