Therapy for Therapists: Why Mental Health Professionals Often Need Their Own Therapy
Therapists spend their careers supporting other people. We spend hours listening to others, holding space for their pain, and guiding our clients toward their goals.
While the work of a therapist can be highly rewarding and satisfying, it is often quite challenging, mentally and emotionally.
As therapists, we know that engaging in therapy is a highly valuable form of self-care. We provide this service because we know it benefits our clients. On the other hand, therapy for therapists may seem counterintuitive to some. It may be assumed that therapists ‘have it all figured out’ or that we ‘have our lives together’. Additionally, some therapists may feel shame that they need mental health services, thinking that they should know how to take care of themselves. However, therapists taking action to support their mental health is actually a professional responsibility.
In my own experience during graduate school, my professors encouraged us to engage in our own therapy and to keep visual journals. Of course, as art therapy students, we engaged in creativity quite often. Art-making along with our own self-reflection exercises in our classes were very helpful in self-exploration and self-care. Meeting with a therapist myself provided another layer - a deeper layer - of support as I processed my development as a therapist and changes in my personal life.
Why Mental Health Professionals Need Their Own Therapy
While there are several reasons why therapy for therapists is an incredibly useful support, I’ll explore just a few of these reasons below.
Ethical Responsibility for Self-Care
As therapists, we often need our own practice of self-reflection and personal growth. “The psychotherapeutic instrument is, of course, the therapist,” (David E. Scharff, M.D., 2007) and we have a responsibility to care for that instrument. In fact, some of our ethics standards include self-care as an expected part of the profession.
For example, the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics states:
“…counselors engage in self-care activities to maintain and promote their own emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well-being to best meet their professional responsibilities.” - ACA Section C, Introduction
“Counselors monitor themselves for signs of impairment from their own physical, mental, or emotional problems.” - ACA C.2.g
“Self-growth is an expected component of counselor education.” - ACA F.8.c
While the ACA Code of Ethics does not state ‘therapy’ or ‘counseling’, specifically, as a requirement, engaging in therapy is a way to tend to the aspects they do mention: self-care; well-being; physical, mental, and emotional problems; and self-growth. As Dr. Scharff stated, “tuning our therapeutic instrument is nothing less than tuning the whole of ourselves.”
Doing Our Own Work: Exploring Personal and Professional Identities
We’re all human, right? As therapists, we have our own experiences, challenges, and relationships to work through. We, like anyone else, often benefit from an added layer of professional mental health support, in addition to our independent acts of self-care. Participating in therapy allows us to identify our blind spots and increase our self-awareness, which then positively impacts our work with our own clients.
A concept taught to most therapists in the education process is called ‘countertransference.’ It is the idea that “…the emotional reactions and responses that a therapist experiences towards their client during therapy sessions…can be influenced by the therapist's own past experiences, personal biases, or unresolved conflicts (Dr. Carly Claney, 2024).” It is the therapist’s responsibility to manage countertransference and its impact on the therapy process. Therefore, processing our own beliefs, thoughts, and feelings allows us to notice moments of countertransference and make choices that contribute to providing quality care for our clients.
As humans, therapists are not immune to compassion fatigue or burnout. Over time, working as a therapist without getting adequate mental health support can have a negative impact on the therapist. Making time to engage in our own therapy and practice self-care supports us in preventing compassion fatigue and burnout.
Imposter syndrome, feeling as if you are a fraud in your achievement(s), is just one example of how personal identity can influence professional identity (Abramson, 2021). The insecurities and fears we carry through life may show up in different ways, one being critical thoughts about ourselves as therapists: ‘I don’t know what I’m doing,’ or ‘I don’t know enough to really be helpful as a therapist.’ The self-awareness gained in therapy provides a path to clarifying our professional identity by revealing our strengths, areas for growth, and distortions in thinking and self-talk.
Reminding ourselves of our humanity and allowing space to connect with our true selves is an important part of therapist self-care. It allows us to explore our values, beliefs, and story, which inform our personal identity as well as our professional identity. When we recognize these parts of ourselves, we strengthen our understanding of both personal and professional identities (Bento, 2022).
Work-Life Balance
Although the emotional weight of the work varies depending on each therapist’s specific work environment and role, therapists often deeply understand that this career can take its toll on us if we’re not careful. Mental health professionals face a significant risk for burnout (Posluns, 2019), and preventative and early intervention is recommended. Engaging in therapy helps us recognize early signs of burnout, set healthier boundaries, and restore work-life balance.
Finding and maintaining balance, or “a sense of equilibrium in both personal and professional realms,” (Posluns, 2019) involves various strategies, but it is suggested that leisure activities provide significant support in work-life balance. Therapists may find it useful to have the support of another therapist in identifying helpful strategies for balance, as well as any blocks to implementing them.
Improve Skills as a Therapist
In my research, as well as in my own experience, it’s clear that therapists often learn from their own therapists. We observe how our own therapists engage with us, what types of questions they ask, how they navigate our challenges, and more. We may choose to implement, in our work with our own clients, approaches that we appreciate. In this study, therapists found that engaging in their own therapy allowed them to be better prepared as therapists and improve the quality of their work. They also reported the realization that self-growth is an ongoing process.
Why Therapists May Need Therapy
As described above, therapists often benefit from their own therapy to work on the following areas:
explore their personal and professional identities
process personal changes and challenges
identify blind spots and process countertransference
prevent or navigate compassion fatigue and burnout
work through imposter syndrome
work towards work-life balance
improve their clinical skills
If you, as a therapist, feel drawn to pursue your own therapy, remember that it is normal! Therapists are human, too, and we need mental health support at different times in life for a variety of reasons. Embrace whatever feelings you have about needing help, and take the next step to find your own therapist.
