Check out the conversations from previous years here!

Lately I’ve been learning about the POTT, person of the therapist, reading a few chapter’s from Aponte’s book, courtesy of Susie Snyder.

One of the things that has stood out to me is the importance of a therapist knowing their themes. Themes are basically our stuff. The stories, wounds, difficult patterns, etc. that we all carry. Here are some examples:

• Needing to be liked

• Conflict avoidance

• Not enough-ness: I should be more ________

• Thinking there’s something else you should be doing

• Feeling pressure to fix things

• Doubting yourself/not trusting yourself

• Burnout: I can’t cope, there are no solutions, I give up

• I’m the expert, the “healthy” one

This month I’m going to ask you to identify one of your themes, and potentially, if you like, share it with me and/or your supervision group.

Why?

When we’re shooting for congruence and authenticity, it doesn’t mean that we share everything that we experience with the client. We need to know which things we keep private and work on separately, and which are important to share and in service of the client. Along these lines, we’ll also be talking about self-disclosure.

Can’t wait to see you all!