Being in therapy as a therapist, and being a therapist for therapists, is a bit like magicians trying to entertain each other. We’ve studied the tricks and techniques. We’ve seen behind the curtain and we can’t pretend otherwise.

There is enormous pressure for each of us to do our own work in therapy in order to be good clinicians for our clients, but therapists are truly a special population. We carry the weight of other people’s stuff, and we’re much more likely to need to unload about our work in session. And yet, knowing what we know, it can be difficult to let go–about work or whatever we’re trying to parse through–without fear of being judged as bad therapists.

On the clinician side, we know, or at least sense, that therapists need something a bit more from us, but there’s no specific training in just what that is or how to give it.

So what do we do? How do we approach being in therapy as a therapist and providing therapy to therapists?

I’ve been mulling over those questions since my conversation with Dr. Elene Herrera in the last episode, and today I’m digging into where I think we can go from here.