Therapy for therapists is an intriguing proposition, and one that I hadn’t even begun to consider until undertook the quest to becoming a therapist myself. Although many of my classmates appeared to endorse the “encouraged but not required” position, I think therapy for therapists should be required for a license. I believe that an imperative part of being an effective clinician is being able to experience being on the “other side of the table.” I know this was a valuable experience for me in my teacher training. Not only were we required to attend classes and perform all the other scholarly duties of a teacher in training, but we were required to conduct peer reviews. In that respect, I would take the response one step further to include peer review and some experience with supervision to be included as part of the pre-requisite for licensure. I think we should be required to familiarize ourselves with every perspective in the process, and be able to function effectively in all those areas.
I have participated in psychotherapy sessions as a client, and I think everyone should make that attempt at some point in their lives. I think it’s inevitable that we all encounter stressors that would justify getting some help. I can’t imagine a possible scenario where they would allow a teacher to teach without first teaching them how to be a good student, and I believe that same logic can be applied to therapy.
