as saying,"And, seeing that she has done it … is motivational. She did it … if she can do it, I can do it, you know?"With the advent of COVID-19, video visits have become commonplace practically overnight, with one survey reporting that 76% of respondents now. For patients and therapists alike, carefully curated self-disclosures can now show cracks when, through their webcams, they enter one another's homes.
In my position as therapist, I can choose to break down the power differential between us; a slight tilt of my camera could illustrate a broader story about how a messy room isn't an indictment of character. In this sense, it would align my own work with that of the peer specialists whose roles and skills are the subjects of my research. I can picture my patient laughing as she sees the actual state of my room.Clinicians face contradictory messages and sparse research on self-disclosure.
The various schools of psychotherapy also see the matter differently. While Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis suggests that the therapist must be a blank screen upon which patients project their thoughts and feelings, Aaron Beck's ever-pragmatic cognitive therapy suggests that much of theis to draw on their own experiences to explore potential solutions to life's problems.
to patients found that self-disclosure was associated with better adherence to therapy and lower depressive symptoms.In 2011, Marsha Linehan announced publicly that she herself had borderline personality disorder after serving the public for decades as a prominent psychotherapist, researcher and innovator.