Comments on: Sharing therapists http://www.greythinking.com/2009/11/11/sharing-therapists/ "being aware of your crap and actually overcoming your crap are two very different things." - christina, grey's anatomy Sun, 01 Aug 2010 02:38:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: H http://www.greythinking.com/2009/11/11/sharing-therapists/comment-page-1/#comment-571 H Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:23:56 +0000 http://greythinking.wordpress.com/?p=387#comment-571 I agree. I've been in a group a while back where all the clients where the clients of the therapist. I never felt, or sensed in the group, competition. The therapist was very skilled, and interestingly it WAS her clients that she had deep connections with in the group. Not saying she didn't have others, but when she left us she told us the group was the hardest to say goodbye to and ended up crying. Same with me in my individual goodbye. I don't doubt this was genuine as she was always very professional and skilled in what she did. Now as a therapist myself, it is different with one of your clients in the room. Trying to keep confidentiality is on your mind (did she tell me this is group or individual, does the group know X Y or Z), and also because I know her better, I do struggle with am I treating her differently, if so how much so and how does the group feel about this? Your post is very insightful and thoughtful as usual. It's an interesting, valid and need perspective. It's definitely something you should think about when considering doing a group that your therapist leads. I agree. I’ve been in a group a while back where all the clients where the clients of the therapist. I never felt, or sensed in the group, competition. The therapist was very skilled, and interestingly it WAS her clients that she had deep connections with in the group. Not saying she didn’t have others, but when she left us she told us the group was the hardest to say goodbye to and ended up crying. Same with me in my individual goodbye. I don’t doubt this was genuine as she was always very professional and skilled in what she did.
Now as a therapist myself, it is different with one of your clients in the room. Trying to keep confidentiality is on your mind (did she tell me this is group or individual, does the group know X Y or Z), and also because I know her better, I do struggle with am I treating her differently, if so how much so and how does the group feel about this?

Your post is very insightful and thoughtful as usual. It’s an interesting, valid and need perspective. It’s definitely something you should think about when considering doing a group that your therapist leads.

]]> By: datagirl http://www.greythinking.com/2009/11/11/sharing-therapists/comment-page-1/#comment-572 datagirl Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:05:01 +0000 http://greythinking.wordpress.com/?p=387#comment-572 What a great post as usual. It's interesting that you bring this up because that was something the group therapists i had in grad school brought up to me as I was transitioning from individual to group. One of the group leaders had been my individual therapist for the previous semester. The other group leader wanted to know if I had feelings about having to "share" my therapist with the other members of the group. Honestly, I hadn't really thought about that, because I was just grateful that I could continue to benefit from her as one of my group leaders. In my current situation, almost everyone in our group also has the same individual therapist (the group leader) and while I don't worry about having to "share" him, it is odd when I have feelings about the other group members or the way the group is facilitated. So far I have been able to bring most of my issues to him during my individual sessions, but I feel disloyal to my other group members and I feel like it puts him in an awkward position. Overall, I would have to say that from a therapist's perspective its probably enlightening for them to see their patients/clients in both a group environment as well as in an individual setting. I think it would help them better understand us and hopefully improve the treatment they can offer us. What a great post as usual. It’s interesting that you bring this up because that was something the group therapists i had in grad school brought up to me as I was transitioning from individual to group. One of the group leaders had been my individual therapist for the previous semester. The other group leader wanted to know if I had feelings about having to “share” my therapist with the other members of the group. Honestly, I hadn’t really thought about that, because I was just grateful that I could continue to benefit from her as one of my group leaders.

In my current situation, almost everyone in our group also has the same individual therapist (the group leader) and while I don’t worry about having to “share” him, it is odd when I have feelings about the other group members or the way the group is facilitated. So far I have been able to bring most of my issues to him during my individual sessions, but I feel disloyal to my other group members and I feel like it puts him in an awkward position.

Overall, I would have to say that from a therapist’s perspective its probably enlightening for them to see their patients/clients in both a group environment as well as in an individual setting. I think it would help them better understand us and hopefully improve the treatment they can offer us.

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