Wounded Healers
- lionessrising
- May 19, 2024
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 25
Health practitioners are fallible human beings. When I did my Masters in Counselling we spent time in group sessions exploring our own childhood and trauma. We went through assessments and observations and wrote reflective journals that were evaluated by supervisors. I did a lot of my own personal therapy in my life to prepare me for work. Doing this self reflection is so important to be able to work effectively as a therapist. The self awareness and feedback and learning is an ongoing process. But sometimes no matter what learning we do or our own level of self awareness, we encounter a challenging client situation that completely knocks us off track.
Some psychologists, have experienced challenging life circumstances and may be drawn to this work because of their own trauma histories. I had colleagues who had lived experience of a range of traumatic issues.
Dr Gabor Mate has a great talk on compassion fatigue and being triggered in the work we do. Because we are interconnected human beings. If you are not aligned with the dominant ideology of the institution you are working in - expect resistance. He also speaks powerfully about why we go into the helping professions and our need to feel important and overidentification with the role.
I like this quote by Richard Rohr as it reflects our shared humanity and the importance of being authentic.
“One of the great surprises is that humans come to full consciousness precisely by shadowboxing, facing their own contradictions, and making friends with their own mistakes and failings.”
In my role as a former psychologist, I tended to focus my work in areas where I had training and expertise. Personally, my lived experience of sexual violence as an adult, meant I consciously avoided working with rape cases. I did not typically get referrals for this kind of work. My experience was more in helping people with childhood trauma and who had been a victim of abuse. I did not have much depth of experience working with men who used violence. My experience was more in helping women and children. There is focused training for therapists in this area and also highly competent clinicians who specialise in this work.
I also have a disabled daughter and while this meant I have good understanding of what some parents may experience in accessing supports, I found it hard to be neutral and objective or detached in my professional role working with kids needing extra supports. I engaged in additional unpaid work in writing to schools or providing guidance on disability rights and accessing reasonable adjustments. Stepping in to where there were gaps. I found it hard to have rigid boundaries on my time and tended to be flexible in accommodating people in distress.
An important learning for me - is to know when you are out of your depth, and to refer the client to a more skilled clinician. I did this often in my practice. But in some situations where the client was unable to find immediate support, I continued the therapy until they transitioned to someone else. Overextending the boundaries is not healthy.
In reflecting on some of my most challenging cases, I believe some clients may benefit more from working with someone with clinical or forensic training to discuss their sex offending history. They need a safe and non judgemental space to express their beliefs, and they also may need more specialised psychiatric care if they are struggling with addictions. Unfortunately there are not many services for clients with challenging conditions and this includes extensive criminal histories.
The patient’s wellbeing is priority and being set up from the start with the right level of support is key to their progress. Patients with complex needs or those on parole need to have their treatment plans co-ordinated to manage recidivism risk and to maximise their opportunities for rehabilitation. It is also helpful for the various clinicians involved in the treatment plan, to communicate with each other to co-ordinate the care. Especially if the patient is at risk. This sometimes does not happen.
I believe this is a significant gap at the moment where patients with complex mental health needs may struggle to get the timeous support they need.
Interesting podcast by Dr Peter Levine:
And a video with Dr Peter Levine:
