Disadvantages Of Being A Therapist

Finding a therapist can be difficult, one needs to take into account the therapist’s knowledge, training, and convenience. Perhaps even more important, a client will have the best success if they have a good rapport with their therapist. A professor of abnormal psychology would presumably be a very knowledgeable therapist. Being able to meet with your therapist on campus where you will already be spending much time would allow for more sessions or even emergency sessions. Finally if you have already had a class with that professor you have an idea of his or her personality and can guess if the two of you will work well together. On the surface it would seem your professor of abnormal psychology would be an ideal therapist, unfortunately there …show more content…
Knowing your therapist before starting therapy can cut out months of searching for a good match. This allows the client to get effective treatment, and as a result, recover faster. On the other hand dual relationships can have many impediments that slow down progress made in therapy. Sometimes having dual relationships can impair the path to recovery. The case of having your teacher as a therapist might limit what you say in therapy. If you are feeling overwhelmed by school work or are not enjoying the program you are in, you may be hesitant of telling the teacher of your class. For the best therapy results the client needs to feel comfortable sharing everything in their life. That is less likely to happen when the therapist and client have multiple relationships. Furthermore hearing your therapist teach might be detrimental to progress you are making in therapy. Especially in an abnormal psychology class you are bound to cover the problem the client is struggling with. This could go over without a hitch, or the student might see his or her therapist talking about their struggles in a frank matter, with less empathy than might be conveyed in a therapy session. Having your therapist teach you about the problem you are struggling with can harm the integrity of the relationship. Sometimes being candid can conflict with the need to respect client’s dignity (O 'Donohue & …show more content…
The client does have the right to effective treatment, but I believe the freedom from harm comes before effective treatment. This is because sometimes, even in effective treatment, the client could get hurt and the progress made in therapy could be reversed. Informed consent can help the client in some cases. If the client enters the dual relationship knowing the dangers of impairment and exploitation, it may lessen the harm caused were the relationship to go south. Unfortunately this does nothing to protect the therapist from harm. Psychologists involved in overlapping relationships that turn negative risk loss of professional creditability and professional reputation, possible litigation, complaints to licencing boards, and possible restrictions to or loss of licensure (Herlihy & Corey, 1992). Just because someone knows the potential for harm when they are getting into a relationship does not stop the harm from happening later. As such professionals that let such a relationship happen can be penalized. Dual relationships can reasonably be expected to cause impairment and risk exploitation, they are not ethical and can cause real harm to a client. The student still has a right to effective treatment, I’m sure the professor knows a few very qualified