Make what you consider to be a clinical or therapeutic error
19.8
18.0
36.2
19.0
5.5
Pressure you to talk about something you didn’t want to talk about
57.5
7.5
21.3
8.8
4.0
Use humor in an appropriate way
76.7
8.8
10.0
2.2
1.5
Use humor in an inappropriate way
5.2
2.5
12.5
35.0
43.5
Act in a rude or insensitive manner toward you
68.7
13.0
12.0
4.0
1.5
Violate your rights to confidentiality
89.7
4.5
2.7
1.3
1.8
Violate your rights to informed consent
93.2
3.2
1.3
0.3
0.3
Use hospitalization as part of your treatment
96.2
1.8
0.5
0.5
1.0
In your own personal therapy, how often (if at all) did you (N = 400):
Feel sexually attracted to your therapist
63.0
8.0
14.0
7.5
6.5
Tell your therapist that you were sexually attracted to them
81.5
6.2
5.5
3.0
2.7
Have sexual fantasies about your therapist
65.5
8.0
12.8
7.0
5.2
Feel angry at your therapist
13.3
9.5
32.7
28.5
15.0
Feel that your therapist did not care about you
49.5
13.0
19.0
12.3
5.5
Feel suicidal
70.0
8.5
9.5
8.3
3.0
Make a suicide attempt
95.5
2.5
1.0
0.0
0.0
Feel what you would characterize as clinical depression
38.5
15.8
16.0
16.5
12.5
Note: Rarely = two to four times; sometimes = five to ten times; often = over ten times.
Source: From “Therapists as patients: A national survey of psychologists’ experiences, problems, and beliefs” by K.S. Pope and B.G. Tabachnik, 1994, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 25, pp. 247–258. Copyright 1994 by the American Psychological Association. Reprinted with permission.
This research suggests that most therapists experience, at least once, deep distress. For example, 61% reported experiencing clinical depression, 29% reported suicidal feelings, and 3.5% reported attempting suicide. About 4% reported having been hospitalized. Readers may wish to consider their own experiences in the light of these findings.
Emotional competence in therapy is no less important than intellectual competence, and it is for that reason that we have included, beginning with Chapter 15, clinical scenarios at the end of each chapter. These scenarios describe hypothetical situations that this book’s readers might encounter. Each is followed by a handful of questions designed to provide practice in the processes of the critical thinking explored in detail in Chapters 10–14.
