The Search for Identity When Clinicians Become Clients

Abstract

It is widely accepted that those who provide psychotherapy for others benefit from experience in the client role; most clinicians do, in fact, seek their own therapy, as a sizable body of research indicates. Yet these studies address only one side of the phenomenon: the impact of personal therapy, usually early in their careers, on clinicians’ subsequent practice. Little is known about what happens when seasoned clinicians move in the other direction––from the “therapist chair” into, or back into, the “client chair.” These are a special group of clients, reacting to therapy in ways that other groups do not. As this qualitative study of 30 clinical social workers who have returned to the “patient chair” indicates, there is a unique struggle for identity and control. The paper explores the impact of that struggle on the therapeutic dyad and therapeutic frame, and concludes with implications and suggestions for further research.