05/06/2025
I became a therapist partly because I couldn’t actually find the therapy that helped and I was stubborn enough to believe someone must have an answer (they did).
Because I always felt like something was wrong with me without knowing what. I wanted to ‘fix myself’.
So many therapists become therapists for the same reasons.
And many of us learned long ago that we were not ok the way we were.
So hiding under a professional hat is a pretty attractive excuse. How can people dislike you if they don’t know who you are?
It also helped that I’d worked for big companies who told me how to dress, behave, when I could speak and when I couldn’t even down to my email sign offs and punctuation usage (it was kind regards only and yup, that boss was a nightmare).
All this leads to a reasonable poker face but is pretty unhelpful for clients trying to find someone who really gets them.
After all who wants to confess their deepest, darkest secrets to someone they chose because they’re close to work, had a car park and availability to start in the next week?
Me, neither 🤷🏻♀️
And something that I’ve learned is when clients accept me for who I am, not only do I feel more comfortable, but it becomes a feedback loop. Where they do too because I’m not trying to be someone I’m not. And since they all grew up being told they were difficult, everyone wins.
