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Episode 17: Love in Psychotherapy Part 2

Episode 17: Love in Psychotherapy Part 2

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Our discussion about love in psychotherapy continues: How do we convey our affection for the client sitting across from us, without crossing the line of impropriety? Psychotherapy will most naturally invite a reenactment of patterns in a person’s life, between client and therapist. When we can with intention do something in the clinical relationship to break that reenactment, to invite a chance for repair and healing in, is it ok to tell our client that we really like, even love them?
If you’re looking for a light and fluffy topic right now, this is not the episode for you. Head to the kitchen and make an omelet instead.
In Part 2 of the Love Episode, we dive deeper into what it means when we genuinely care about our client, when the affection we feel is mutual. The potential for powerful healing is there, side-by-side with the fear that we risk mucking things up in this clinical setting. When a person isolating in extreme emotional pain sits across from us, beckoning for an external answer to finding happiness again, it is our capacity as a loving being who can show up to simply walk with them in their pain, as an act of love, reaffirming the power of human connection. What can bring comfort in the moment is not the path out, but the companionship that a therapist can provide when there seems to be nowhere else to go.
Team PI discusses our own vulnerability in the therapist setting, what happens after we affectionately open up to a client that they matter to us, and muse on whether insurance companies could measure love as an evidenced-based tool – and what our progress notes would be like if they did.
And by the way, we want you to know that we love you…our listeners.
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