Interviewer: So, Therapist, how do you feel?
Therapist: I'm fine. My knees are aging, but I'm OK.
I: No, I mean how do you feel when the woman is sobbing because her lover died, or because she had another miscarriage, or when your client gets fired, or when their kid gets arrested, when another relationship ends in tatters and ashes.
Th: Bad, sometimes. Sometimes, if I can see the person really tried to make something better and it fell apart, I feel badly. But, I'm not good at sympathy. If someone screws up again and stares at me, feeling like they just need someone to understand how the world is unfair, when with a little judgment or a little effort they could have made things better, then I want to punch them in the face. (I usually don't).
I: How to you keep from being overwhelmed with everyone's problems?
Th: Some of that you get from good training. I have learned to realize that these are someone else's problems and not mine. It makes me feel like that's a good thing.
I: Do all of these skills carry over to the rest of your life? Is it hard to stop caring for people?
Th: No, I'm not a nice person. Out of the office, when someone screws up I tend to think they are fools or idiots and I love to tell them so.
I: Does the work you do color they way you view the world? Do you view the world as as evil or malicious?
Th: The world just is. It is not good or bad. Is it bad when an eagle eats a mouse or a lion eats a lamb? That's just the way it is. It will all disappear.
3 comments:
Hmm....
There was a time when I wanted to go into the psychotherapy field, but was deathly afraid that hearing so many stories of doom, gloom and angst would either make me more jaded or that I'd end up crazier than my own patients!
My current goals are less ambitious but no less challenging, as I try to make myself understand that most things will stay the same unless I change them, and that the majority of what happens doesn't necessarily have to make sense. I think that life will be a lot easier to deal with that way. Because as long as I insist on finding meaning and substance where there's none, cynicism might be the only certain outcome, and since I'm not very sympathetic at all, maybe my potential clients are indeed better off by my having made a different career choice.
Souffle's touchy but there aren't life-changing repercussions if it doesn't rise like it's supposed to...and my insurance premiums are comparatively low!
that's great - that could be on the part where you say what your blog is about...
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