Today, I’m going to school to become a therapist. Now anyone I tell that to, they now vomit their life stories to me. FML
Collection
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
Today, I went to therapy. I started talking about my childhood and my life. By the time the session was over my therapist was crying. FML
Today, while I was explaining my troubles to my therapist, he asked me, "And don't you have someone you can tell all that?" FML
Today, my therapist started laughing at me whilst I was telling my story. He said, "Sorry, I can't help it" and burst out laughing. FML
Today, after months of saying I wanted to kill myself, someone finally reported me. I can't go back to school until I see a therapist who has to approve my going back to school. FML
Today, I told my parents about my life problems, after they forced me to open up. Now they want to send me to a psychiatrist. Don't trust anyone. FML
Today, I went to see a therapist for the first time because I've been feeling depressed lately. I opened up and said everything that was on my mind. I really spilled my guts. After a good 30 minutes, her first question was, "Do you always talk this much?" FML
Today, I’m mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted, and I feel like the only person I can talk to who actually listens is my therapist. FML
Today, after weeks of therapy for severe depression, my therapist thought it would be helpful to confess my deepest problems to my friends, to prove that it was alright to trust people. I did. They laughed. Hard. FML
Today, my therapist clapped for me when I told her I'd made a friend. FML
Today, after breaking down in front of my therapist over some really sensitive issues, she decided to also break down. Not about my story but about her own life. I'm not being paid to comfort and console my therapist. FML
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Top comments
Iifa 7
Lesson 1: never discuss your personal course, career, work details with friends. Reason: 1. People who aren't your close friends will take this as a sign you are there for them to provide free service. Also depending on your lifestyle and work they might be more willing to pester you for other supports like financial. These people exist and are opportunistic. 2. As a therapist never give out free information about yourself that could be used to access your personal life, make you open to unwanted suggestions or run ins 3. Real friends will support you, have a conversation in a passing mode as work and study material is not a topic to discuss with friends, colleagues yes, patients yes, like minded people yes. But compartmentalize never offer unwanted/free advice to a friend from a therapist point of view. Hell even if you see a friend struggling instead of diagnosing just be there bite your lip and offer them the shoulder to cry on. Or if you really worried guide them to another trusted professional. 4. build clear boundaries between friendships and client-therapist relationships. Otherwise you won't have a distinction between work and free time and you're bound to become resentful for being constantly in a mode of therapist. Maybe make a point to only discuss your passions, hobbies and interests and dry to observe which people around you constantly bring up work, career, money or ask about it early on, these people are more likely measuring and comparing and will use it against you either by putting you down for not being as good as them, or being better than them.
The_Real_Cvh 10
Urm, I was wondering if you could maybe help me. I seem to be addicted to reading FML’s
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Comments (9)
Iifa 7
Lesson 1: never discuss your personal course, career, work details with friends. Reason: 1. People who aren't your close friends will take this as a sign you are there for them to provide free service. Also depending on your lifestyle and work they might be more willing to pester you for other supports like financial. These people exist and are opportunistic. 2. As a therapist never give out free information about yourself that could be used to access your personal life, make you open to unwanted suggestions or run ins 3. Real friends will support you, have a conversation in a passing mode as work and study material is not a topic to discuss with friends, colleagues yes, patients yes, like minded people yes. But compartmentalize never offer unwanted/free advice to a friend from a therapist point of view. Hell even if you see a friend struggling instead of diagnosing just be there bite your lip and offer them the shoulder to cry on. Or if you really worried guide them to another trusted professional. 4. build clear boundaries between friendships and client-therapist relationships. Otherwise you won't have a distinction between work and free time and you're bound to become resentful for being constantly in a mode of therapist. Maybe make a point to only discuss your passions, hobbies and interests and dry to observe which people around you constantly bring up work, career, money or ask about it early on, these people are more likely measuring and comparing and will use it against you either by putting you down for not being as good as them, or being better than them.
The_Real_Cvh 10
Urm, I was wondering if you could maybe help me. I seem to be addicted to reading FML’s
Earl_KarmasBitch 36
Just tell them that since they aren't paying you there's no client / therapist relationship and therefore you'll quite happily gossip the juicier details with everyone else you know.
RichardPencil 32
Unlike that dumb male escort, discuss fees up front. That really should have been the first thing they teach you in therapist school: get the money first!
Plop 17
Interrupt them and tell them they'll need to pay you 50$ an hour if they want a session, and it's only so cheap because you haven't graduated yet. After that, it'll be standard market rate.
RichardPencil 32
No, you need to double the going rate. First, you want the eye-popping amount to shut down your sudden patient. Next, you're gonna need to build up a cash hoard to defend yourself against practicing without a license.
Chazzster 32
Surely you are aware that your future patients are going to be doing exactly that? The only difference is that you will will be paid by actual patients and that you will have been prepared by your education by then. My Dad was a repairman for much of his life. One day he told me this - “Working for friends and relatives is hard because they expect you to give them a big discount AND to be thankful for their business.” So I said “then don’t do work for relatives.” Dad’s reply was that “you have to because they are your relatives, and if you do a good job they will talk you up to their friends resulting in more business.” I get it, we all need some balance and distance in our lives between a career or profession and your private life. You cannot be “on duty” all the time or you become exhausted. And, at this point you at not fully qualified to give professional advice. On the other hand, I assume the path to becoming a counselor was something you choose because it appealed to you for some reasons. Try to remember your reasons you wanted to become a counselor - Maybe that will help you to keep things in perspective. If you think you can help your friends by listening to their problems then remember you are helping them. In the long run this early “practice” in listening will either make you a better counselor or make you decide it was not the career choice for you. Personally, while I care about people in my life and have concerns for their difficulties, it really is less personally stressful to be concerned about another person’s problems than to have them yourself. Learn to care about others while still maintaining enough personal space to protect your own mental health. I would hope that your education will prepare you to do that. In the meantime, avoid volunteering information about your career plans to any but your closest friends and family. And if these “sessions” start anyway, explain that you are not yet qualified to be a counselor and if they have serious issues they really should see a professional - I would carry on me in this case, the phone numbers for mental health professionals so you can help in that way. OP, I hope this does not discourage you from becoming a mental health counselor. It is an honorable profession and we need more good ones. But if you are unsuited for the profession, then it’s better to find out early. I suggest you might want to talk to one of your teachers or advisers and get suggestions from them on how to deal with this.
QueenSaru 28
And what have we learned...?