Self‐Disclosure

Abstract

At its most basic, therapist self‐disclosure is defined as the revelation of personal rather than professional information about the therapist to the client. When therapist disclosure goes beyond the standard professional disclosure of name, credentials, fees, office policies, and the like, it is considered self‐disclosure, or what has also been referred to as therapist transparency. Cultural and technological developments in the last few decades have significantly changed the nature of transparency and the clinical meaning of self‐disclosure.

Should psychotherapists disclose their own psychological problems?

“…Strasburger, Jorgenson, & Sutherland, 1992). Across psychotherapists and authors, there may be a general agreement around the question of why to self‐disclose – to benefit the client, as opposed to benefiting or indulging the psychotherapist (Hill & Knox, 2001; Zur, 2010) – but opinions differ widely about many other questions surrounding self‐disclosure, such as how much , when , towards whom , and perhaps most importantly, what to self‐disclose (Henretty & Levitt, 2010; Norcross, 2010).…”