The (K)Not of Self-Disclosure: One Therapist's Experience

Abstract

As psychoanalytic psychotherapy embraces relational and intersubjective ideas, the person of the clinician comes more into view. Nowhere is this more evident than in the domain of self-disclosure. This article addresses the clinical complexity surrounding personal disclosure when issues of the therapist's sexual orientation and major loss and the processing of grief enter the therapeutic field.KEYWORDS self-disclosure, sexual orientation, grief and loss, relational/intersubjective frameworks PROLOGUE Psychoanalytic method and technique, in theory, offer safeguards against hegemony in the field. But is this true in practice and in our psychoanalytic community? Are we as open-minded about gender, race, and sexual orientation as we profess or do our biases blind us? When I brought an early draft of this article to a psychoanalytic writing group that I belonged to, my heterosexual colleagues were baffled by the idea that disclosing the death of my same-sex partner in a treatment setting would be different from any other personal material revealed by a therapist. For them, it was just another item to be analyzed. Although in principle I didn't disagree, this response struck me as naive at best. As a lesbian clinician, I struggled with the issue of self-disclosure in the therapeutic setting when my life partner died. This article is offered as a counterpoint to those who believe that differences in our sexual orientation are of little consequence.

Reflecting on professional self-disclosure and supportive relationships with foster carers during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Using the terminology of Clarke ( 2013), they may be described as acts of 'ordinary decency'; ethical practices that reflect 'everyday ways of being' and a recognition of reciprocity and mutuality in helping relationships (Alexander and Charles 2009). Another way of viewing them is in terms of how they correspond with a relational psychoanalytic standpoint -namely, that it is not necessarily true that a lack of self-disclosure on the part of a therapist will lead to patients being more candid about their own thoughts and feelings (Renik 1999, Gediman 2006, Siebold 2011, Newberger 2015, Campos 2020. For example, a nurse working with a foster carer might choose not to disclose how COVID-19 pandemic restrictions have affected them, but not doing so may risk giving the foster carer the misleading impression that the nurse is not experiencing the same challenges as everyone else.…”