Let’s go for a bumpy ride- Beginning journey as a therapist

“You are a therapist. Your life must be so sorted.” I have heard this a lot from my friends. However, that’s not how it usually is.

Starting my journey as a therapist has been a roller coaster ride.

Each day varies, ending on a high or a low, with a plethora of thoughts running at the back of my mind: “Am I saying the right thing?” “What if it doesn’t make sense to the other person?” “What if they don’t turn up again?” However, over a period of time, one realises that just like “one size doesn’t fit all,” similarly, one therapist cannot cater to the needs of every type of client.

As a therapist, there are so many emotions one can experience while facilitating the therapeutic process. However, it is so important to be aware of them and ensure that one’s subjectivity never hinders the safe and judgment-free space that one creates during sessions.

However, one might think, how does one deal with so many doubts? Here comes the importance of supervision.

In the initial stages of the process, it is vital that a therapist has a supervisor they can reach out to because that’s the anchor that has helped me drift back to the shore.

I cannot stop emphasising the importance of supervision when it comes to taking individual sessions because it helps us understand our biases and subjectivity, allowing the sessions to remain more objective and person-centred.

Therapy is a journey for the therapist too, it’s about learning, unlearning, and evolving.

In my journey as a psychologist, I realise the importance of understanding oneself before taking sessions because if you do not understand your thought processes and patterns, how will you make sure they are not hindering the therapy process? With time, I realised why this is so important because until I work on my inner biases, I can never truly help the person sitting on the other side of the table. I’ll always remember what my supervisor once told me:

“Just because you are on this side of the chair doesn’t mean you cannot be on that side of the chair.”

When we start the process, a therapist always makes sure to tell the client about the ethics involved; confidentiality, creating a safe space, and being open about their thoughts and feelings. However, that does not come until you feel safe within yourself.

The person sitting in front of us is just as sensitive to the “air” in the room as we create. A safe space can only be created when a therapist is open in their thoughts, and that can only happen when they have worked on themselves and reflected, and reflected, and reflected to understand their own patterns and not let them, in any way, influence the client’s thought process.

The “bumpy ride” does eventually lead to a comforting one with guidance, supervision, and consistency. If one decides to take the journey and is empathetic while feeling safe within themselves, they will be able to create the same atmosphere in the therapeutic setting as well.