Can You Overshare in Therapy? Yes, it is possible for a person to provide excessive amounts of information about their life in a therapeutic setting; however, “oversharing” is not necessarily a bad thing.
The amount of information you share with a therapist is entirely up to you. After all, you're the client. Still, the more honest you are with your therapist, the better. Giving your therapist a window into your thoughts, feelings, and experiences provides them with context and details, so they can best help you.
Other things to avoid during a therapy session include: asking about other confidential conversations with other clients; showcasing violent emotions; or implying any romantic or sexual interest in your therapist. The number one job of a therapist is to keep you safe and protect their clients' privacy.
If you feel that your therapist made a self-disclosure for reasons other than aiding you in your therapy, the disclosure may have been excessive or inappropriate, and as such may constitute malpractice. To reiterate, any self-disclosure made by your therapist should only be made with your best interests in mind.
If you are struggling, and you feel need some extra “ATTENTION”, then by all means schedule it! Don't let yourself get too “BAD” before you do. I encourage an open conversation with your therapist, and to tell him/her that you feel you need an extra session and see what they can work out.
Often you're only able to discuss one area or thing that happened to you. Therapy twice a week on the other hand allows you to go much deeper. We recommend this option for people who want to take the skills they've learned in therapy and apply them to their life in a more practical way.
Messaging, calling, and emailing between sessions may be a common practice for some therapists and might occur when a client has requested additional support or is experiencing a challenging moment in life. However, therapists may ask for your consent before sending you a message.
Sharing personal experiences or views that violate a client's value system may threaten the client's trust in the counselor as an appropriate source of help, Too much counselor self-disclosure can blur the boundaries in the professional relationship.
Over 90% of therapists self-disclose to clients (Mathews, 1989; Pope, Tabachnick, & Keith-Spiegel, 1987; Edwards & Murdock, 1994), however, the implications of therapist self-disclosure are unclear, with highly divergent results from one study to the next.
Overall, mindful and intentional self-disclosure can act as a powerful technique in the therapeutic relationship [that] can normalize client issues, model healthy behaviors and increase clients' own self-exploration.
Hands. Your client's hands can give you clues about how they're reacting to what comes up in the session. Trembling fingers can indicate anxiety or fear. Fists that clench or clutch the edges of clothing or furniture can suggest anger.
Back to Fictional Reader's question about why it may be difficult to look a therapist in the eyes. Some possible root causes range from guilt, shame, anxiety, low self-esteem, shyness, past abuse, depression or autistic spectrum disorders to varying cultural norms and cognitive overload.
If you live with complex trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma dumping or oversharing could be a natural trauma response and coping mechanism.
A common reason for oversharing is the desire to build depth and emotional intimacy before the relationship is ready. This can often be connected to stress or a fear of not being liked by the person.
But brushing off 'oversharing syndrome' as simply a form of selfishness is often way off the mark. Oversharing can all too often be a smokescreen for a serious psychological issue, including things like anxiety disorder and borderline personality disorder.
In many instances, it is okay to be completely honest with your therapist. Keep in mind that in most cases, your therapist is bound to confidentiality laws and cannot share your personal information without your written consent, so you don't have to be too fearful about what not to tell your therapist.
Therapists take confidentiality seriously. They understand that clients need a safe place to disclose their most private thoughts and feelings. In almost all cases, your personal information is held in strict confidence. Only in extreme cases will your therapist need to break confidentiality to keep you or others safe.
Answer them as honestly as you can, but keep in mind you don't have to share any more details than you feel ready to share. It's perfectly legitimate to tell your therapist, “I'm not comfortable talking about that yet.”
Inappropriate self-disclosures are those that are done primarily for the benefit of the therapist, clinically counter-indicated, burdens the client with unnecessary information or creates a role reversal where a client, inappropriately, takes care of the therapist. Types Of Self-Disclosure.
While many “professional counselors and therapists disagree on the effectiveness of self-disclosure,” they remain in agreement that it should be discouraged if it hurts or harms the client (Metcalf, 2011, p.
There are four different types of self-disclosures: deliberate, unavoidable, accidental and client initiated. Following are descriptions of these types.
Transference is often (though not always) the culprit when you feel triggered, emotionally hurt, or misunderstood in a therapy session. One tell-tale sign of transference is when your feelings or reactions seem bigger than they should be. You don't just feel frustrated, you feel enraged.
Your therapist's relationship with you exists between sessions, even if you don't communicate with each other. She thinks of your conversations, as well, continuing to reflect on key moments as the week unfolds. She may even reconsider an opinion she had or an intervention she made during a session.
In regards to missing our clients, yes, I would absolutely say that we do miss our clients. However, we also know that we have to maintain a professional relationship.