You generally cannot truly overshare in therapy because it's a safe, confidential space designed for deep sharing, but you can feel like you've overshared, which is common, often stemming from vulnerability, ADHD, anxiety, or defense mechanisms, and it's helpful to discuss these feelings with your therapist to pace yourself and build trust. While sharing deeply helps, excessive details or focusing on minor things might be tangential or a way to avoid deeper issues, but your therapist can guide you, and you can always talk about the feeling of oversharing itself.
You should feel free to discuss whatever you need to with your therapist, says Nicole Ernst, a licensed mental health counselor with Grow Therapy. “Therapy is a safe space to share your thoughts and feelings, so there is nothing that 'shouldn't' be brought up in therapy,” she says.
Therapists can respond to oversharing by helping clients with the ABCs of rebalancing oversharing behaviour: assisting clients in gaining Awareness of the behaviour, setting Boundaries in session (plus teaching clients to set their own boundaries), and helping clients see the negative Consequences of oversharing.
It varies, but here are a few common triggers for therapists: A client's story mirrors our own past trauma or losses. A dynamic starts to feel eerily familiar (like a past relationship, family member, or abuser) The therapist feels helpless, overwhelmed, or responsible for a client's pain.
Yes, therapy is generally confidential. What you share with your therapist is protected by strict privacy laws, but there are a few important exceptions that every client should understand.
Because therapy is such a personal thing, what you tell a therapist must remain confidential. This includes things like affairs, past crimes, and "bad behavior" that isn't necessarily criminal behavior. You can talk to a therapist about how you were abused in the past, and they will not share that information.
Sexual Relationships
It is never okay for a therapist to engage in a sexual relationship with a client. Not only do sexual relationships impair the professional performance, but they can also have dire emotional and psychological consequences.
The 2-year rule is APA's way of acknowledging that life holds few absolutes; many continua need to be considered. Thus, the Ethics Code includes an absolute prohibition against sex with former clients for a period of two years following termination.
Any request for personal favors, suggestive remarks, inappropriate physical contact, or attempts to socialize outside of the professional context are not just therapist red flags—they are definitive breaches of ethics and trust. This relationship is singular, devoted solely to your mental health.
Consequences of Shared Trauma Exposure
We are the most susceptible to compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, or secondary traumatization when our protective patterns or own unresolved trauma history comes into the therapy session.
Here are 10 errors commonly made by counselors, therapists, and other helping professionals:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a widely used and effective form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing negative thought patterns to improve emotional well-being and behavior. One of the foundational components of CBT is the “3 C's”: Catching, Checking and Changing.
A strong client reaction. One of the most helpful ways to recognize transference is when your client has a reaction in therapy that appears inappropriate for the situation. For instance, say you are discussing your client's behavior in romantic relationships, and they start giving you flirtatious signals.
What I Couldn't Tell My Therapist shares the unforgettable stories of three patients in intensive therapy. Michelle, a dedicated psychotherapist, struggles with an addiction to people-pleasing and perfectionism while being tethered to opioids by mysterious chronic pain.
When it comes to mental health, there's a helpful framework called the 5 Cs of mental health—Clarity, Connection, Coping, Control, and Compassion. These five elements play a crucial role in maintaining a healthy mindset and emotional well-being.
Things you should NOT share with your Therapist
Five common signs of poor mental health include persistent sadness or extreme mood swings, withdrawing from friends and activities, significant changes in sleep or appetite, difficulty concentrating or coping with daily life, and neglecting personal hygiene or having unusual thoughts like paranoia or hallucinations. Recognizing these changes in yourself or others, especially when they're prolonged or interfere with daily functioning, signals a need for support.
But it does provide some rough guidelines as to how soon may be too soon to make long-term commitments and how long may be too long to stick with a relationship. Each of the three numbers—three, six, and nine—stands for the month that a different common stage of a relationship tends to end.
Therapists aren't judging your story; they're listening underneath it. They're noticing the things you didn't even realize you were showing: the way your eyes darted when you mentioned your partner, how your shoulders curled in when you said, “I'm fine,” the slight tremble in your hands when you talked about work.
Generally speaking, there are three scenarios where patients look to end psychotherapy: 1) when a patient finds their treatment is ineffective; 2) when there are “red flags” to suggest that the therapist is not or is no longer a good fit; and 3) when a patient has made desired progress toward their goals and feels they ...
In other words, the APA advises against therapists entering a dual relationship with their patients if they have reason to believe it would cause harm to their client or the therapeutic relationship. Based on these guidelines, friendships between a client and their therapist would most likely be prohibited.
This rule states that by dividing your own age by two and then adding seven you can find the socially acceptable minimum age of anyone you want to date. So if you're a 24-year-old, you can feel free to be with anyone who is at least 19 (12 + 7) but not someone who is 18.
The seven signs are:
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), unethical behavior by a therapist generally means: Having more than one kind of relationship with a patient: Having a sexual relationship with a patient, for example, is generally considered unethical.
According to the American Counseling Association (ACA), they define abandonment as “the inappropriate ending or arbitrary termination of a counseling relationship that puts the client at risk.” They go on to state that “counselors do not abandon or neglect clients in counseling.