Therapists most often reported feeling sad while crying, and grief was most often the topic of discussion. In 55% of these experiences, therapists thought that clients were aware of the crying, and those therapists who discussed their crying with their clients reported improved rapport as a result of the crying.
Normalize and validate the response. Compassionately state that crying is a normal reaction. Let the client know explicitly that it's okay to cry; there's no need to hold back the tears. If offering a tissue box, it's often useful to say, “Please don't try to hold those tears back.
Crying can be an appropriate response to difficult situations in a therapeutic context. It can enable the therapist to empathize with the patient and help build trust, depending on their relationship with the patient. At other times, however, tears may be inappropriate for the therapist's reaction.
Crying can mean anything from eyes that glisten to a gentle tear streaking down a cheek to loud wailing. Therapists usually feel more regret about "more intense crying or more frequent tears or tears that are related to their own situation," says Blume-Marcovici.
The connected therapist feels what the client is feeling. However, there is always a part of the therapist that is calm and detached, observing those emotions, and objectively using that information to guide the session.
Although therapists are not obligated to show concern, care, or love to their clients, you should look for one that does. Find someone who wants to truly understand you, takes consideration of your whole context, and can empathize.
A study conducted by Trezza, Hastrup and Kim (1988) on patient crying found that patients cry in approximately 21% of therapy sessions. Based on these statistics, therapists cry approximately one third as frequently as their clients.
Participants described their crying as “brief . . . a few tears,” “tears welling up in the corner of [my] eyes,” with no “bawling, sobbing, or hiccupping.” Reasons for crying Generally, participants stated that they cried because they felt an empathic connection with the client.
Stop talking, turn down the volume of your thoughts, and pay attention to your body and see what happens. Quit Trying: For many, the point of therapy is to be yourself in the moment. If you're really unable to cry at this time, why not accept this?
That said, tears are more often a sign of empathy—a normal, healthy, and sincere human process of relating emotionally to the experience of another. Receiving empathy can help us feel safe and understood, strengthening the bond of trust between therapist and person in therapy.
Shutting down isn't dangerous – Because the experience of shutting down may cause the client to feel helpless, terrified, or out of control, clients and therapists alike may have an urge and tendency to shy away from cues (e.g., certain topics) that make shutting down more likely to happen.
An emotional hangover is any lingering uncomfortable feelings after your first therapy session. They typically appear a few hours after your session and can last into the following day. You may notice a range of emotions, including feeling frustrated, anxious, embarrassed, or irritable.
In the therapy environment, counsellors will often see a correlation between lack of tears and trauma, which can be an indication that the client has dissociated from their trauma as a means of surviving it. For others who have not cried in some time, and crying in a session would not feel accessible or 'natural.
Sometimes it is very obvious, a client might look off into space and freeze. Their eyes will look far away and it is clear to me that they are not with me. Often they won't be able to answer my questions or really hear what I am saying.
One study found that 72 percent of therapists have cried in session, suggesting that tears are the norm rather than the exception. Sometimes, their tears were in response to sad situations like the one my client found himself in; sometimes, they cried because they felt touched by something their client shared.
The average caseload for a therapist will vary widely, depending on areas of specialization, work setting, and how many hours a week you want to work. For example, if you're going to work a full-time, 40-hour week, you might be seeing 30 clients a week and have 10 hours of paperwork and other housekeeping tasks.
The general rule of thumb for the frequency of therapy sessions is once per week, especially in the beginning. Therapy requires a concentrated effort on a consistent basis to realize the fullest benefits from the therapeutic relationship - in other words, it takes work to get good results.
It depends on how far the attachment goes. There are professional ethics, but there is also the trust between the two. The thin line cannot be crossed, so it can make some feel uncomfortable, but I do not think it creep me out or scared. I want the trust, I need the openness to be able to help properly.
Well-timed, the question can lead to breakthroughs regarding unhelpful patterns, difficult feelings, and negative interpersonal relationships. It can reconnect you with any feelings you may be trying to avoid by overthinking the situation. So, yes, the question may be an attempt to interrupt and go deeper.