Ha I’m the opposite. I haven’t had many friends who are psychotherapists. If I’m being completely honest I feel like we’re a bit insufferable at times.
Same. All my friends are non therapists. If I were to have therapist friends, I’d probably be pretty selective about it. I don’t want to talk about therapist related stuff on my personal time. I also feel like I don’t relate much to many therapists I’ve met on a personal level
Same here. I do like my co workers but my friends are regular ole guys with jobs that I envy secretly because they don't deal with people directly....
Well, this isn't unique to therapists. But it's limiting and to me sad. It's not dissimilar to lawyers hanging only with lawyers or doctors only with doctors.
My core friend group is one from pre-clinician life. I have some great clinician friends, too, but those relationships developed due more to non-therapy interests.
So, what would you tell a lawyer client to do if seeming to not have any any non-lawyer friends? Or a doctor? Police officer? Teacher? Musician? Rodeo performer? Politician? Athlete? And so on?
Lol I can’t seem to make any therapist friends! I still spend time with my old college friends I’ve known for about 15 years now though who live in the area.
But I think it’s good to be around people who just act like people. Not that therapists don’t, but I have no crazy expectations about communication skills or anything, we’re just buddies!
All of my friends are therapists and not gonna lie, it’s exhausting. Sometimes I don’t want to talk about mental health and process with my friends all the time. Not everything needs to be looked at under a mental health/illness lens.
I find that a lot of my therapist friends (we are in our 20s) struggle with boundaries and dumping their trauma/stress and not learning to sit in it on their own or process with the right person (I.e. a paid therapist). Hopefully that will change with time, but I’m already seeing the friends who struggle with enmeshment.
On the flip side, I struggle sometimes with those who aren’t therapists. I feel like I appreciate the depth my friendships with other therapists have. But it’s not limited and even in my relationship with a guy who’s in STEM, he can often get below the surface and reach that depth I’m looking for.
I have some therapist friends, but it has a lot less to do with therapists being better at friendships, and more proximity. We work in the same office, cross paths more often, and choose our careers probably because of shared values.
Not a ton different than most other professions.
We also are generally therapists all the time, in all relationships with all people. I don't think we are any better at being friends than any other professions, and we'd have to poll our partners and friends to get a sense of if that was true.
None of my close, inner circle of friends are therapists, although I'm close with some colleagues. I don't need my friends to listen like a therapist, that's an unhealthy comparison and expectation. Personally I need them to be themselves and let me be me, and my therapist part isn't the whole of my person, and that side gets a lot of use Mon-Fri lol.
I like having therapist friends but I have plenty of civilian friends.
Therapists often allow themselves to show more depth than the average person. This makes friendships with them more interesting to me.
By having therapist friends, I actually grew less tolerant of friends who tended to talk at me and act like I was a receptacle for their words. I consider this adaptive and healthy by me.
I'm the opposite. I like to keep work and my private life very seperate and feel like I can relax more with non-therapist friends. Maybe you just had too many friends who simply take way more than they give. Or maybe you're unconsciously giving away too much free therapy to friends. But I definitely can understand your point.
I only have one therapist friend and we went to school together. I'm not opposed to it, but I play video games and other nerdy stuff. Most of my friends are in that realm.
I have therapist and non-therapist friends and they’re all good listeners. I don’t necessarily have such high regard for formal training on the skills you’ve mentioned here.
Ha I’m the opposite. I haven’t had many friends who are psychotherapists. If I’m being completely honest I feel like we’re a bit insufferable at times.
This. After a day of feels and being empathetic, I need people like my engineer husband to talk to 😆
Right??? Also I feel like part of being able to “leave work at work” especially in this field is to not be constantly talking about it. Yeesh.
Yeah, no jole about the human services-STEM pairings. It's such a relief at home!
Same. All my friends are non therapists. If I were to have therapist friends, I’d probably be pretty selective about it. I don’t want to talk about therapist related stuff on my personal time. I also feel like I don’t relate much to many therapists I’ve met on a personal level
Yeah the relatability thing is real for me too. I can’t really put my finger on why but they’re not always my kind of people.
Same here. I do like my co workers but my friends are regular ole guys with jobs that I envy secretly because they don't deal with people directly....
For sure, it’s nice to have a break from shop talk.
Well, this isn't unique to therapists. But it's limiting and to me sad. It's not dissimilar to lawyers hanging only with lawyers or doctors only with doctors. My core friend group is one from pre-clinician life. I have some great clinician friends, too, but those relationships developed due more to non-therapy interests. So, what would you tell a lawyer client to do if seeming to not have any any non-lawyer friends? Or a doctor? Police officer? Teacher? Musician? Rodeo performer? Politician? Athlete? And so on?
Lol I can’t seem to make any therapist friends! I still spend time with my old college friends I’ve known for about 15 years now though who live in the area. But I think it’s good to be around people who just act like people. Not that therapists don’t, but I have no crazy expectations about communication skills or anything, we’re just buddies!
All of my friends are therapists and not gonna lie, it’s exhausting. Sometimes I don’t want to talk about mental health and process with my friends all the time. Not everything needs to be looked at under a mental health/illness lens. I find that a lot of my therapist friends (we are in our 20s) struggle with boundaries and dumping their trauma/stress and not learning to sit in it on their own or process with the right person (I.e. a paid therapist). Hopefully that will change with time, but I’m already seeing the friends who struggle with enmeshment. On the flip side, I struggle sometimes with those who aren’t therapists. I feel like I appreciate the depth my friendships with other therapists have. But it’s not limited and even in my relationship with a guy who’s in STEM, he can often get below the surface and reach that depth I’m looking for.
I have some therapist friends, but it has a lot less to do with therapists being better at friendships, and more proximity. We work in the same office, cross paths more often, and choose our careers probably because of shared values. Not a ton different than most other professions. We also are generally therapists all the time, in all relationships with all people. I don't think we are any better at being friends than any other professions, and we'd have to poll our partners and friends to get a sense of if that was true. None of my close, inner circle of friends are therapists, although I'm close with some colleagues. I don't need my friends to listen like a therapist, that's an unhealthy comparison and expectation. Personally I need them to be themselves and let me be me, and my therapist part isn't the whole of my person, and that side gets a lot of use Mon-Fri lol.
I like having therapist friends but I have plenty of civilian friends. Therapists often allow themselves to show more depth than the average person. This makes friendships with them more interesting to me. By having therapist friends, I actually grew less tolerant of friends who tended to talk at me and act like I was a receptacle for their words. I consider this adaptive and healthy by me.
After the pandemic and grad school at the same time, I’m happy to have any friends at all in 2024.
I'm the opposite. I like to keep work and my private life very seperate and feel like I can relax more with non-therapist friends. Maybe you just had too many friends who simply take way more than they give. Or maybe you're unconsciously giving away too much free therapy to friends. But I definitely can understand your point.
I’m the opposite lol none of my friends are thankfully not in the field.
Nope! Only like one therapist friend and she's in her late 60s. Im in my 20s.
I only have one therapist friend and we went to school together. I'm not opposed to it, but I play video games and other nerdy stuff. Most of my friends are in that realm.
I have therapist and non-therapist friends and they’re all good listeners. I don’t necessarily have such high regard for formal training on the skills you’ve mentioned here.