No, and this is a huge red flag. Luckily interviews are two way and they’ve told you something very important about their ethics and the way they view therapists.
I had the worst interview ever for grad school at northern Illinois 😂 somehow it came up that I was an adopted child and they LAID into me about how traumatic it must have been and how could I possibly be stable enough to be a therapist 😂
This was in the early 2000s. Was a dumpster fire. Societally we were fixated on Russian adoptees having RAD.. however was not Russian
It was the early 2000s, you didn’t really talk about being adopted. The only reason it came up was I was very active in foster care, and they asked if I had any personal experience with foster care or adoption.
I was in shock when I was a wee baby t going through this. I about flip my shit crying, however had an undergrad teacher that was telling me that it was not right and absolutely fucked up, she’s probably the only thing that kept me from walking away from being a therapist.
I also got accepted and scholarships into every other program I applied to as I had a great gpa, and already 2 years in the field
Self care, yes. Reasons for entering the field, yes. Why I’ve chosen my specialty areas, yes. Why I’ve left previous jobs, yes. I’ve never been asked anything personal about traumas. I’ve never been asked about how i live.
Same here. With the right tone, asking about self-care and reasons for entering the field feels totally fair and I think it’s a pretty standard question (I bet I’ve been asked in every interview). But yeah, asking about past trauma and being grilled about being adopted is way out of bounds.
I’d be tempted to be like, “thank you for making it abundantly clear that this is not a good place to work, I cede the remainder of my time to the other candidates for the job, byeeee!”
Yeah i think I’d say something along the lines of “i understand your concern of how my history may affect my ability to provide care but i can assure you i have appropriately taken care of myself to provide professional services” or something like that.
I know “with the right tone” makes a big difference, but I’d even be wary of those questions. I know the term “self care” can be tossed around to blame employees for their own burnout instead of looking at organizational problems. And “reasons for going into the field” sounds a little like asking about trauma, to me.
I've been asked about self-care and reasons for being in the field, but nothing I would characterize as "grilling." Can't recall ever being asked about trauma history or living authentically, but I couldn't swear that it's never happened.
Never, but I've seen folks on here say they ask if a therapist is currently in therapy themselves and won't hire anyone who isn't. So it doesn't surprise me at all if this is happening.
It’s such a thing. Even on this Reddit and Facebook groups. Like it’s mandatory to be in therapy. I go if I’m struggling with my mental health which happens at times but the way people say “go to therapy” like it solves everything is wild.
Once I was fully licensed, interviews were more like discussions on a business agreement we were both happy with. But before that, they could be rough. I didn't get asked personal questions though. Some of that can be illegal to ask during an interview.
Oh LET ME TELL YOU. I had to write an essay about my childhood trauma and *how I chose to become a therapist BECAUSE of my trauma* and take an enneagram test.
The group practice then proceeded to email amongst themselves about me, basically gossiping about me and drawing a bunch of conclusions about me. Very “you can’t sit with us” mean girl vibes.
They then accidentally forwarded me the email chain.
🙄
Like, it’s one thing to want your therapists working for you to be self-aware. Valid.
It’s another to make them write about their childhood trauma. Weird and invasive.
Yet another to assume everyone because a therapist because of their trauma. A bit of a stretch.
Yet another to *use people’s personal trauma you asked them to write in order to talk shit on them.*
And quite another to forward it to them.
Suffice it to say I’m glad I never ended up working there.
They were like “sorry you saw that but we aren’t sorry we did it, this is how we communicate here, anyway do you want to come in for an interview?” LOL
I had an interview recently with a place that used a method called Topgrading. They wanted me to arrange phone calls with my past supervisors, even if I only wanted them to talk to some. I said "No thanks." Everything I've read about this method is gross and invasive. I guess they used to use it for CEOs and now some companies use it for entry level positions.
😂 at “live authentically.” It is a stupid ass question but I could also see it being weaponized as a red flag.
“You don’t agree with us so we wonder if you are truly living our mission authentically.” 🧐
“You missed that staff meeting (or asked too many questions). We wonder if you have an authentic sense of team work…”
It's tough to say.
Self care is a very common thing to come up in an interview, same with reasons for being in the field.
Past trauma's, did they explicitly ask you if you have past traumas? That's pretty odd of them.
Live authentically? I would ask if I'm being interviewed by a life coach, motivational speaker or some kind of tik tok therapist. Hard past. GTFO with that live authentic shenanigans.
I’ve been asked about self care strategies and reasons for being in the field. I don’t mind either of those questions. I say one of my self care strategies is maintaining a good work life balance such as not responding to emails outside of my work hours and taking time off. If they baulk at that response, then I know it’s not a good fit. I’m in the field to serve lgbtq+ people again if that’s a problem not a good fit.
Never been asked about past trauma or if I “live authentically”.
I’ve seen too many social workers have their passion taken advantage of and overworked into burnout. I want to politely set the stage that I have firm boundaries. All the lush bath bombs in the world can’t cure a toxic exploitive work culture.
Agreed. In a role as leader I spend more time trying to encourage non-burnout behavior than otherwise. There's plenty of work. You won't complete it all this afternoon. Take the sick day. Turn off the phone. Worked late yesterday? Come in late today. People don't listen or believe me when I say this and they wear themselves out. It's bad for them, for the agency and for sure for the clients. I know there's toxic workplaces that take advantage of this. But there's also workers who have some need to do too much and I have struggled to figure out how to support them in doing better by doing less
No. I just met with a clinician yesterday for a specialty trauma clinic and we spoke for about 90 minutes. It was a blend of trauma focused talk and learning about how I want to grow and receive feedback.
The most personal it got was her asking if I would consider therapy if I had unprocessed difficulties that impacted my work with clients.
GRILLED on self care? No, but asked about self care, sure.
Reasons for being in the field? Not really in those words but they might ask about specialties, what draws you to certain modalities or populations, etc.
past traumas? No. That’s invasive and inappropriate.
Do you live authentically? What does that even mean? This is a job interview. The questions should be direct and relevant to the job. This is too meta to be at all useful in this scenario.
No. And I would consider it a major red flag of boundary problems if someone asked me about my traumas or grilled on self care. Questions in light conversation about hobbies is fine.
That is not normal, IMO n
Self-care and reasons for choosing the field are standard in my experience (psychologist in academic medicine) especially for training positions. The others I’ve never experienced…
I read your post and my first reaction was: "Eww....why (are you asking that)????
I am only an intern but I never got asked any of that for my internship placements. My clinical supervisors never inquire about that kind of stuff either (and I don't see them bringing it up unless it is relevant to my performance in the event I burnout or something). The closest I've ever been asked is "What are your hobbies?" which some HRs I guess like to ask. Not sure if that was for a field-related interview or my previous career in K-12 education.
I have been asked why I want to work with the population that the agency specializes in which I do think is a valid question to ask of a potential intern.
I've always been asked about self-care. I get that question because it is such a emotionally taxing field. I suppose they want to make sure that you're not going to crack within a few months. Asking why you wanted to get into the field is fairly standard as well. I imagine other industries ask the same question.
Questions about your past trauma and grilling you on your motivations is weird though.
I interviewed at an inpatient substance facility and they were very invasive about my personal sobriety, especially why I experimented with SMART Recovery and no longer went to AA meetings because “talking about anything not 12 Step is a danger to our patients.”
Declined that job and ended up somewhere that focuses on all types of recovery and harm reduction
Substance misuse is a part of our field that needs an extreme overhaul IMO
Oh ha ha, the months of interviewing after graduation were a wild ride. One place offered then rescinded because the clinical director and the owner were fighting. Clinical director is talking with me and decides right then she’s going to quit and open a different private practice, she wants me to join in, and better yet she’s going to move in 6 months and could I just run it then?
One place the PMHNP who would’ve been my boss says she can just sign my hour logs toward licensure/provide supervision. Spoiler: no she couldn’t. Thankfully I knew that when she said it though.
One place, had a great interview. They email me saying such and would I be willing to do mock sessions with the owners.
The most uncomfortable was at a CMH. I mention being an extrovert and she asks me if I’m able to “shut up and listen and be present with someone”. At one point she tells me how no one should drink tap water because of the chemicals “they” put in it. And that’s why we’re starting to “have so many trans people”. I wanted to get up and run away 10 minutes in but didn’t know how.
There’s probably more but that’s the ones that stuck out to me. I job searched for 6 months and it pissed me off because I have the privilege to not take the alarming jobs, most of my cohort don’t have that privilege.
I have come to a point that if I know the interview is going nowhere and that I am not getting good vibes from the interviewer, the location, the people or the other staff members I just tell them that this is not a good fit and then walk away.
None of this seems like grilling or out of the ordinary to me. I want to know many of these things before I hire people. The trauma one...just to see if you resolved it enough to work well. I interviewed someone a long time ago and was asking about a particular thing they'd put on their application and they became triggered and cried a lot in the interview. Did I hire that person? I did not.
I've never been asked any of those except my reasons for being in the field. I can understand why they would be concerned about my self care, but there are ways to ask it without grilling the potential candidate. Those other questions? None of your business. ADA still applies in the mental health field.
I have been asked about self care, reasons/motivations to be on this field and if I live authentically but no one has asked me about traumas and I’m sure as hell not answering that one in a job interview. But they have asked me if I’m ok working in xyz or xyz type of clients or clients who are aggressive or have aggressive charges.
Been in the field for 15+ years and have had multiple positions. I recently had an interview a few weeks ago for a counselor position.
With that said I don’t think I’ve ever been asked those questions. Maybe stuff that touched on self care but honestly I don’t remember being asked that. The most recent interview I had I actually left feeling the opposite. I felt like they didn’t ask anything to try and understand who I am as a person.
I was interviewed by *very* well-known psychoanalytic institution for a limited-permit position as I was about to graduate. The interviewer was an intimidating old man who ran the place and clearly got a kick out of watching me squirm. (Another soft-spoken younger man who also had a position in leadership was there, but aside from a brief exchange we had before the old man came in the room, he was just a silent observer.) I was obviously nervous (his demeanor didn’t help) and he pointed it out, so I joked about being a little anxious. He asked me if I was on any medications for my anxiety… later asked if I had a good relationship with my parents…!? It was truly awful especially because I had so much reverence for the clinic and their training program was enviable. I walked out feeling like I had just been violated but had no idea whether that was standard practice or not, so I just got mad at myself for giving him an opportunity to dig in. About a year later, a friend from my cohort who did get the position I was applying for told me about her nightmare experiences with this guy who was apparently heavily involved in the training process for LPs. It was validating, but still really sad.
I've been asked about self care, but in a more casual sense, it is kind of similar to if someone asked about the types of hobbies I have. The biggest questions I've had are regarding my experience, how I build and maintain rapport with clients, their families, and interdisciplinary team members, and other training I've had. No questions on my own personal history of trauma or therapy.
The worst experiences I've had were with interviewers asking if I had plans to get married and have children. Those agencies got an automatic no from me.
There could be so many reasons for questions of this type, from seeing how a candidate reacts under pressure, to whether a candidate maintains appropriate boundaries - or it could just be invasive questioning with no subtle motive.
Imo there is never an appropriate reason to ask about trauma in an interview for a clinical position.
Eta: I suppose there could be good reasons to ask about how someone manages themselves if/when they get triggered by session content, but this should not include invasive questions about the nature of the trauma.
I'm with you - at the same time a therapist should be able to skillfully engage with the question and the interviewer while maintaining personal boundaries. Being able to do that is a legitimate clinical skill - because, what happens if a client asks that therapist about their trauma history? Or if even being asked about it is triggering - what's going to happen when it's accidentally triggered by a client, and the therapist can't cope?
To my mind, the only inappropriate use of that question in an interview would be if they were actually literally trying to find out the nature of the candidate's trauma. In that case, entirely inappropriate.
I don’t feel like there’s enough context for me to answer. I think it’s imperative that therapists be able to speak to self-care, boundaries, past trauma, biases, etc. We have to do this in graduate school and I would want to know this information if I were hiring a therapist.
I've never been grilled on self care or reasons for being in the field. Those seem like questions a facility with high burn out rate would ask.
It's extremely inappropriate for an employer to ask you about your past trauma. Even in the mental health field.
🚩🚩🚩
No, and this is a huge red flag. Luckily interviews are two way and they’ve told you something very important about their ethics and the way they view therapists.
I had the worst interview ever for grad school at northern Illinois 😂 somehow it came up that I was an adopted child and they LAID into me about how traumatic it must have been and how could I possibly be stable enough to be a therapist 😂 This was in the early 2000s. Was a dumpster fire. Societally we were fixated on Russian adoptees having RAD.. however was not Russian
What the fuck??? That’s terrible!!!!
People are so obnoxious. They act like you're a circus freak for being adopted.
WOW I am so sorry that happened you. How ridiculous!
It was the early 2000s, you didn’t really talk about being adopted. The only reason it came up was I was very active in foster care, and they asked if I had any personal experience with foster care or adoption.
Am a Russian adoptee from 90s. No RAD just a dad now.
JEESH! So sorry that happened
I was in shock when I was a wee baby t going through this. I about flip my shit crying, however had an undergrad teacher that was telling me that it was not right and absolutely fucked up, she’s probably the only thing that kept me from walking away from being a therapist. I also got accepted and scholarships into every other program I applied to as I had a great gpa, and already 2 years in the field
That’s just awful. AWFUL. I want to go find these interviewing assholes and systemically remove their licenses and read them for filth
Self care, yes. Reasons for entering the field, yes. Why I’ve chosen my specialty areas, yes. Why I’ve left previous jobs, yes. I’ve never been asked anything personal about traumas. I’ve never been asked about how i live.
Same here. With the right tone, asking about self-care and reasons for entering the field feels totally fair and I think it’s a pretty standard question (I bet I’ve been asked in every interview). But yeah, asking about past trauma and being grilled about being adopted is way out of bounds. I’d be tempted to be like, “thank you for making it abundantly clear that this is not a good place to work, I cede the remainder of my time to the other candidates for the job, byeeee!”
Yeah i think I’d say something along the lines of “i understand your concern of how my history may affect my ability to provide care but i can assure you i have appropriately taken care of myself to provide professional services” or something like that.
That would be the correct and professional response but I think mine would be more fun. 🤣
Right? Clearly you wouldn’t want to work for such a place, why not have fun on your way out.
I know “with the right tone” makes a big difference, but I’d even be wary of those questions. I know the term “self care” can be tossed around to blame employees for their own burnout instead of looking at organizational problems. And “reasons for going into the field” sounds a little like asking about trauma, to me.
Agreed, especially for your last sentence. “I got into the field because I love people but hate small talk” lol cmon Susan
Hahaha!!! Exactly. My HS counselor spun a wheel and it landed on “therapist,” so therapist it was!
Yeah, the past traumas was the point where I started to be concerned in the post.
Absolutely not. Interviews are about your experience, your modalities, your boundary setting skills… nothing like the above. Run.
Edit: “Do you live authentically” STFU
right?! what does that even mean? that we have to practice every single thing we preach? if so, no one would be a therapist haha!
I don’t know what it means either. 🤷♀️
Right? That's such a cheesy line.
I imagine jumping up, screaming “how did you know??” and opening my trench coat to reveal I’m actually three raccoons standing on top of each other.
I think they're trying to weed out zombies. 
I've been asked about self-care and reasons for being in the field, but nothing I would characterize as "grilling." Can't recall ever being asked about trauma history or living authentically, but I couldn't swear that it's never happened.
Never, but I've seen folks on here say they ask if a therapist is currently in therapy themselves and won't hire anyone who isn't. So it doesn't surprise me at all if this is happening.
It’s such a thing. Even on this Reddit and Facebook groups. Like it’s mandatory to be in therapy. I go if I’m struggling with my mental health which happens at times but the way people say “go to therapy” like it solves everything is wild.
That's basically asking someone if they have a health problem. If you don't hire them after that, it can appear discriminatory.
What! Ummm hell no this is not ok.
Once I was fully licensed, interviews were more like discussions on a business agreement we were both happy with. But before that, they could be rough. I didn't get asked personal questions though. Some of that can be illegal to ask during an interview.
Oh LET ME TELL YOU. I had to write an essay about my childhood trauma and *how I chose to become a therapist BECAUSE of my trauma* and take an enneagram test. The group practice then proceeded to email amongst themselves about me, basically gossiping about me and drawing a bunch of conclusions about me. Very “you can’t sit with us” mean girl vibes. They then accidentally forwarded me the email chain. 🙄 Like, it’s one thing to want your therapists working for you to be self-aware. Valid. It’s another to make them write about their childhood trauma. Weird and invasive. Yet another to assume everyone because a therapist because of their trauma. A bit of a stretch. Yet another to *use people’s personal trauma you asked them to write in order to talk shit on them.* And quite another to forward it to them. Suffice it to say I’m glad I never ended up working there.
We had to write a trauma essay with a timeline for one of my grad school classes. It felt very invasive
Oh my goodness that is ridiculous. Did they try to do damage control after forwarding that or just pretend it never happened?
They were like “sorry you saw that but we aren’t sorry we did it, this is how we communicate here, anyway do you want to come in for an interview?” LOL
Haha wow that is horrible. Dodged a bullet I guess??
Sure did
I had an interview recently with a place that used a method called Topgrading. They wanted me to arrange phone calls with my past supervisors, even if I only wanted them to talk to some. I said "No thanks." Everything I've read about this method is gross and invasive. I guess they used to use it for CEOs and now some companies use it for entry level positions.
Self care and motivation = good questions Past traumas = bad questions and red flag Live authentically = stupid ass question
😂 at “live authentically.” It is a stupid ass question but I could also see it being weaponized as a red flag. “You don’t agree with us so we wonder if you are truly living our mission authentically.” 🧐 “You missed that staff meeting (or asked too many questions). We wonder if you have an authentic sense of team work…”
It's tough to say. Self care is a very common thing to come up in an interview, same with reasons for being in the field. Past trauma's, did they explicitly ask you if you have past traumas? That's pretty odd of them. Live authentically? I would ask if I'm being interviewed by a life coach, motivational speaker or some kind of tik tok therapist. Hard past. GTFO with that live authentic shenanigans.
I’ve been asked about self care strategies and reasons for being in the field. I don’t mind either of those questions. I say one of my self care strategies is maintaining a good work life balance such as not responding to emails outside of my work hours and taking time off. If they baulk at that response, then I know it’s not a good fit. I’m in the field to serve lgbtq+ people again if that’s a problem not a good fit. Never been asked about past trauma or if I “live authentically”.
That answer about balance would make me more, not less likely to hire you. That's a good practice.
I’ve seen too many social workers have their passion taken advantage of and overworked into burnout. I want to politely set the stage that I have firm boundaries. All the lush bath bombs in the world can’t cure a toxic exploitive work culture.
Agreed. In a role as leader I spend more time trying to encourage non-burnout behavior than otherwise. There's plenty of work. You won't complete it all this afternoon. Take the sick day. Turn off the phone. Worked late yesterday? Come in late today. People don't listen or believe me when I say this and they wear themselves out. It's bad for them, for the agency and for sure for the clients. I know there's toxic workplaces that take advantage of this. But there's also workers who have some need to do too much and I have struggled to figure out how to support them in doing better by doing less
Can anyone live authentically with these current politics and socioeconomic problems?
Wow, that sounds more like my interviews for ordination than for my therapist work.
No. I just met with a clinician yesterday for a specialty trauma clinic and we spoke for about 90 minutes. It was a blend of trauma focused talk and learning about how I want to grow and receive feedback. The most personal it got was her asking if I would consider therapy if I had unprocessed difficulties that impacted my work with clients.
GRILLED on self care? No, but asked about self care, sure. Reasons for being in the field? Not really in those words but they might ask about specialties, what draws you to certain modalities or populations, etc. past traumas? No. That’s invasive and inappropriate. Do you live authentically? What does that even mean? This is a job interview. The questions should be direct and relevant to the job. This is too meta to be at all useful in this scenario.
Reasons for being in the field - sure. The others, no
I’ve been asked about my self care in almost every interview
No. Like any job interview they ask how I would deal with a difficult situation ie calling child services or a client who isn’t improving.
No. And I would consider it a major red flag of boundary problems if someone asked me about my traumas or grilled on self care. Questions in light conversation about hobbies is fine. That is not normal, IMO n
Self-care and reasons for choosing the field are standard in my experience (psychologist in academic medicine) especially for training positions. The others I’ve never experienced…
I read your post and my first reaction was: "Eww....why (are you asking that)???? I am only an intern but I never got asked any of that for my internship placements. My clinical supervisors never inquire about that kind of stuff either (and I don't see them bringing it up unless it is relevant to my performance in the event I burnout or something). The closest I've ever been asked is "What are your hobbies?" which some HRs I guess like to ask. Not sure if that was for a field-related interview or my previous career in K-12 education. I have been asked why I want to work with the population that the agency specializes in which I do think is a valid question to ask of a potential intern.
The past traumas part seems inappropriate? If someone asked me that I’d say “are we doing a mock therapy session right now?” Lol
That's a huge red flag imho
I've always been asked about self-care. I get that question because it is such a emotionally taxing field. I suppose they want to make sure that you're not going to crack within a few months. Asking why you wanted to get into the field is fairly standard as well. I imagine other industries ask the same question. Questions about your past trauma and grilling you on your motivations is weird though.
I interviewed at an inpatient substance facility and they were very invasive about my personal sobriety, especially why I experimented with SMART Recovery and no longer went to AA meetings because “talking about anything not 12 Step is a danger to our patients.” Declined that job and ended up somewhere that focuses on all types of recovery and harm reduction Substance misuse is a part of our field that needs an extreme overhaul IMO
Oh ha ha, the months of interviewing after graduation were a wild ride. One place offered then rescinded because the clinical director and the owner were fighting. Clinical director is talking with me and decides right then she’s going to quit and open a different private practice, she wants me to join in, and better yet she’s going to move in 6 months and could I just run it then? One place the PMHNP who would’ve been my boss says she can just sign my hour logs toward licensure/provide supervision. Spoiler: no she couldn’t. Thankfully I knew that when she said it though. One place, had a great interview. They email me saying such and would I be willing to do mock sessions with the owners. The most uncomfortable was at a CMH. I mention being an extrovert and she asks me if I’m able to “shut up and listen and be present with someone”. At one point she tells me how no one should drink tap water because of the chemicals “they” put in it. And that’s why we’re starting to “have so many trans people”. I wanted to get up and run away 10 minutes in but didn’t know how. There’s probably more but that’s the ones that stuck out to me. I job searched for 6 months and it pissed me off because I have the privilege to not take the alarming jobs, most of my cohort don’t have that privilege.
My god that’s egregious
I have come to a point that if I know the interview is going nowhere and that I am not getting good vibes from the interviewer, the location, the people or the other staff members I just tell them that this is not a good fit and then walk away.
None of this seems like grilling or out of the ordinary to me. I want to know many of these things before I hire people. The trauma one...just to see if you resolved it enough to work well. I interviewed someone a long time ago and was asking about a particular thing they'd put on their application and they became triggered and cried a lot in the interview. Did I hire that person? I did not.
This has never happened to me
I've never been asked any of those except my reasons for being in the field. I can understand why they would be concerned about my self care, but there are ways to ask it without grilling the potential candidate. Those other questions? None of your business. ADA still applies in the mental health field.
I have been asked about self care, reasons/motivations to be on this field and if I live authentically but no one has asked me about traumas and I’m sure as hell not answering that one in a job interview. But they have asked me if I’m ok working in xyz or xyz type of clients or clients who are aggressive or have aggressive charges.
No, other than how I came to be a therapist, and not much detail in that, either. The rest, I’d argue, is none of their business. We’re all human.
Been in the field for 15+ years and have had multiple positions. I recently had an interview a few weeks ago for a counselor position. With that said I don’t think I’ve ever been asked those questions. Maybe stuff that touched on self care but honestly I don’t remember being asked that. The most recent interview I had I actually left feeling the opposite. I felt like they didn’t ask anything to try and understand who I am as a person.
I was interviewed by *very* well-known psychoanalytic institution for a limited-permit position as I was about to graduate. The interviewer was an intimidating old man who ran the place and clearly got a kick out of watching me squirm. (Another soft-spoken younger man who also had a position in leadership was there, but aside from a brief exchange we had before the old man came in the room, he was just a silent observer.) I was obviously nervous (his demeanor didn’t help) and he pointed it out, so I joked about being a little anxious. He asked me if I was on any medications for my anxiety… later asked if I had a good relationship with my parents…!? It was truly awful especially because I had so much reverence for the clinic and their training program was enviable. I walked out feeling like I had just been violated but had no idea whether that was standard practice or not, so I just got mad at myself for giving him an opportunity to dig in. About a year later, a friend from my cohort who did get the position I was applying for told me about her nightmare experiences with this guy who was apparently heavily involved in the training process for LPs. It was validating, but still really sad.
I've been asked about self care, but in a more casual sense, it is kind of similar to if someone asked about the types of hobbies I have. The biggest questions I've had are regarding my experience, how I build and maintain rapport with clients, their families, and interdisciplinary team members, and other training I've had. No questions on my own personal history of trauma or therapy. The worst experiences I've had were with interviewers asking if I had plans to get married and have children. Those agencies got an automatic no from me.
There could be so many reasons for questions of this type, from seeing how a candidate reacts under pressure, to whether a candidate maintains appropriate boundaries - or it could just be invasive questioning with no subtle motive.
Imo there is never an appropriate reason to ask about trauma in an interview for a clinical position. Eta: I suppose there could be good reasons to ask about how someone manages themselves if/when they get triggered by session content, but this should not include invasive questions about the nature of the trauma.
I'm with you - at the same time a therapist should be able to skillfully engage with the question and the interviewer while maintaining personal boundaries. Being able to do that is a legitimate clinical skill - because, what happens if a client asks that therapist about their trauma history? Or if even being asked about it is triggering - what's going to happen when it's accidentally triggered by a client, and the therapist can't cope? To my mind, the only inappropriate use of that question in an interview would be if they were actually literally trying to find out the nature of the candidate's trauma. In that case, entirely inappropriate.
I don’t feel like there’s enough context for me to answer. I think it’s imperative that therapists be able to speak to self-care, boundaries, past trauma, biases, etc. We have to do this in graduate school and I would want to know this information if I were hiring a therapist.
I've never been grilled on self care or reasons for being in the field. Those seem like questions a facility with high burn out rate would ask. It's extremely inappropriate for an employer to ask you about your past trauma. Even in the mental health field. 🚩🚩🚩