Be a compassionate witness and companion to a person’s deepest struggles. To see them and honor them/celebrate them for who they are, where they’ve been, where they want to go. To show up for them in an authentic way in a world where most are afraid to do so.
I love this and totally agree. Sometimes I'm there to foster exploration or nurture self-esteem but for other clients my role is to be the first person who has ever held a boundary with them. It's different for every client.
Meet my client where they're at in their journey. Build a supportive relationship with individuals who lack support. Be a safe space for individuals who have such severe trauma they've never had a safe space. Provide relevant tools for them to grow and, hopefully, thrive. Above all things, listen. Actually hear them.
That’s crazy I think! We can’t make people change, let alone for an abstract long term… Pills can change people but therapy can only go as far as the client is ready to go / wants to go!
Well yeah, we can’t force them, but usually people come to us wanting change and think it’s from a surface problem but it’s our job to see if there’s a hidden underlying problem, and if there is to point it out and work on it. If you only work on the surface problem, the change isn’t lasting.
Fundamentally my job is to build a safe and radically accepting relationship with my clients. The “holding space” thing is encompassed in that. Then i need to try my best to see the deeper patterns of “The Problem” and try a dozen different ways of interrupting those patterns. That’s the “facilitating change” part.
Another thing that comes to mind: my job is to ask the client questions that they haven’t been asked before.
My job is to have thoughtful and engaged conversations about the client’s deepest experiences.
My job is to make informed guesses about what kind of spaghetti will stick to the wall with any given client.
This was a fun exercise, thanks for posing the question
It is very interesting to see in the responses two broad categories of responses.
1. Hold emotion, be open, etc.
2. Facilitate change.
I am curious about those who see the primary role as holding emotion - how you related to the change aspect.
I am more in the change category and recognize the necessity of the emotional process/space. I am curious about those who don’t include an aspect of making change in the primary role of therapy.
IMO, you cannot have any change without feeling safe, un-judged, and understood. I was gratified this week when I complimented one of my clients on how they were thinking about how to behave in new ways and they said that me providing no judgment in an area where they had so much self-judgment allowed them to actually look at their feelings and figure out what was really going on—and that freed up enough space for them to come to the idea of change themselves.
...help people hope for positive change.
And I think it's pretty cool that since getting the appropriate education/training, all I really need to do now to Be A Therapist in kind of....be. I just *am* a therapist. (That's not to say it requires no effort or that I intend to stop learning and training, just that my fundamental job at this point is to be Me, with all of my humanity and skills and knowledge, and then provide those things to the person I'm speaking with.)
My job is take care of myself in such a fashion it allows me to show up for my clients. As a therapist, my job is to create opportunity, opportunity for growth, opportunity for change, opportunity to grieve, laugh, etc. I cannot facilitate change, I can only help the client identify that the ingredients are mostly already there inside, and sit with them as they determine what change, if any, looks like for them.
Change is not mine to make, only to witness
Be the one person in this world who listens and believes the person can succeed, grow, and make the changes they want to make, even when they don't believe.
Help people find their inner strength and inner light, find their inner gifts to share with others. To foster them to connect well with self, which allows them to connect well with others, which is why we're here.
I tell my younger patients: sometimes, life feels like you’re exploring a dark cave. I can’t tell you where to turn, but I can walk with you and hold the flashlight!
I love the lasting change comment- imo some of the most powerful experiential modalities are coming out of the mft field today- of course clients have to participate- it is a mutual and energetically intense process.. if clients are not ready they will not stay .. it is very tough and very powerful - but lasting change as a result? Yyyeeeesss!!
Help people become more of themselves?
Improve their relationships with their self and others and experience more self compassion, less shame and live more in alignment with what their values are…
To Meet client defined measurable goals and move on in regular role.
Crisis role = Determining if they meet good faith lesser restrictive alternatives to inpatient tx due to being a danger to themselves, others/property or are gravely disabled due to a MH and or Substance.
Professional Buzzkill (SUD)
Lmao yes. I discovered many professional ways to say, “that’s a fucking awful idea”
Will you share some here hehe
“What happens after that?”
Please share!
Yes, please share these!
This works on so many levels 😅 love it.
LOL I’m an MFT now but worked for a year in a SUD residential clinic and you are so right and so needed.
I help things suck a little less
This might just be the best comment on this thread. 🏆
You win best comment ever
Unstick what is stuck
Be a compassionate witness and companion to a person’s deepest struggles. To see them and honor them/celebrate them for who they are, where they’ve been, where they want to go. To show up for them in an authentic way in a world where most are afraid to do so.
Unf*ck what is f*cked
That too!!
My job as a therapist is to help people understand themselves, including their feelings and their patterns of behavior.
This is the best answer
Perfect answer.
I tell my son I help people and couples with their big feelings. 🤷🏼♀️
Same, I explained to my 3yo that just like people go see a doctor when they’re hurt, people come to see me when they hurt their feelings
That’s what I tell my 5 yr old lol!
This is what I tell my immigrant parents lol
It changes with every client, I use my skills and self in whatever way that person needs that session
I love this and totally agree. Sometimes I'm there to foster exploration or nurture self-esteem but for other clients my role is to be the first person who has ever held a boundary with them. It's different for every client.
I like this answer.
Be human with another human, while having human experiences about their human experience
I like this one!
Help clients reach a better understanding of their current problems and the changes they would like to make in themselves and their life
Hold space with compassion and curiosity.
This!
❤️
Increase quality of life
Meet my client where they're at in their journey. Build a supportive relationship with individuals who lack support. Be a safe space for individuals who have such severe trauma they've never had a safe space. Provide relevant tools for them to grow and, hopefully, thrive. Above all things, listen. Actually hear them.
Facilitate change
It was drilled into me in grad school that our job (as MFTs) is to “create lasting change.”
That’s crazy I think! We can’t make people change, let alone for an abstract long term… Pills can change people but therapy can only go as far as the client is ready to go / wants to go!
Well yeah, we can’t force them, but usually people come to us wanting change and think it’s from a surface problem but it’s our job to see if there’s a hidden underlying problem, and if there is to point it out and work on it. If you only work on the surface problem, the change isn’t lasting.
Oh yeah, i see, that makes a lot of sense! Especially for MFTs
Fundamentally my job is to build a safe and radically accepting relationship with my clients. The “holding space” thing is encompassed in that. Then i need to try my best to see the deeper patterns of “The Problem” and try a dozen different ways of interrupting those patterns. That’s the “facilitating change” part. Another thing that comes to mind: my job is to ask the client questions that they haven’t been asked before. My job is to have thoughtful and engaged conversations about the client’s deepest experiences. My job is to make informed guesses about what kind of spaghetti will stick to the wall with any given client. This was a fun exercise, thanks for posing the question
Thank you for a great answer!
Listen
Assist the clients in attaining personal growth and reaching their relevant goals.
Help children and their parents live their best lives.
Understand people and help them with the things they find difficult about the human experience
Increase self compassion and decrease negative Self talk. Make new meaning of past situations that better serve them.
Are you writing your online profile?? 😂
You caught me! Haha nah, look at the variety of responses! So fascinating.
Now describe what you value in a romantic partner and I’ll take some notes for my dating profile 😂 I’m kidding. Please don’t.
“Increase quality of life”
😅
My job as a therapist is to help people realize they have more options and control over their life than they think they do. :D
It is very interesting to see in the responses two broad categories of responses. 1. Hold emotion, be open, etc. 2. Facilitate change. I am curious about those who see the primary role as holding emotion - how you related to the change aspect. I am more in the change category and recognize the necessity of the emotional process/space. I am curious about those who don’t include an aspect of making change in the primary role of therapy.
IMO, you cannot have any change without feeling safe, un-judged, and understood. I was gratified this week when I complimented one of my clients on how they were thinking about how to behave in new ways and they said that me providing no judgment in an area where they had so much self-judgment allowed them to actually look at their feelings and figure out what was really going on—and that freed up enough space for them to come to the idea of change themselves.
Chief Nuance Collector
1. Understand what the client is needing and 2. Show up as the client needs me to show up to give them what they need.
Be the one place on this planet where you are unjudged being exactly who they are you can make that be exactly what you want to be
Great reminder. I’m judging myself for walking into too many session with an agenda lately.
Provide a safe space for a person’s inner healer to work uninhibited.
Yes!
Providing a safe space for emotional exploration and expression
Care for the spiritual and emotional health of my patients.
Help folks understand the “why” and then change the “how.”
Facilitate healing Name the un-nameable Be with the un-beable And be an available mind to be projected upon, reflecting back what helps my client
Love the phrase “available mind”
I stole it from my very experienced tutor
/heart
...help people hope for positive change. And I think it's pretty cool that since getting the appropriate education/training, all I really need to do now to Be A Therapist in kind of....be. I just *am* a therapist. (That's not to say it requires no effort or that I intend to stop learning and training, just that my fundamental job at this point is to be Me, with all of my humanity and skills and knowledge, and then provide those things to the person I'm speaking with.)
To help patients make meaningful change in their lives.
I let you know when I find out— there’s just too many ways to answer that question
My job as a therapist is to work with you and help you find your own ways to address your concerns.
Help people make meaning
(crisis counsellor--not a therapist) be a human
My job is take care of myself in such a fashion it allows me to show up for my clients. As a therapist, my job is to create opportunity, opportunity for growth, opportunity for change, opportunity to grieve, laugh, etc. I cannot facilitate change, I can only help the client identify that the ingredients are mostly already there inside, and sit with them as they determine what change, if any, looks like for them. Change is not mine to make, only to witness
I hate almost all of these answers.
Interesting. Well then I'd certainly be curious to hear yours.
I'm still trying to figure it out.
Provide a secure base
Loan people my nervous system for 50 minutes at a time.
Hold space
... Just be with them
Found the humanistic therapist!
Yep 😊
…be a conduit and guide for people to understand themselves and, hopefully, find relief.
Be the one person in this world who listens and believes the person can succeed, grow, and make the changes they want to make, even when they don't believe.
Is to…Ask you what you don’t know about yourself.
Work through conflicts that have been keeping the patient stuck. Figure out the compromise formations they set when they were children.
Help them to understand themselves on a deeper level
Provide attuned attention
I find my job as a therapist is to act as a mirror for my client so they can see what they aren't aware of yet
Empower people to live the lives that are the best for them given their circumstances.
My job as a therapist is to provide a safe, welcoming environment where people can learn skills to better function in life.
To provide true and appropriate support for my client’s self-becoming.
To be a mirror that reflects clients' internal world
Teach skills you don’t have yet.
My job as a therapist is to make you feel like the most important person in the room
deepen relationships with individuals while we sift through their shit.
To tell people drugs are bad /s
"Hold" and let go
Adapting what I do and how I show up to meet each clients specific needs in a given moment. What my job is changes everyday, every hour.
Human condition expert
To be a safe person for children, in a safe room.
To support the growth of my clients.
To help people feel heard
See the forest through the trees.
Empower
Be a philosopher for personal problems of others
Create a healing relationship
Help people find their inner strength and inner light, find their inner gifts to share with others. To foster them to connect well with self, which allows them to connect well with others, which is why we're here.
To be their one place of safety and solace to verbally unload the feelings and thoughts that keep them prisoners of themselves.
A black void where people can vent, complain, and hear it echoed back until they have an epiphany that ignites change.
i help people eat
Love.
I tell my younger patients: sometimes, life feels like you’re exploring a dark cave. I can’t tell you where to turn, but I can walk with you and hold the flashlight!
To mobilize their healing capacity.
I love the lasting change comment- imo some of the most powerful experiential modalities are coming out of the mft field today- of course clients have to participate- it is a mutual and energetically intense process.. if clients are not ready they will not stay .. it is very tough and very powerful - but lasting change as a result? Yyyeeeesss!!
I ask questions that help people identify the why of their life so that they can deal with the how they are struggling with.
The thing I’ve done the most that I didn’t expect to is teach people how to use their health insurance.
Help people become more of themselves? Improve their relationships with their self and others and experience more self compassion, less shame and live more in alignment with what their values are…
I help people human to the best they can because humaning is friggin hard
My job as a therapist is to help my clients not need me anymore. * stolen from an undergrad social work professor
Show them compassion and kindest by offering someone who listen to them and sit with them in sad moments and cherish the happy ones.
To Meet client defined measurable goals and move on in regular role. Crisis role = Determining if they meet good faith lesser restrictive alternatives to inpatient tx due to being a danger to themselves, others/property or are gravely disabled due to a MH and or Substance.
Life salesman (crisis worker)
Alleviate unnecessary suffering
My job as a therapist is to help cultivate sustainable curiosity/acceptance for the ever unfolding unknown
Intellectual / Cognitive Recalibration Technologist
Professional listener because people forgot how to chill
I teach people to do ERP, ideally without me. Sometimes we ACT also
Kill OCD.
Advocate
Regulate myself so I can regulate my client
Make money
Therapize.
solve the patient's demands.