Self Disclosure In Psychotherapy And Recovery

Concise, clear, and featuring numerous clinical examples, this is the first book to include empirical studies of supervisor/supervisee disclosure, plus extensive research on patient/therapist disclosure. Other unique topics include disclosure issues in child therapy.

Therapist Self-Disclosure gives clinicians professional and practical guidance on how and when to self-disclose in therapy. Chapters weave together theory, research, case studies, and applications to examine types of self-disclosure, timing, factors and dynamics of the therapeutic relationship, ethics in practice, and cultural, demographic, and vulnerability factors. Chapter authors then examine self-disclosure with specific client populations, including clients who are LGBTQ, Christian, multicultural, suffering from eating disorders or trauma, in forensic settings, at risk for suicide, with an intellectual disability, or are in recovery for substance abuse.This book will very helpful to graduate students, early career practitioners, and more seasoned professionals who have wrestled with decisions about whether to self-disclose under various clinical circumstances.

Self-Disclosure in Psychotherapy and Recovery elucidates a diversity of self-disclosure topics that pertain to a wide range of issues impacting every facet of the process and outcome of psychotherapy relationships. This book represents a seminal contribution to the counseling and psychotherapy literature specific to chemical dependency counseling, addictions-focused therapy, and the self-help based recovery model.

Decisions about self-disclosure-whether to reveal one's thoughts, feel ings, or past experiences to another person, or the level of intimacy of such disclosure-are part of the everyday life of most persons. The nature of the decisions that a person makes will have an impact on his or her life. They will determine the kinds of relationships the person has with others; how others perceive him or her; and the degree of self knowledge and awareness that the person possesses. The study of self-disclosure has interested specialists from many disciplines, including personality and social psychologists, clinical and counseling psychologists, and communications researchers. Our book brings together the work of experts from these various disciplines with the hope that knowledge about work being done on self-disclosure in related disciplines will be increased. A strong emphasis in each of the chapters is theory development and the integration of ideas about self-disclosure. The book's chapters explore three major areas, including the interrelationship of self-disclosure and personality as well as the role of self-disclosure in the development, maintenance, and deterioration of personal relationships, and the con tribution of self-disclosure to psychotherapy, marital therapy, and counseling.

In this edited volume, the real dialogue begins. Therapists speak openly and honestly about their self-disclosure practices, decisions and clinical dilemmas. Bloomgarden and Mennuti bring together research, training and tales from their clinical experience to illuminate lessons derived from their own journeys toward judicious, balanced self-disclosure practices. In a readable fashion, the stories highlight a variety of self-disclosure and boundary issues that occur in the course of psychotherapy. Numerous treatment modalities and clinical orientations are represented. The collective wisdom offered through these stories, which includes suggested guidelines and a standard of care for good practice, will assist the reader in developing a better understanding of what it means to self-disclose appropriately, recognizing a flexible middle ground between "too much" and "too little" along with responsiveness to client need. The Freudian based taboo that rigidly warns against all self-disclosure is antiquated, and a more reasonable, balanced perspective is under way. As a psychotherapeutic community, including psychologists, social workers, art therapists, counselors, dance/movement therapists who are all represented in this book, it is time to talk openly about a balanced, judicious, and therapeutically appropriate approach to self-disclosure and boundaries. Bravely, that is exactly what the authors in this book have done.

Although clients disclose many of their concerns to therapists, they often choose to conceal some of their concerns as well. Equally, therapists occasionally reveal something of themselves to clients via therapist self-disclosure, but typically keep the focus on clients. Such disclosure, whether by clients or therapists, is seldom easy, and is instead often fraught with questions as to what, how much, and why to disclose, as well as concerns regarding the consequences of disclosure. Clearly, disclosure (or the lack thereof) is an important phenomenon of the therapy endeavour. The chapters included in this book examine various aspects of the disclosure and concealment phenomena, whether from client or therapist perspective. Contributions examine the relationship of therapist self-disclosure to alliance and outcome; the phenomenon of therapist self-disclosure in psychodynamic therapy; client concealment and disclosure of secrets in therapy; young adults’ disclosures in psychotherapy and on Facebook; and lying in psychotherapy. Each offers intriguing insights into the disclosure, or lack of disclosure, in psychotherapy, from the therapist or client perspective. This book was originally published as a special issue of Counselling Psychology Quarterly.

The editors of the present volume were also privileged to collaborate on an earlier book, Intimacy, also published by Plenum Press. In our pref ace to that volume, we described the importance and essence of inti macy and its centrality in the domain of human relationships. After reading the contributions to that volume, a number of issues emerged and pressed for elaboration. These questions concerned the nature and parameters of intimacy. The natural extension of these con cerns can be found in the current work, Self-Disclosure in the Therapeutic Relationship. The editors, after careful consideration of the theoretical, philo sophical, and technical literature, are impressed by the relationship between intimacy and appropriate self-disclosure. Self-disclosure, in this context, refers to those behaviors that allow oneself to be suffi ciently revealing so as to become available for an intimate relationship. Levenson has referred to psychotherapy as the demystification of expe rience wherein intimacy emerges during the time that interpersonal vigilance diminishes through growing feelings of safety. Interpersonal experience can be demystified and detoxified by disclosure, openness, and authentic relatedness. This is not an easy process. Before one can be open, make contact, or reach out with authenticity, one must be available to oneself. This means making contact with-and accepting-the dark, fearful, and of ten untouched areas within the person that are often hidden even from oneself. The process of therapy enables those areas to gain conscious ness, be tolerated, and be shared with trusted others.