There is a saying that goes “you don’t need to be liked but you need to be respected”. All psychologists should operate by this mantra. In practice it is extremely difficult to do. Over time we develop very close relationships with our clients and it is only natural to want to be liked by them and not to want to “rock the boat” too much. However, this is definitely not what our client’s need.
It starts from the moment that a client walks into the therapy room. As a human being and a psychologist you are naturally going to have a reaction to them. Our training as psychologists teaches us to control that reaction and to treat everyone as pretty much the same. Everything that is said is “neither good nor bad but just is so.” When our society is often based around judgements of good and bad – the psychologist’s office is a refuge. Continue reading