If you’re a therapist, how much of yourself do you invest in a session with a patient who’s hard to reach?
If you’re a patient, how much effort does your therapist make to understand what it’s like to be you?
In an excellent description of how an effective therapist’s mind works, David Kronemyer reveals some of his own thought processes when engaging with a withdrawn and suicidal 17-year-old for the first time: Clinical Impression – A Smart but Acutely Suicidal Adolescent Girl
I was exhausted at the end, fully depleted by the experience. I felt as though I had summoned all of my inner resources and powers…I stepped outside for a few minutes to get some fresh air, tears welling up in my eyes.
It’s well worth reading the whole piece.
(By the way, “5585” is a section of the California Mental Health Act, under which someone who is not yet 18 years old can be held for 72 hours against their will for psychiatric assessment and treatment.)
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