For Therapists: “The Analyst’s Vulnerability”, by Karen J. Maroda

In Karen J. Maroda’s latest book, The Analyst’s Vulnerability, she essentially deconstructs the therapeutic relationship by taking a wrecking ball-in a scholarly way-to empathy, enactments, and mirror neurons.  She advocates taking therapy from the conceptual to the relational: as in, therapy is about two human beings being human with one another.

Humbling to those of us wannabe “saviors”, she writes, “Therapeutic action is not about changing who we are or what happened to us; it is about going through the painful process of recognizing, emoting, regulating, and accepting who we are.”

Maroda shifts our focus from what the therapist does to who the therapist is. 

She invites us to drop our impartial, unconditional, neutral (and neutered!) veneer and truly ‘walk the walk’ with our patients. She points out that, as therapists, we are in a unique position, as is the patient, to challenge and be challenged, to address conflict head-on, and to invite and “decriminalize” negative thoughts and feelings. In other words, unlike relationships outside of the consulting room, we have the opportunity to offer our patients (and ourselves!) the experience of a safe, open, honest, and reciprocal human interaction.