Table of Contents
- 1 Is it normal to find your therapist attractive?
- 2 Do attractive therapists get more clients?
- 3 Do therapists ever want to hug their clients?
- 4 Can therapists be sexually attracted to their clients?
- 5 How do you deal with being attracted to your clients?
- 6 How can I help my client feel comfortable in therapy?
Is it normal to find your therapist attractive?
“It’s natural for therapists to feel attraction,” says Shaw. “We do experience an emotional intimacy with our clients.
Do attractive therapists get more clients?
Existing research indicates that clients perceive facially attractive therapists as more competent, trustworthy, genuine, and effective than less attractive therapists. No studies exist to help explain how the therapist’s attractiveness influences a client’s self-disclosure.
Do clients fall in love with their therapists?
It’s common for clients to love their therapist. Some may love their therapist like a parent. They “feel safe and protected and love having a caregiver who meets their needs without demanding much in return,” said clinical psychologist Ryan Howes, Ph. D.
Do therapists ever want to hug their clients?
A therapist can hug a client if they think it may be productive to the treatment. A therapist initiating a hug in therapy depends on your therapist’s ethics, values, and assessment of whether an individual client feels it will help them.
Can therapists be sexually attracted to their clients?
One of such cases is sexual intimacy between the therapist and the client. Male therapists in particular can feel sexual attraction towards their female clients, while women as clients, more often than men, can feel emotional attraction to the therapist as a subconscious substitute for the father or some other important figure.
Do therapists feel feelings for their clients?
It should not come as any surprise that for at least some subset of therapy interactions, there will be some feelings on either the part of the client toward the therapist (transference) or the therapist toward the client (counter-transference).
How do you deal with being attracted to your clients?
If I am attracted to a client, I acknowledge it (to myself). I “call myself” on it first. I don’t try to suppress it or pretend I don’t feel that way. But, importantly, I don’t indulge in those feelings, either. I do not let myself fantasize about clients or try to imagine what they are like outside of the therapy session.
How can I help my client feel comfortable in therapy?
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to helping clients feel comfortable in therapy. To strengthen the therapeutic relationship, therapists must first identify factors that undermine it. Some strategies that may help include: