ABSTRACT
In addition to your own body signals and personal psychotherapy, your colleagues can play an important role in giving you feedback and support. Both therapists and researchers on practitioner stress consistently advocate talking to your peers as a potent buffer against the hazards of the psychotherapy profession (Dlugos & Friedlander, 2001; Guy, 1987; Maslach, 1982; Norcross, 2000; Yalom, 2002). The therapists I surveyed also cited interaction with other clinicians as one of the most successful tools they had in dealing with work stresses, as well as one of the greatest rewards of being a therapist. These comments are typical of their advice for other mental health workers:
“Form a group of compatible therapists that meets regularly, not only to exchange useful information, but also to validate, support, and care about each other in a confidential setting.”
