“Are You in Recovery?”

Clients with histories of substance abuse often want to know whether or not their therapist is in recovery from drugs and alcohol, and often ask directly. Frequently, substance-abusing clients are involuntarily mandated to therapy and may ask such personal questions to determine whether the therapist can be empathic, or in effort to keep the therapeutic focus off themselves, create adversarial dynamics familiar to their prior experiences, or establish (from their perspective) qualification to treat. In some cases, therapeutic self-disclosure (TSD) may be beneficial to the relationship and may humanize the therapist, though is unlikely to be the major determinant of engagement, and risks inspiring an unhealthy sense of competition, diversion from treatment aims, or reinforcing poor boundaries. Whereas the research roundly supports the benefits of 12-step programs, as well as incorporation of substance abuse treatment into psychotherapy, a peer–peer level of TSD would be (at least) ethically questionable if put forth by a professional therapist. Generally, therapists should refrain from impulsively answering client inquiries or succumbing to expectable and understandably negative reactions. Instead, clients who ask “Are you in recovery?” should usually be probed for underlying meaning and intentionality. This may help substance-abusing clients reflect upon their presumptions and potentially intrusive ways of establishing contact with others, and perhaps establish their appropriateness for therapy.