ABSTRACT
Stories recounted reflect the anguish, courage, joy, and resilience of therapists working with difficult cases while battling their own ghosts. The therapist exists solely as a vehicle to increase patient welfare. Therapist well-being is rarely considered. The perspective of therapists’ personal reward breaks from a long-standing dictate in the field. When therapist welfare is addressed it concerns advice about self-care so that the job can be effectively accomplished or recovery from inevitable, negative effects of the work. The mental health professional is not discussed as an individual in her/his own right entitled to care, benefits, and a sense of meaning or compensation. Mental health professionals spend a good portion of their day listening to the painful, disturbing, and often traumatic stories of the patients, clients, students, congregants, or staff members with whom they work. This is particularly true of mental health professionals working directly with patients.
