ABSTRACT
It is possible to be a competent psychotherapist if you had a happy childhood and feel no significant animosity towards either of your parents, but the most potent psychotherapists are those for whom their profession is their vocation, dedicated to exorcising their own unresolved childhood pains. Parent sympathy and Adult know-how make for competence; Child empathywhich cannot effectively be dissembled-is the icing on the cake for both therapist and client.
