No one wants to feel pain.  At least that’s true for most of us.  In fact, a good number of us make the decision to enter psychotherapy to alleviate pain.  As a therapist, I’ve also been in the position of wanting to support my clients in easing the pain they are feeling.  I’m still not so sure that’s an unrealistic goal.  What I have learned, however, is that the way to assuage one kind of pain often requires that we feel another.  No one necessarily signs up for this.

Jeff Levy, LCSW
(originally posted on Branching Out: The Live Oak Blog, October 2014)

• I’d like to see a male therapist.
• I’d like to see a therapist who is older.
• I’d like to see a therapist who takes BCBS insurance.
• I’d like to see a therapist who is a lesbian.
• I’d like to see an African American therapist.
• I’d like to see a therapist who has had depression.

 
I imagine a record screeching to a halt with that last request.  I can hear therapists and intake coordinators around the country struggling with how to best respond.