Why I do what I do

The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Achievement motivation

Psychologists put forth significant effort to earn a graduate degree, and we tend to value competency, mastery, respectability, upward mobility, and financial achievement.

Connection with others

Therapists may experience a form of depth and authencity in the therapeutic process we do not necessarily experience in other familial or social relationships.

Empathy or identification with vulnerability

Our own personal life experiences may have provided us with a strong sense of empathy, or even identification, with others who feel vulnerable, hurt, wounded, pained, and undervalued.

Voyeurism or vicarious living

“My life is kind of boring, if you want to know the truth. I don’t really do that much other than hang out with friends and watch television. But I love listening to the crazy, wacky stories my clients tell. I love being able to ask them personal questions without them getting offended, things I could never ask people in any other setting. “So what’s your sex life like? “What possessed you to ever do anything like that?” “What is your deepest, darkest secret that you’ve never told anyone before?” I just really enjoy being able to peer inside the windows of people’s minds and hearts. Everything else in my life pales in comparison.”

Prestige and respect

” I don’t make nearly as much money as my sisters do. I don’t have the fancy office or the sports car. But people do look up to me. When they find out I’m a therapist, they treat me like I’m important, like what I do matters to people. I get respect and I like that a lot. It’s worth all the money in the world. And you know what? I respect myself. My sisters and my friends might be successful in business, raking in the bucks, but I know what I do really matters. And at night, I sleep like a baby because I know I’m doing my part to make the world a better place.”

And perhaps most relevant of all, and something I feel I must set aside in a category of its own:

Rescue dynamics

“I grew up not feeling very important or very good about myself. I didn’t feel useful to anyone, least of all myself. But now I get to save people. I know I’m not supposed to believe that or say that, but that’s the way I feel. Every time someone comes in miserable and leaves better off, it’s because I did something that helped – or that’s what I’d prefer to think. I thrive on being able to save people like this, and it makes me feel important.“

Motives acknowledged by clinicans according to Baker, 1992; Disclosures by clinicans by Kottler, 2003.