Why A Therapist?
So, yes, it is our job as therapists to provide a forum for people to unload, a place where they feel safe enough to tell their troubles, and to ask for guidance - from someone they trust. Your job, as therapist is a highly responsible one, therefore. You are not just there to provide a sounding board. You are there to help people develop new (and practical) skills for coping in today's highly stressed world. So many of the people who have psychological problems today may have not have had a balanced upbringing in which the basic skills required to cope everyday could have been learned.
When I first went to university, the thinking of the day was that we belonged to a "throw-away" society. Well, we still do. What doesn't work, rots, or is in excess and is thown away. However there is more. We live in a society of blamelessness. In general, if we are sick, we go to the doctor, he must give us a pill to "fix" us. If someone is hurt in some way (even if we are indirectly responsible) the option to sue is a very real one - make the other person pay. If we develop lung cancer now, we can (despite having been warned continuously over the past few decades about the dangers of smoking) sue the tobacco companies. All around us are examples in which other people are to blame for our misfortunes.
Parents leave the guidance of their children up to the schools (and television). So, the job of a psychologist, dealing with someone who has not been well guided in his early years, due to a broken home, growing up poor, basic neglect - or just because he looked around him and believed all he read in the newspaper and saw on television, is a a tough (and very real) one.
Therefore, it is my belief that the therapist cannot help the client to become better just by speaking his innermost thoughts - the therapist needs to guide the client into thinking responsibly. He needs to guide him into emotional intelligent thought. He needs to help him to learn to take responsibility for his actions and to act with discipline when other people are involved.
It's a tough call - but you have been trained... Just do not forget what responsibility you carry with you. And in order to remain ethical, ensure that you stay
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