Do you think most psychologists and therapists are batshit crazy?

[NewYearFitQueen]

I know about 4 in real life and trust me, they do not lead lives you would want to lead, plus at least two of the seem batshit crazy themselves

I’m a therapist, and while obviously I am a beacon of reasonability 😏 I must say I was shocked by how volatile and unstable a lot of my peers were in training. Many of these people did not go on to practice as therapists though - they either decided they weren’t very interested in other people after all, or they peeled off and became shamans or vortex energy healers or tarot readers.

Post qualification, most of the people I know who stayed working as therapists, built decent careers, and kept up with their professional development are pretty sound, with the exception of the occasional oddball.

I do think there’s also a sizeable population of ‘therapists’ who don’t actually need to work for a living, do the training out of curiosity and for something to do, and dabble in seeing a couple of clients for a few years without really committing to it as a career, but relying on it heavily as an identity and a position from which to claim to speak from authority. I find these people a bit tiresome.

Garhekxonwbstaverbekk

In my limited experience of two, I’d probably agree with the op.

But seriously….you only in my experience get drawn to therapy if you have had support from a therapist. The lack of consistency in training means some therapists have not been required to work on their own material, and that is not helpful. It’s also not helpful that so many therapists are self employed and the profession is not regulated because it means that they have less accountability. We are also by and large paid appallingly. I earn a small fraction of what I used to in a corporate role, and have significantly more responsibility.

I know a huge number of therapists and plenty who should not be practicing, as well as some superb, thoughtful therapists. Some of those I encountered in training didn’t get through, or haven’t stayed in the profession. Sadly some training organisations are all about pushing as many through training as quickly as possible, so there isn’t proper rigour / suitability assessments.

As ever on these threads, there is a huge lack of knowledge - therapists do not give advice on how to run your life, they are flawed humans, supporting other flawed humans. Psychology and psychotherapy are different professions.

I knew a couple of clinical psychologists as (former) friends/acquaintances. Both happened to be quite unstable and real takers within a relationship.
One tried to foist her DSD onto us at any opportunity. Always looking for childcare. She was clingy too - messaging daily to "catch up" She used to text me and then get eggy if I didn't answer within 20 minutes! I had to distance myself after a few months of this.
The other is in our social circle (school parent friends) although I keep her at arms length. On several occasions she has turned up to social events at ours empty-handed and consumed lots of wine - becoming quite annoying when drunk. She also used to send her DD to play with mine frequently (they were close friends) but never reciprocated. I only tolerated this for my DD's sake tbh.
Not a big sample at all but their behaviour has surprised me given that they both have the responsible roles they have with very vulnerable people.

I have been seeing a NHS Psychologist for over 18 months weekly an willl do for the foreseeable ahead is definitely on the spectrum but she is really good we do EMDR, my psychiatrist is also a bit wacky , o did have a counsellor for a while before I was under CMHT and although she was lovely ana supported me she wasn’t professional and we got involved personally and camw to my house and was really invested in me

No… all the ones I’ve had though are people who generally have experience of the issues I have had.

So they were perhaps ONCE batshit. But now they’ve controlled their batshittery and helped me become un-batshitted.

Then again I know a number of doctors, nurses and police people who lead rather intense and alcohol fuelled lives.

Yes, famously this is the case. See also RMN (mental health nurses). Batshit one and all.

I know one therapist, friend of friend and she seems stable and insightful from what I've seen. I know one psychiatrist who is mad as a hatter in a loveable way but I suspect is deeply unstable too. She grew up with a mentally ill parent and studied medicine then specialised. I suspect she had a lot of exposure to serious MH problems, possibly including her own as a young person. There was also a friends flatmate at Uni, deeply deeply troubled young man and his brother went on to be a psychiatrist too. I don't know anything about the brother but again I suspect he had personal experience of MH in the family and that inspired him to that field.

I had a roommate at uni who was batshit with lots of boyfriend drama, screaming and sobbing down the phone at 3am waking the house up, hiding spoiled food under her bed, general unreasonable behaviour etc. I looked her up recently and she's a psychologist now. Scary stuff...

Clinical Psychologists actually don’t have any personal therapy at all as part of their training requirements. They used to about 20 years ago but not now. So you definitely get some that have very little self awareness.

I remember a lot of conversations about whether personal issues such as described above impacted on ability to practice with professionalism and ethics and to what degree - it’s a big old grey area really

People forget that therapists are fucking normal, flawed people too. With real lives, experiences, personalities.

there is no perfect person to become a therapist. This myth needs to stop.

I've been to several psychologists about twenty years ago, and a therapist about a decade ago (not in the UK) and while I don't know about their personal lives, I have to say none were helpful!

They all waffled aimlessly, listened to me talk, and then offered nothing of substance other than to ask how I felt, and then say I had excellent emotional self-awareness (very unhelpful considering I was not coping well, or I wouldn't have been seeing them). I'm not sure what they were trying to achieve, frankly. The psychotherapist memorably suggested art or dance therapy, the thought of which gave me the horrors, being that I'm not a small child – I stopped going shortly after that. So I'm rather sceptical about therapy in general.

I have noticed that everyone I know who talks about wanting to be a therapist is quite neurotic though.

the one I knew well was definitely teetering

Crikey, what's wrong with them and why do you think it affects their ability to provide a therapeutic relationship?

I know two personally and would not see or recommend either!

I’ve known quite a few. All have had big issues and a few were quite unstable. One is a friend and I pity her past clients. (She’s retired) .

The person I know who is a psychiatrist is also a raging alcoholic. She has the worst fomo of anyone I’ve ever known and has to be at every social function or she goes into meltdown. Every single conversation is focussed solely on herself.

I used to work in student support for a university and I can confirm that the majority of the ‘high needs’ students who were asking for help for various things most students were able to navigate for themselves were from the counselling and psychology courses. High number of mature, female students with constant needs for things like making phone calls to student finance and speaking to their landlord about repairs. I would avoid counselling for this reason - that my experience of them was that they were in need of help themselves. Only my experience, but what else do you go on?

If a therapist is "advising" then that's a 🚩 a competent one should enable their client to realise their own breakthroughs.

This may be different for psychiatry who are very clever Drs and able to advise & prescribe.

Ditto to the first part, but sadly I have found therapy to be a fruitless endeavour, which always ended up feeling like endless navel gazing, going in circles. I'd love to have found a psychologist or psychotherapist who could actually be helpful!

It is a job like any other. I am sure there are messed up people in all professions but hopefully it doesn't get in the way of doing a good job. Eg surgeons may have god complexes and CEOs may have psychopathy but they can all still be excellent at their jobs. Anyway, therapists don't give advice they follow different techniques and models to help you get to the bottom of something and find your own path and make your own choices that are good for you. As long as they are properly trained there is no reason why they can't do their job well even if a bit messed up themselves.

I know two counsellors and one psychotherapist. One of the counsellors is batshit and told me how she zones out listening to her clients ‘droning on’. The other two are empathetic, stable, and great at listening so I imagine are really good.

Of the two therapists I’ve had one was reasonably good and the other fairly terrible. It makes me quite reluctant to have therapy again tbh as it’s such a lottery as to who you are opening up to.

I work daily with therapists of various sort.

I would agree with you! Some of them are amazing, but some of them amaze me with their lack of insight about their own behaviour and the fact that they are downright rude at times.