Our society is highly polarized by political and cultural issues, and this has the potential to impact the therapeutic relationship. Someone undergoing therapy not only might want to discuss their political views, but they may also want to know what positions their therapist holds, or they may feel concerned about how the therapist will respond to them. How a therapist handles these issues is not only important for the client’s trust or sense of safety, but it also may be therapeutically useful for the client, or not.
My therapy practice is not aligned with any political tribe; I work with people who have a diverse range of views and political identities. I generally don’t share my own opinions about political issues, unless it serves a therapeutic purpose to do so. My role is to be present with my clients, in order to help them explore their thoughts and feelings, not to promote my own views. My clients, however, are welcome to share their opinions or bring up any concerns they have about doing so with me.
The type of therapy that I practice encourages self-exploration, and this can include looking into one’s views and reactions to what is happening in the world. Political identities are influenced by our personal experience and psychological dynamics. Societal conflicts often evoke feelings from our past and provide an outlet for unconscious emotions. For those who are ready, therapy can be an opportunity to look inwards and see where our opinions and feelings about the world are coming from.
Therapists do a disservice to our clients if we engage in political debate, or simply reinforce our client’s existing positions, while avoiding the deeper issues, such as the meaning of those views to the person, and the unconscious feelings that may be underneath. No matter how intelligent someone’s political perspective is, if they are willing to look into the feelings underlying their positions, they will probably gain new insight into themselves. This is true even when circumstances in society are very challenging, and there are important issues to address. In these times, therapy clients have an opportunity to explore how they are being affected internally by what is happening in the world, so that they can face the situation with maximal clarity and self-awareness.
In order for therapists to be present and compassionate with our clients, whatever their political views may be, we need to have awareness of our own emotional reactivity in relation to politics. We have a responsibility to understand how our feelings about politics, such as our own righteousness, outrage, or fear, might impact our clinical work.
Therapists tend to be passionate about helping others, which often leads us to hold strong political views. However, we must have the capacity to accept differences of opinion and recognize that everyone’s positions make sense based upon their life experience and individual psychological dynamics. I also believe it is helpful for therapists to avoid limiting ourselves to an “information bubble,” in which we are only exposed to people and news sources which reinforce our existing views, making it harder for us to understand those who think differently.
Because of our polarized political climate, I’ve tried to provide a sense of how I work with these issues when they come up in therapy, and explain the introspective, non-judgmental approach that I think it is helpful for therapists to take.
