r/TherapistsInTherapy

I am an older male therapist, licensed over 25 years, and have been in therapy myself several times over the years. As I search for a new therapist for myself, I notice I am drawn more to female therapists. As I explore this preference, I am coming to the conclusion that I still feel safer with a female therapist even though I rationally know that a male therapist can be just as empathetic and supportive.

I realize I will likely get some flak about my fear of being vulnerable in front of other men and still needing to get maternal affection, and gender stereotypes, etc. I acknowledge there is some truth in all of those. And I will continue exploring those with the therapist I select.

I guess I am posting this to get some feedback as a form of pseudo-therapy while I search for a therapist.

Please share your thoughts.

Hi all...

I've been accepted on to a diploma course in Psychodynamic counselling. Supervision and counselling client hours included. Just need to pay for the course and personal therapy fees.

However, I have this gut-wrenching feeling of dread at the idea of doing it. I had my psychological assessment with a psychoanalyst as part of the application process. I just bared all in as much detail as was possible in the hour and a half session - the school encouraged full transparency. The report made on me and my experiences felt contrary to the insights already gleaned from my own long-term therapy sessions and extensive inner work. It felt like it was undoing the sense of healing and self-acceptance I'd already established so far. I kind of expected that to happen, but it's made me feel unsure of whether I want to spend 3 years training in a modality that I find quite cerebral and cold.

I was going to opt to do person-centred, but the school I considered doesn't include supervision or any counselling hours to accrue for BACP accreditation. I had already done the certificate in Psychodynamic with the same school I've applied for the diploma with.

I've been a working medium for the past 10 years and just wanted to explore a deeper understanding of myself and others to complement my spiritual practices.

However, being totally honest, I like my freedom and I trust myself enough to let life experience be my teacher rather than a ccourse. At the same time, I'm not ignorant of how transformative it could be. A therapist gave advice and said, just tick the boxes and jump through their hoops and once qualified you can work how you want. They said working from a more spiritual vantage point is quite a niche area and meets a demand that is sought after but often not provided. They also said unfortunately, there is a lot of dysfunction in the training and working world of therapy.

I've sampled and tried and tested so many different careers and it always comes back to helping and guiding others in some shape or form with whatever life experience I have to this point to aid me in doing that.

But I don't want to lose myself in this course. I have a friend who is doing the same course now. The experiential sessions are leaving her feeling crazed and going through ups and downs that leave her in tears. I get this can be part of self-awareness, but I have been involved myself in years and years of deep diving and self-confrontation and you get to this point where you realise it starts to feel damaging to keep questioning yourself...you start to want to just commit to learning to accept, appreciate and trust yourself...warts and all. My friend says she feels gaslit, as though her deepest inner knowing and feeling about herself and her experiences gets questioned and shredded to pieces...she said she feels like vultures are picking at her like a piece of meat.

I know her experience won't necessarily be my experience, but I'm anxious of this course gearing me backwards into a hole instead of forwards towards the light, so to speak.

I have been feeling better about myself than ever at this point, and as the application process progressed towards the offer, I started to feel this feeling of that sense of appreciation for myself becoming threatened.

It can be difficult to discern between resistance and genuine intuition sometimes. However, one thing I have learned, is that when there is something we really want and are truly on board with, you get a full body "hell yes!" feeling about it and go for it even with knowing the potentially tough aspects of whatever it is.

Perhaps this is just my resistance to something. My gut just feels like it's saying you're afraid by not doing this course you won't be qualified enough or financially stable enough or secure enough in a vocation...so it feels scarier to not do it...but doing it feels like I'm doing something my heart is not truly on board with.

My passion is my spiritual work and pursuits, counselling was an option for a complementary side vocation for baseline earning while I developed other elements unfolding in my life...but I'm unsure it provides that security, having researched. I have been out of work for two years now due to studying and working in mediumship. It's very tricky to describe my life unfoldment CV-wise without the fear of seeming like an inexperienced drifter, despite making very conscious decisions.

I just seem to always find myself counselling or teaching others in some way. Every other job I have tried has left me unusually drained. I seem to have energy counselling for others.

As you can tell...in a bit of a mental muddle.

Any thoughts or perspectives could be helpful and are greatly appreciated 🙏🏼

Take care.

Therapists, I need help with this question please- I'm a seasoned therapist who can handle a high caseload (though I'd rather a more manageable schedule of course) I've been at Lyra a few years now and the caseload expectations are very very high, and the administrative piece also very high and highly time consuming. There was a huge shift in 2025 which they call "Lyra 2.0" I'm feeling burned out and I want to avoid worsening burn out symptoms. Literally every single thing/ interaction is exhaustedly measured - which is also un-great and really takes me out of my therapy flow and expertise which makes me unhappy and I'm honestly not sure the value of all these excessive measurements to client treatment or outcomes anyway.

Anyone have knowledge or experience to share about if Lyra welcomes W2 LCT (Lyra care therapists) switching over from W2 to 1099? I'm afraid to blind ask mgmt. Thank you!

I’m in my mid 20s and have only been done with my masters and working in the field for 2 years. I’ve had severe anxiety, depression, PMDD, and trauma that I’ve been dealing with for the last year and a half. I’ve attempted suicide twice and been hospitalized twice. I don’t know how I continue to show up at work and do my job. I do have FMLA. I’ve been doing outpatient therapy and have done a PHP program.

Does anyone have any advice for how to manage my own mental health and continue to show up for my clients?