Criteria for Therapist Self-Disclosure

Prevalence of Counselor Self‐Reference in the Therapeutic Dyad

“…Still, the data clearly indicate that a variety of self-referent behaviors occur in individual counseling and that counselors perceive that they differentially use the various types of self-reference. Furthermore, the types of self-disclosures reported by the counselors closely resemble the types that are desired by potential clients (Hendrick, 1988), and they are also quite similar to Berg-Cross's (1984) and Simon's (1988) findings about the prevalence of therapist disclosure.…”

“…Limits to Berg-Cross's study include the following: the anchors switch from frequencies to proportions within her rating scale; she did not examine either self-involving responses or valence; the response rate was poor (25.2%); and the sample was small, exclusively male, and highly experienced ( M =25 years of experience). Simon (1988) interviewed eight experienced therapists who reported using a variety of disclosures, including pragmatic statements to orient clients to the process of therapy, disclosure about obvious personal crises, and personal attitudes and beliefs. Although Simon's findings are suggestive, her small sample size, failure to report therapist sex, unspecified methodology, and failure to examine either self-involving responses or valence make it difficult to draw conclusions.…”

Comparison of Feminist Versus Psychoanalytic/Dynamic and Other Therapists on Self-Disclosure

“…Research has also focused on reasons why therapists self-disclose to clients. For example, Mathews (1988Mathews ( , 1989 examined therapists beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors; and Simon (1988) examined therapists criteria for self-disclosure. Traditional therapists in these studies reported reasons for self-disclosing to include promoting feelings of universality and providing reality testing (Mathews, 1988); wanting to decrease rigidity with clients and finding it a helpful intervention that led to increased client disclosure (Mathews, 1989); and the importance of theoretical orientation (i.e., eclectic, humanistic, and existential counselors &sclosed more), therapist self-awareness (i.e., high disclosers had fewer hours of personal therapy), and the therapy relationship (i.e., high disclosers emphasized the "realness" of the relationship) (Simon, 1988).…”

“…Third, and most central to the study, we wanted to test our hypothesis that feminist therapists would endorse principles of feminist self-disclosure more than psychoanalytiddynamic and other therapists (i.e., cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, family systems) in their endorsement of self-disclosure items. We believed it important to separate psychoanalytiddynamic therapists from other therapists because research has reported that issues related to theoretical orientation have distinguished therapists from each other on self-ddosure (Brunink & Schroeder, 1979;Dies, 1973;Matthews, 1988Matthews, , 1989Simon, 1988).…”

“…The literature describes therapists from these theoretical orientations (i.e., cognitive-behavioral, existentialhumanistidperson-centered, and family/systems) as more inclined to self-disclose than psychoanalytddynamic therapists (Beck & Weishaar, 1995;Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 1995;Raskin & Rogers, 1995). Research has also indicated that members of these groups self-disclose more than psychoanalpc therapists (Brunink & Schroeder, 1979;Dies, 1973;Matthews, 1988Matthews, , 1989Simon, 1988). Of the other-therapists group, 28 identified themselves as cognitive-behavioral, 21 as existentialhumanistidperson-centered, and 19 as family systems.…”