I think I might have been the person who introduced the idea of being a "wounded healer" to the discussion. I've been away from home for the weekend with very limited Internet access so am only now reading through the thread and find the direction the discussion has taken very interesting.
I fully understand the misgivings some have about anyone with any mental illness working in the area of mental health. There can be significant risks attached to someone who hasn't properly healed treating someone inappropriately or to someone having a relapse and either not recognising it, not acknowledging it or getting appropriate treatment themselves. I'm not minimising any of what has gone before - I hear the concern and the pain. I do however respectfully disagree that anyone who has experienced PTSD or any other mental illness should be automatically excluded from a career in mental health services, including counselling or therapy.
While I think this forum gives people the opportunity to connect with and get to know people with the same condition, to offer support and understanding, we only know what people choose to share of themselves and different people will use the forum for different things and thus will share different aspects of themselves to fit that purpose. Given this, I think it's a fairly difficult thing to say to anyone "you definitely should" or "you definitely shouldn't" do x, y or z; including making career choices. I write this knowing that I said I thought it was a fine idea for
@Lionheart777 to look at studying towards becoming a therapist. I would still hold to this, mainly because I assume there are people in his life, who know him fully, see him coping day to day with his symptoms and who will see him day to day during an arduous course of training who are better placed to say whether he is sufficiently well to offer support to others. I don't think I'm sufficiently aware of his day to day health to suggest he shouldn't explore an area he has a keen interest in.
I use this place as somewhere to talk about the bits I struggle with, the symptoms that I know about, that I have strategies for managing and which from time to time catch me unawares. I use it to talk about how damned difficult the therapeutic process is, how vulnerable I feel in that space and how hard I work to overcome that. There are many facets of my life experience and healing that never make it on to this board. I do therefore struggle with the idea that people here would have a better sense of whether I can work safely in my current job, which carries high levels of risk, or whether I should continue in my training as a therapist than my family and friends who know me fully, or than the tutors, clinical director, therapist and clinical supervisor who see me day by day on this journey. I take my professional responsibilities seriously, I actively work on my health and well being, I work on my personal development and understanding how my experiences impact on me and, yes, potentially on the work I do. I'm closely supervised in practice and use this supervision openly and honestly.
While not everyone has PTSD, everyone does have their own "stuff" which is capable of being triggered at any time, that has the potential to impact on the therapeutic relationship and which can significantly impact their clients. That isn't the sole preserve of people with known prior mental health concerns and is why training and supervision are so key to good therapy for the duration of ones career, not just at the outset.
I honesty feel for people who have had god awful, dangerous experiences of therapy, some of the stuff I read here and elsewhere gives such cause for concern. Good, ethical practice is a basic right for anyone entering therapy and isn't, I believe, impossible for someone with prior issues of their own to provide.
