July 23, 2024 • 10 mins
In this episode, Heena delves into the ethical considerations surrounding post-traumatic growth from a person-centered therapy perspective.
Heena explores the natural desire therapists have for their clients to experience positive outcomes from adversity. She discusses the importance of avoiding the pitfalls of toxic positivity and the unintentional pressure that therapists may place on clients to achieve post-traumatic growth. Emphasizing the person-centered approach, Heena explains how therapists can create conducive conditions for growth without directing or rushing the client's therapeutic journey.
Resources:
The Therapist Cafe™: A community of Therapists focused on building cultural competence, engage in discussion & consultation, address imposter syndrome, and prevent burnout & vicarious trauma. ($32/month)
More info here: https://uplift-counseling-services.newzenler.com/courses/dj8dco7p
UPCOMING WEBINAR: Introduction to Sand Tray Therapy (1.5 CEU, $25)
More info here: https://uplift-counseling-services.newzenler.com/live-class/introduction-to-sand-tray-therapy-part-1-1-5-ceu-in-person/register
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:10):
You're listening to the Therapist Treating Trauma podcast, and I'm your host,
Hena Khan, Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor and Registered Play Therapist
Supervisor based out of Allen, Texas.
I'm a specialty trauma and grief therapist for children and adults.
On this podcast, you will get a masterclass in trauma, grief,
and loss from a person-centered therapy framework on neuroscience lens and culturally
(00:34):
competent approach to support your work as therapists in this field.
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode. I'm so glad you're here.
This particular episode I wanted to talk about something that came up.
So last week I spoke about post-traumatic growth from a person-centered approach
and you know some things have come up like just in discussion,
(00:58):
with other therapists about the ethics of postpartum growth and how as therapists
we We are wanting this for our clients, right?
Like we would, right? Naturally, we want our clients to grow and have some kind
of a positive outcome from the adversity that they experienced, right?
(01:18):
We want that for our clients, but we have to pay attention to the ethics of this.
So we'll go into that here in just a bit. I want to make a couple announcements.
If you're interested in growing in and learning about sand tray therapy,
I have a in-person CEU that I'm offering at my office in Allen, Texas.
So if you're local, please look into that.
(01:40):
If you're interested, I'll put the link in the show notes.
And then if you're also looking to grow, we have a community of therapists called
the Therapist Cafe. It's an online membership community.
And we come together, we focus on building cultural competence,
we engage in discussion, consultation, ethical case consultation.
We'll also talk about imposter syndrome, which which will ultimately help us
(02:02):
prevent burnout and vicarious trauma.
So if you're interested in kind of huddling, coming together and learning and
growing with other therapists that are also treating trauma, look into that.
We meet once a week on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Central Time. That's four times a month.
And you'll get a lot of support from me and my areas of expertise of trauma and grief.
(02:23):
And then you also get free free news annually as part of the community.
Community and so if that interests you we are starting or resuming the therapist
cafe in august and so this is a good time to go ahead and sign up so that you
can save yourself a spot usually we close out the enrollment once we've got
enough spots filled for the month.
So if you're interested in that, I'll leave it in the show notes,
(02:45):
and you can take a look at that.
All right, on to our topic. So let's talk about the ethics of post-traumatic growth.
So as any person who's wishing well and cares, deeply cares about our client, right?
We want them to feel better. We want them to have some sort of a positive outcome.
We want them to overcome the adversity.
(03:06):
We want them to find or make meaning and have some sort of that positive outcome, right?
In the way they see themselves, their worldview, the way they see relationships, right?
We want that for our clients.
And there is a lot of potential for this positive change in our clients following
any kind of adverse or traumatic event, you know?
(03:27):
So this is something that we are aware of, we want for our clients,
and we know how good this could be for our clients, right?
However, we also have to be really aware, and this happens a lot of times,
I'll see this in like, you know, students, interns, associates,
(03:47):
therapists, where there's this need to move the client towards that post-traumatic growth, right?
Like, oh, my client's still stuck in her, you know, what happened,
and I just need, I would like for her to move to that post-traumatic growth
part of this work, right?
And so we, you know, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally almost
(04:10):
kind of like push our clients to move in that direction, right?
We want to kind of move, nudge, push them in that direction.
And it's really important for us to be careful about this idea of positive thinking, right?
It can become what we, you may have heard this like toxic positivity, right?
Where positive thinking, you know, becomes this goal, right?
(04:35):
We just need us to think positively about what happened, or we need the positive outcome.
And we have to be really, really careful. Because remember, especially as person
centered therapists, right?
We certainly want to, we want that, we want to encourage that.
However, we do that, or we focus on that kind of growth when it spontaneously occurs, right?
(04:57):
Our clients, we, again, remember, we trust that our clients are moving in the
direction that they need to be moving at the pace that they need to be moving. And so.
We are, as person-centered therapists, we are facilitating, right,
that post-traumatic growth with our conditions, right, our necessary sufficient conditions.
But it doesn't imply that we need to direct them.
(05:20):
It doesn't imply that we need them to move to that, right?
We create the conditions and our clients utilize those conditions,
rest in those conditions, find safety in those conditions, and then move in
that direction spontaneously, organically, right?
And we don't want to push our clients, nudge or become, sometimes therapists
(05:43):
get really frustrated when our clients are kind of stuck, right, in a certain space.
And so we want to be really cautious to inadvertently imply that someone needs
to move in this direction.
If they're not moving in that direction, they are failing or they're not making progress, right?
(06:04):
That's another common thing like, oh, my client's not making progress at all.
And they're just kind of stuck in these ways.
And you feel like a failure or you feel like your client might feel like a failure, right?
We have to also understand that not all adversity leads to this positive change
in every, you know, for anyone.
Sometimes, well, I should say it this way.
(06:27):
There is some change, but that change may not see, it's not as cookie cutter, right?
You're not going to see this exact same outcome in everyone.
Change and that positive outcome is it's going to look different in different people.
And adversity doesn't always lead to those positive changes for people, right?
(06:50):
Depending on so many where we can think about all so many factors.
And so when we feel that way about our clients, or when we imply that.
Our clients start to feel that they're not moving fast enough or they're not
moving in the right direction, right?
So it's really consistent with the person-centered approach that we want to.
(07:12):
Continue to always show that unconditional positive regard towards our client, right?
Like no matter where they are right now, that's what they're needing.
That's where they're needing to be.
And that's where they need us to show up and hold space for them to be, right?
And cultivating those conditions, right, those necessary conditions can help
them find a way forward or a way out from what they're experiencing.
(07:37):
So we want to be really cautious about moving, nudging, pushing inadvertently
our clients in that direction because we know we'd like that.
That we want it for our clients, but we want to always remember that we can't
rush therapy and we have to follow their pace and how,
where, and when they're choosing to grow and which path they're choosing to take.
(08:02):
And so that's, and that's why I think person-centered work is so,
so important, especially with trauma survivors is because we have to,
we have to pay attention to them having the autonomy,
right, to be able to sit with, because that's where I think people don't get
(08:23):
a chance to sit and work through and process their trauma.
They are, society rushes them. Society requires you to compartmentalize and that becomes the norm.
So in therapy and the work that we do is very different.
And a lot of people have a hard time doing that, but that's what we're helping
them do or unlearn and learn new ways of finding that congruence, right?
(08:44):
That incongruence between the experience and the self that happens on a daily basis, right?
That's, we want them to become aware of that, right?
And so through our necessary conditions, sufficient conditions,
we're cultivating a relationship and a social environment in our,
in our work together so that our clients can go there as and when they are ready to go there.
(09:10):
So I hope that helps kind of shed some light on the ethics or kind of the agenda
that we as therapists, and again, as person-centered therapists,
we certainly don't have this agenda.
We can encourage it, we facilitate it, but we also honor the client's pace and
organically where the client is headed.
(09:31):
All right. I hope that helps kind of bring some some light to this, this important topic.
And yeah, if you have any thoughts or questions, leave them in the comments
below. Thanks so much for tuning in. Bye for now.
Music.
(00:10):
You're listening to the Therapist Treating Trauma podcast, and I'm your host,
Hena Khan, Licensed Professional Counselor Supervisor and Registered Play Therapist
Supervisor based out of Allen, Texas.
I'm a specialty trauma and grief therapist for children and adults.
On this podcast, you will get a masterclass in trauma, grief,
and loss from a person-centered therapy framework on neuroscience lens and culturally
(00:34):
competent approach to support your work as therapists in this field.
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode. I'm so glad you're here.
This particular episode I wanted to talk about something that came up.
So last week I spoke about post-traumatic growth from a person-centered approach
and you know some things have come up like just in discussion,
(00:58):
with other therapists about the ethics of postpartum growth and how as therapists
we We are wanting this for our clients, right?
Like we would, right? Naturally, we want our clients to grow and have some kind
of a positive outcome from the adversity that they experienced, right?
(01:18):
We want that for our clients, but we have to pay attention to the ethics of this.
So we'll go into that here in just a bit. I want to make a couple announcements.
If you're interested in growing in and learning about sand tray therapy,
I have a in-person CEU that I'm offering at my office in Allen, Texas.
So if you're local, please look into that.
(01:40):
If you're interested, I'll put the link in the show notes.
And then if you're also looking to grow, we have a community of therapists called
the Therapist Cafe. It's an online membership community.
And we come together, we focus on building cultural competence,
we engage in discussion, consultation, ethical case consultation.
We'll also talk about imposter syndrome, which which will ultimately help us
(02:02):
prevent burnout and vicarious trauma.
So if you're interested in kind of huddling, coming together and learning and
growing with other therapists that are also treating trauma, look into that.
We meet once a week on Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Central Time. That's four times a month.
And you'll get a lot of support from me and my areas of expertise of trauma and grief.
(02:23):
And then you also get free free news annually as part of the community.
Community and so if that interests you we are starting or resuming the therapist
cafe in august and so this is a good time to go ahead and sign up so that you
can save yourself a spot usually we close out the enrollment once we've got
enough spots filled for the month.
So if you're interested in that, I'll leave it in the show notes,
(02:45):
and you can take a look at that.
All right, on to our topic. So let's talk about the ethics of post-traumatic growth.
So as any person who's wishing well and cares, deeply cares about our client, right?
We want them to feel better. We want them to have some sort of a positive outcome.
We want them to overcome the adversity.
(03:06):
We want them to find or make meaning and have some sort of that positive outcome, right?
In the way they see themselves, their worldview, the way they see relationships, right?
We want that for our clients.
And there is a lot of potential for this positive change in our clients following
any kind of adverse or traumatic event, you know?
(03:27):
So this is something that we are aware of, we want for our clients,
and we know how good this could be for our clients, right?
However, we also have to be really aware, and this happens a lot of times,
I'll see this in like, you know, students, interns, associates,
(03:47):
therapists, where there's this need to move the client towards that post-traumatic growth, right?
Like, oh, my client's still stuck in her, you know, what happened,
and I just need, I would like for her to move to that post-traumatic growth
part of this work, right?
And so we, you know, sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally almost
(04:10):
kind of like push our clients to move in that direction, right?
We want to kind of move, nudge, push them in that direction.
And it's really important for us to be careful about this idea of positive thinking, right?
It can become what we, you may have heard this like toxic positivity, right?
Where positive thinking, you know, becomes this goal, right?
(04:35):
We just need us to think positively about what happened, or we need the positive outcome.
And we have to be really, really careful. Because remember, especially as person
centered therapists, right?
We certainly want to, we want that, we want to encourage that.
However, we do that, or we focus on that kind of growth when it spontaneously occurs, right?
(04:57):
Our clients, we, again, remember, we trust that our clients are moving in the
direction that they need to be moving at the pace that they need to be moving. And so.
We are, as person-centered therapists, we are facilitating, right,
that post-traumatic growth with our conditions, right, our necessary sufficient conditions.
But it doesn't imply that we need to direct them.
(05:20):
It doesn't imply that we need them to move to that, right?
We create the conditions and our clients utilize those conditions,
rest in those conditions, find safety in those conditions, and then move in
that direction spontaneously, organically, right?
And we don't want to push our clients, nudge or become, sometimes therapists
(05:43):
get really frustrated when our clients are kind of stuck, right, in a certain space.
And so we want to be really cautious to inadvertently imply that someone needs
to move in this direction.
If they're not moving in that direction, they are failing or they're not making progress, right?
(06:04):
That's another common thing like, oh, my client's not making progress at all.
And they're just kind of stuck in these ways.
And you feel like a failure or you feel like your client might feel like a failure, right?
We have to also understand that not all adversity leads to this positive change
in every, you know, for anyone.
Sometimes, well, I should say it this way.
(06:27):
There is some change, but that change may not see, it's not as cookie cutter, right?
You're not going to see this exact same outcome in everyone.
Change and that positive outcome is it's going to look different in different people.
And adversity doesn't always lead to those positive changes for people, right?
(06:50):
Depending on so many where we can think about all so many factors.
And so when we feel that way about our clients, or when we imply that.
Our clients start to feel that they're not moving fast enough or they're not
moving in the right direction, right?
So it's really consistent with the person-centered approach that we want to.
(07:12):
Continue to always show that unconditional positive regard towards our client, right?
Like no matter where they are right now, that's what they're needing.
That's where they're needing to be.
And that's where they need us to show up and hold space for them to be, right?
And cultivating those conditions, right, those necessary conditions can help
them find a way forward or a way out from what they're experiencing.
(07:37):
So we want to be really cautious about moving, nudging, pushing inadvertently
our clients in that direction because we know we'd like that.
That we want it for our clients, but we want to always remember that we can't
rush therapy and we have to follow their pace and how,
where, and when they're choosing to grow and which path they're choosing to take.
(08:02):
And so that's, and that's why I think person-centered work is so,
so important, especially with trauma survivors is because we have to,
we have to pay attention to them having the autonomy,
right, to be able to sit with, because that's where I think people don't get
(08:23):
a chance to sit and work through and process their trauma.
They are, society rushes them. Society requires you to compartmentalize and that becomes the norm.
So in therapy and the work that we do is very different.
And a lot of people have a hard time doing that, but that's what we're helping
them do or unlearn and learn new ways of finding that congruence, right?
(08:44):
That incongruence between the experience and the self that happens on a daily basis, right?
That's, we want them to become aware of that, right?
And so through our necessary conditions, sufficient conditions,
we're cultivating a relationship and a social environment in our,
in our work together so that our clients can go there as and when they are ready to go there.
(09:10):
So I hope that helps kind of shed some light on the ethics or kind of the agenda
that we as therapists, and again, as person-centered therapists,
we certainly don't have this agenda.
We can encourage it, we facilitate it, but we also honor the client's pace and
organically where the client is headed.
(09:31):
All right. I hope that helps kind of bring some some light to this, this important topic.
And yeah, if you have any thoughts or questions, leave them in the comments
below. Thanks so much for tuning in. Bye for now.
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