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This training explores the complex ethical territory of how therapists navigate their own experiences of emotional and physical pain, loss, and suffering within the therapeutic relationship. Dr. Todd Frye will draw from his recent experience of having three fingers amputated following an ATV accident this past summer and his subsequent return to clinical practice, offering a deeply personal lens on the ethical challenges therapists face when bringing visible wounds into the therapy room.
Participants will explore the distinction between therapeutic self-disclosure and inappropriate burden-sharing, examining how therapists can acknowledge their humanity without centering their pain in ways that compromise the client's space. Dr. Frye will share how he negotiated the unavoidable reality of his physical loss with clients, addressing questions like when to disclose, how much to share, and how to respond to client reactions while keeping the therapeutic focus where it belongs.
Participants will leave with concrete guidelines for ethical decision-making around therapist vulnerability, drawn from both theory and lived experience, and a framework for determining when personal disclosure serves the therapeutic relationship versus when it creates a boundary violation.
This training explores the complex ethical territory of how therapists navigate their own experiences of emotional and physical pain, loss, and suffering within the therapeutic relationship. Dr. Todd Frye will draw from his recent experience of having three fingers amputated following an ATV accident this past summer and his subsequent return to clinical practice, offering a deeply personal lens on the ethical challenges therapists face when bringing visible wounds into the therapy room.
Participants will explore the distinction between therapeutic self-disclosure and inappropriate burden-sharing, examining how therapists can acknowledge their humanity without centering their pain in ways that compromise the client's space. Dr. Frye will share how he negotiated the unavoidable reality of his physical loss with clients, addressing questions like when to disclose, how much to share, and how to respond to client reactions while keeping the therapeutic focus where it belongs.
Participants will leave with concrete guidelines for ethical decision-making around therapist vulnerability, drawn from both theory and lived experience, and a framework for determining when personal disclosure serves the therapeutic relationship versus when it creates a boundary violation.