The "I, Therapist" Concept

I conceived the "I, Therapist" idea from another brilliant T-shirt Idea that I saw while volunteering at a screenwriters conference. The T simply stated, "I, Artist." Immediately, I thought of the artistry of doing therapy. Of course, to there is a science nature to what we do as well, but the creativity, even spirituality of creating change in lives using mere words is pure art, in my opinion. With the permission of the designer, the I, Therapist T-shirt was born.

There are a number of ways that you can look at the meaning of the statement. One deals with the unique qualities that the therapist brings to the therapeutic relationship, i.e., the "person of the therapist." The person of the therapist” is about how we use our unique gifts to engage clients in conversations of change. It is how the individual therapist use herself or himself to facilitate therapeutic change.

Another way to look at this is the value of the therapist. As therapists influenced by social constructionism, we value the entire relationship and understand that it is a both/and or the client and therapist interaction (among other things) that create change in the client’s life. The I, Therapist concept is a mere acknowledgement of the therapists’ contributions. Face it, we are not the expert in clients’ lives, but we bring our expertise about relationships to bear when we enter clients’ lives via therapy. Your thoughts?