Therapists go to therapy - reflections on a webinar with Irvin Yalom

On May 31st I participated to a live webinar with Irvin Yalom, one of my professional and spiritual mentors. I woke up at 1.50 a.m. to see him because I dreamed about the moment when I would be a little bit closer to this brilliant psychotherapist and author and to express my deep appreciation for his work that had and still has a crucial impact on my professional identity.

Yalom is 89 years old and he started his talk by announcing us that he would probably weep a lot during this webinar, taking into consideration that it is the first time after his wife's death when he talks in front of an audience. He added that he started seeing a therapist in order to cope better with this hard period of his life, after the love of his life, with whom he spent almost 75 years, died.

I cried a lot too because I realized again how important it is to have the courage to be vulnerable, to be authentic and to believe in your profession as a psychotherapist, teaching people through the power of personal example.

Yes, we, as psychotherapists, go to therapy! We work our entire lives with our inner challenges and struggles and yes, we need professional support, besides the on going supervision process that we pursuit in order to improve our professional competences... because we are human beings.

As psychotherapists, the work with ourselves never ends. I am grateful for my profession and for the mentors, teachers, therapists and supervisors that impacted and still impact my development as human being and psychotherapist.

Thank you.