Sincerely speaking: Why do psychotherapists self-disclose in therapy? - A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study

In this study, interviews were conducted to investigate therapists' rationales for self-disclosing in therapy. Ten therapists were interviewed whereof six were women, four were men and the median age was 58. The methodological framework was hermeneutic phenomenological which means that we investigated how therapists attribute meaning to experiences in their practice and that our pre-judgments and interpretations as researchers are inherent in the results of the study. The themes found were: To show care and compassion - in which self-disclosures were described as a way of developing a good patient-therapist relationship; To convey: - You are not that different - in which self-disclosures were presented as a way of normalizing patient experiences; A way to gain credibility: I know because I have been there myself - in which self-disclosures were regarded as a way for the therapist to reassure the patient that he or she could understand the patient's difficulties because they had similar experiences; Objections to self-disclosure: My personal voice may suppress your voice as a patient - in which the possible detrimental effects of self-disclosure were described. Therapists' rationales for self-disclosing were associated with fundamental characteristics of the psychotherapy process.