Imposter Syndrome as a Therapist
Imposter syndrome is a familiar companion for many therapists, especially in the early stages of practice. This post explores where these fears come from, how they can shape therapeutic work, and why embracing uncertainty, seeking support, and returning to your values can be just as important as building clinical expertise.
Imposterism is a term that spreads quicker than the common cold. Trainee psychologists and early-career professionals realise quickly that their job descriptions include healing pain and trauma.
They are confronted with a mammoth of a task- transforming human experiences. The Imposter Syndrome is best described as the feeling of being the odd-one-out.
To the therapist with imposter syndrome, everyone around them seems to be having intensely transformative sessions with their clients, but they themselves would frequently hold onto fears about not saying “the right things”, or not knowing “the right intervention”.
Unless one is otherwise receiving regular feedback about how counterproductive their practices are appearing, chances are that these feelings of incompetence in therapy have inflated from their own views about themselves.
They feel guilty and carry the fear of being “outed” as an imposter. These feelings also make them build a protective distance between themselves and their clients, or even other therapists. This leads to even more loneliness and isolation.
This can look like
Avoiding taking clients
Taking every client you get to avoid the label of incompetence
Signing up for every training and course that is visible to them, and taking safety in how their next learning will soothe their fears of incompetence.
We've all been here, and you aren’t carrying the weight of this fear alone.
You may be tempted to begin your journey navigating through this by weighing your achievements against your perceived failures. While this seems logical on the surface, it reinforces the idea that we need to uphold a certain proportion to consider ourselves as non-frauds.
Therapy as a line of work can be incredibly intimidating.
The more we can grow acceptance around this, the easier it is to build a meaningful community with other therapists. This allows us to begin to feel independent and creative with our therapeutic work when we can tolerate a baseline of uncertainty.
No two sessions are ever the same, and you will be faced with new themes of stuckness with your clients.
The feeling of novelty and readapting is always going to be present. With time, this can be dealt with humility and eagerness, more so than anxiety and insecurity.
Continue to explore your identity, in supervision and therapy. People and communities that are not generally accommodated in systems and societies may often be left with a diffused feeling that they should expect to struggle and falter on the sidelines, even in their professional work.
This is seen in how they may perceive their worth and competence as a human being, which then translates to their professional presence as well.
Your identity is just as important as the identity of the person who is writing your books and training you.
We can begin to challenge the idea that the prerequisite to being a good therapist is to feel confident in our mastery of theories. Seek comfort in the parts of therapy you can control right now - the relationship you share with the client, and comfort in the fact that you are dedicated to exploring their healing, as you take up more sessions together.
The question of relevance is,
“Can we do it anyway, holding onto the fear and uncertainty?”
Reflect on the values that pulled you into your work, and allow it to guide your presence in therapy.