Therapist Self Care Quotes

“In other words, personality disorders are ego-syntonic, which means the behaviors seem in sync with the person’s self-concept; as a result, people with these disorders believe that others are creating the problems in their lives. Mood disorders, on the other hand, are egodystonic, which means the people suffering from them find them distressing. They don’t like being depressed or anxious or needing to flick the lights on and off ten times before leaving the house. They know something’s off with them.”
― Lori Gottlieb, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

“So many of us who choose this work come from backgrounds of pain and fear that have been instrumental in calling us to now co-suffer with others as they find the courage to approach their wounds.”
― Bonnie Badenoch, The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships

“We are often so eager to support others, while our culture and even the conditions of our practices make it difficult to imagine or seek support for ourselves. We aren't meant to carry suffering alone.”
― Bonnie Badenoch, The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships

“We can dedicate ourselves to staying connected to supportive people who will receive us without expectations or judgments.

In that process, we will internalize them as they nurture our wounded ones. They will then join and foster those parts of ourselves who can be present with the ones who come to us in their suffering and recovery.”
― Bonnie Badenoch, The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships

“Between each meeting, I usually feel drawn to do a brief practice to let go of what was experienced and settle into the felt sense of opening into receptivity.

It begins with rooting my feet into the stability of the earth;

then listening to the sensations of my muscles, belly and heart with no intent to change anything;

glancing upwards at the spaciousness of the sky as the complement to the solidity beneath my feet;

following the flow of my in-breath and out-breath a couple of times, again with no intention to shift anything but just listen and experience;

and opening into a bowl of receptivity, which may feel like an expansion and quieting of my heart.

The experience is different every time. Sometimes there is pervasive distraction, sometimes a wish to change the tension in my muscles or the depth of my breath, sometimes judgement about how I'm doing this practice, and sometimes it flows like a sweet river.

Most important is being present to what is with as little judgement as possible, even when this means being present to judgement itself.

That level of acceptance, much more than the quality of the practice itself, is what can prepare us to receive our person with the same quality of attending.”
― Bonnie Badenoch, The Heart of Trauma: Healing the Embodied Brain in the Context of Relationships

“Even therapists need therapists!”
― Tammi Miller, Paperback Therapy