Self-Disclosure

Self-Disclosure as a Therapeutic Intervention

As the number of people of color in the United States continues to increase, there is no question that therapy practice guidelines have become a challenge for many psychologists. The Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change, published by the American Psychological Association, provide a launching pad from which psychologists can address the therapeutic needs of individuals from diverse backgrounds. These guidelines state that multiculturally competent psychologists should recognize that culturally specific therapy may require nontraditional interventions. Self-disclosure within the therapeutic relationship will be examined in this context.

A more significant concern than debating the appropriateness of self-disclosure in therapy is the responsibility to help students and clinicians identify their decision to self-disclose. Clarifying the rationale for self-disclosure makes its use in treatment an ethical matter. The most pertinent question that therapists need to ask themselves before self-disclosing is whether the decision is based on a desire to enhance the therapeutic relationship or on the therapists' own personal agenda.

An examination of the research on self-disclosure clearly indicates that its use in treatment must facilitate the client's therapeutic process. Therefore, what and when to self-disclose is more pertinent than whether self-disclosure has value in treatment. Self-disclosure is most effective when the therapist uses this technique to respond to concerns expressed by the client, thereby validating the client's experience. For example, in response to a client who is confused about whether an experience was racist or sexist, a therapist may appropriately disclose his or her own confusion about reading people's negative attitudes based on the therapist's own multiple identities. Within this context, the therapist's use of self-disclosure is based on the needs of the client, not those of the therapist. When it is restricted to issues that are introduced by the client, self-disclosure can help to reduce the client's level of distress and foster a perception that the therapist is friendly, open, and warm.

Feminist and multicultural therapists acknowledge the personal and authentic aspects of the therapeutic relationship. In contrast, traditional psychodynamic approaches to treatment focus more on the symbolic interactions in the therapeutic dyad. In this more traditional therapeutic relationship, the therapist may take the role of a “blank slate,” portraying a neutral attitude onto which clients then project their transferential anxieties and fantasies. However, when working in a culturally sensitive way with clients from diverse backgrounds, such an approach can create distrust and distance between the client and therapist.

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