‘To disclose, or not to disclose’.

Since having the pleasure to speak with Dr Marianne Trent on ‘The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast’ about my reason for Clinical Psychology and reflections on this, I have been contacted numerous times by those in my network sharing with me a surprising resonance with the topics discussed. It highlighted what I am beginning to suspect is a silent majority within clinical psychology- those who have entered the discipline with relevant lived experiences and leave this fact unspoken within their professional identities.

‘To disclose, or not to disclose’ is often the question when it comes to disclosure of the therapist’s ‘self’ in their clinical work. When I say ‘self’ I refer to a concept home-grown by early psychoanalysts who alluded to its existence through the conceptualisation of ‘countertransference’ (Freud, 1910). A concept that has since been adopted by contemporary psychology (Baldwin, 2013). Equally, when I say ‘clinical work’ I refer to the work that modern-day psychological professionals may facilitate with individuals and with teams in NHS and private contexts- therapy, consultation, service evaluation, research, to name a few. If we routinely conceptualise the therapist’s self as clinically present, why do we appear so reluctant to acknowledge the realities that shape it?

Changing tides in the individual and social representations of what it means to be a ‘good therapist’ has seen the reaction of proposing the use of therapist’s self-disclosure (TSD) to supervisors change from a mild grimace and Socratic question around ‘why’, to an intrigued question as to your rationale and what model or piece of research might support this. Indeed, some modern-day psychological professionals advocate for the usefulness of disclosure in therapy, particularly with clients experiencing psychosis (Ruddle et al., 2015). So why within the discipline of clinical psychology have I seen a curious silence around personal positionality in professional spaces? While I agree this is shaped from my own experiences, I suspect it reflects something more systemic.

I find myself questioning whether there is an incongruence between what we espouse therapeutically and what we enact professionally. A culture that continues to privilege the norms and ideals of its privileged background. It is changing, just very slowly. It can’t go at too much of a pace in its development if clinical psychology is to still remain perceived as a scientifically valid and credible profession, adopted and funded by the NHS and local government. It needs to be strategic and have a ‘healthier’ or more progressive culture- whatever that means to you- than most, but not too different as to still be able to integrate into other systems and organisations where it is currently useful.

This blog exists to make visible what is often left implicit. To speak what usually remains unspoken. I do not claim to speak on behalf of other care-experienced psychologists. As Dr Lisa Cherry recently explained in her wonderful blog post on ‘The Commodification of Lived Experience’ (Cherry, 2026), I am embodying a ‘positioned from’ stance in how I speak about this topic, not a ‘leading from’ stance. A stance that recognises me as a professional shaped by lived experiences, without allowing that particular set of experience to eclipse others.

It is important that the disclosure of information or sense making acquired from these experiences is not commodified. If you’re interested in understanding more about what this can mean, I would encourage you to go and read Dr Lisa’s blog listed in the references for she explains it in more thoughtful detail than I am able to do here.

I am choosing to articulate thoughts that many of us hold privately. I feel brave enough to give you my honest risky thoughts on the tensions us lived-experienced practitioners hold every day and to accept that they may resonate differently for different readers. There is always a risk that narratives like mine are consumed as inspiration rather than engaged with critically, that possibility is uncomfortable, but possibly unavoidable.

So, hopefully my goal for this blog is clear. I want to stay with these tensions and not solve them prematurely but name them publicly. If nothing else, I hope in doing so I can make visible the questions many of us carry quietly. We may not yet have answers- but perhaps acknowledging the tension is a good place to begin.

See you next time.

Jacob.

References:

Baldwin, M. (Ed.). (2013). The use of self in therapy. Routledge.

Cherry, L. (2026). The Commodification of Lived Experience. Dr Lisa Cherry. https://drlisacherry.substack.com/p/the-commodification-of-lived-experience

Freud, S. (1910). The Future Prospects of Psychoanalytic Therapy. In Collected Papers (Vol. 2). Accessed from: https://readingsinpsych.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/freud-future-prospects-of-psychoanalytic-therapy4.pdf

Ruddle, A., & Dilks, S. (2015). Opening up to disclosure. Psychologist, 28(6), 458-461. https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/opening-disclosure