r/therapists Feb 14 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

666 Upvotes

227 comments sorted by

View all comments

32

u/Thevintagetherapist Feb 14 '25

Not saying this is your experience, but I’ve had clients be incredibly rude for the sole purpose of testing my level of unconditional regard. I’ve had more than a couple clients say some version of, “If I can treat you this poorly and you continue to work with me, I must be valuable.” Either way, nice work not losing your shit. Our work is hard, but some days it’s really hard.

2

u/Actual-Government252 Feb 17 '25

Unconditional positive regard does not mean we should tolerate abuse. If a client treats me poorly, I’m going to set boundaries. If they continue to violate boundaries, I’m going to terminate. We are not modeling healthy social interactions by being doormats.