Alcohol and Your Therapy Doc

This one is for you budding therapy docs.

But it's really a response to one of you who commented saying that I'm awfully harsh about alcohol consumption.

There's transference, then there's outright permission.

I feel that I can never give permission to a person's potentially dysfunctional behavior. Therefore, when I talk about alcohol consumption with patients (or with you on the blog), the subject is sobering.

And I'm sober.

And that's the message that you need to communicate, as well, to your patients, clients, etc., to be sure that you have not, in any way, enabled, encouraged, contributed to alcoholic drinking. You don't drink. You don't use drugs.

Then there's the whole sex thing. You can't be seductive, either. Not in any way. You have to watch how you dress, watch what you say.

These are things you should learn in your graduate school training, but just in case you don't, I thought it important for you to know.

As far as your patients are concerned, You don't drink, and you don't use drugs, and you'll probably live longer for it (you hope).

Now, seduction is something we can talk about.

Like drinking, it's safest in moderation and at home with somebody you love, preferably a committed partner, not a blood relative. And talking in code is good, assuming both of you know the code, that is.

Copyright 2007, therapydoc