What Is A Therapist Bias?

In a counseling relationship, it is of the utmost importance for one to be cognizant of their own personal biases, especially in therapeutic situations that may trigger them. Self-awareness of one’s own personal beliefs and values not only protects the client, but it helps us remain ethical. Therapist bias is any perception, emotion, belief, attitude, or idea that limits or restricts the therapist’s ability to understand and relate to their client as a whole. It can lead to clients avoiding certain topics or leaving therapy. Therapist bias can be devastating for clients. It can undermine the therapeutic relationship and prevent clients from getting the help they seek. Being able to identify, transform, and understand therapist bias when
I have a bias towards monogamy so if a client identified as polyamorous, my bias could potentially be a hinder to their care and experience in therapy. The client may feel as if I am uninformed about polyamory, or I am not open-minded enough to accept another person’s perspective on relationships. If I cannot correctly identify when my bias arises out of a therapeutic relationship, I may recommend poor treatment options, unconsciously project my views of monogamy onto the client, and I would be blind-sighted to the fact that my client’s values in a relationship consists in having one or more open romantic relationship at a time. Instead, I might assume that polyamorous orientations are indicative of past experiences of being betrayed or mistreated. As a therapist, I would need to remember that it is not my job to force my client to change their views so that it is consistent with mine; instead, I need to respect my client’s personal values and beliefs, understand what they need from me, and do my best to help without letting my personal biases taint my interpretations and drive my course of
Growing up in a middle-class hardworking family, I have a bias regarding privileged clients. I conceptualize privileged clients differently because I draw on my experiences of growing up in a family that taught me to work for everything that I wanted. I have noticed my initial judgement in my encounters with privileged people to be a certain distaste for a lack of responsibility, discipline, and complete dependency. In a therapeutic relationship, a good therapist should be nonjudgmental of a client’s personality due to their financial background and try to better understand the client as a whole. My bias can affect my interpretation of the source of the client’s problems. I may perhaps attribute their problems to a lack of responsibility as a result of their privileged upbringing. If I cannot correctly identify my bias when it arises, I may not be able to see the bigger picture of the client’s problems and it may hinder my ability to help a client that comes from a different background than I