If you suffer from Imposter Syndrome as a clinical therapist, you’re not alone.
To some degree, this feeling is normal. Of course it feels unnatural taking on the role and responsibility of a therapist, especially when that role is new to you. That’s why we get so much training. And indeed, a lot of that training focuses on how we should change how we act, how we think, and what we do when we operate in the therapist role.
Early in our careers, maintaining that therapist position can feel like wearing a costume. Becoming a therapist starts with letting go of a lot of your natural responses, your walls, your pseudo self. It’s only over the course of time that we, as professionals, bring our full personhood back into our work.
If the anxiety that comes with Imposter Syndrome stands in your way, there are steps you can take to make it easier.
1 – Investigate it
When does the therapist role feel most unnatural? For a lot of us, Imposter Syndrome isn’t an everyday occurrence; it rears its head when we’re asked to do specific tasks for which we feel unprepared. Take an honest look at the times when it’s hard to be a professional. If you can name those specific tasks, working to get more comfortable with those tasks may help. Diagnosing a personality disorder, dealing with a borderline, understanding the stages of change, using techniques in group therapy.
2 – Challenge it
You finished a graduate degree. Fewer than 1 in 7 US adults have done that. Far fewer — about 600,000 out of 250 million US adults, or fewer than 1 in 400 — are licensed in the major mental health professions. Whether it feels right or not, you are your community’s expert in mental health and behavior change.
If you are concerned that you don’t know enough, you may just be spending too much time around other therapists. Conversations with friends or family members outside of the field can serve as a great reminder of just how much you do know, and how well-prepared you are to help people in distress, compared to the average person.
At the same time, if you’re concerned that you don’t act professional enough, it may be worth revisiting your expectations of how professionals are supposed to act. No one expects you to be perfect or to have a life free of struggles. If you were, or if you did, you wouldn’t be able to relate to your clients. Even the most successful professionals in the world are still people, with their own flaws, anxieties, eccentricities, and mistakes.
3 – Accept it
Truly overcoming Imposter Syndrome isn’t a matter of curing it. Use the steps illustrated above to minimize the sensation, and then work to accept what’s left.
Every time your professional role calls on you to do something that you wouldn’t necessarily otherwise do, it’s easy and normal to feel like you’re wearing a therapist costume instead of actually being a therapist. If you understand that as part of the job, rather than something you’re doing wrong, then you change your whole relationship with Imposter Syndrome. You’re not a faker; you behave professionally even in times when it isn’t easy. That’s what our clients want from us, and what we ask of our ideal selves.
4 – Embrace it
For the next-level, advanced approach, take that acceptance further. What you’re feeling is transition. You are achieving a more idealized version of yourself. Imposter Syndrome may be some part of your mind resisting a very positive change in who you are. Stop fighting it, and embrace that change.
You are an expert, and now is the time to start referring to yourself as such. Invest in your practice with the expectation that you will succeed as a professional and as a leader.
If you’re in private practice, move past the dreary office space and second-hand furniture that agencies rely on, and give yourself and your clients a space that truly communicates safety, professionalism, and healing.
You’re not an imposter. You’re a professional. That role is not always easy, but it’s precisely the thing you spent years preparing for. You’re not faking, you’re changing, and both you and your clients are better off because of it.
