Andrew M. Pomerantz is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the
Clinical Psychology graduate program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He received his B.A. in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Saint Louis University in 1996. His graduate training included a year-long APA-approved predoctoral internship at Indiana University School of Medicine. He teaches graduate courses in individual psychotherapy and in ethics in psychology, as well as undergraduate courses in clinical psychology and introductory psychology, among others. His research interests include psychotherapy and ethical/professional issues in clinical psychology. He is the author of the textbooks My Psychology and Clinical Psychology: Science, Practice, and Diversity. His work has been published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, Teaching of Psychology, Ethics & Behavior, Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, Professional Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, Practice Innovations, and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, and has been presented at conferences of the American Psychological Association, Midwestern Psychological Association, and National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology.
This year’s address is titled: Should Therapists Disclose Their Own Personal Psychological Issues to Their Clients?
Should therapists disclose their own personal psychological issues, especially when those issues are similar to the issues the client presents? For example, if a client tells a therapist that they are experiencing panic attacks, and the therapist has experienced panic attacks in their own life, should the therapist tell the client? What if it wasn’t panic attacks, but bulimia? Or manic episodes? Or a divorce? Or job loss?