Goldilocks Disclosures

A Qualitative Exploration of When Therapist Self-Disclosure of Lived Experience Is “Just Right”

Robertson, Alysia M.
Cruwys, Tegan
Quayle, Anika
Stevens, Mark
Platow, Michael J.
Scholz, Brett

School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University

Allison Ponce served as action editor.

The study was approved by the Australian National University Human Research Ethics Committee Protocol 2022/795. All participants provided written informed consent prior to enrollment in the study. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Alysia M. Robertson is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship. The funders had no role in the development of the research questions, analysis, writing of the article, or decision to publish. This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the National Health and Medical Research Council (Grant 1173270) awarded to Tegan Cruwys. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission.

Alysia M. Robertson played a lead role in conceptualization, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, visualization, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing. Tegan Cruwys played a lead role in supervision and a supporting role in conceptualization, methodology, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing. Anika Quayle played a supporting role in formal analysis, methodology, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing. Mark Stevens played a supporting role in conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing. Michael J. Platow played a supporting role in conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing. Brett Scholz played a supporting role in methodology, supervision, writing–original draft, and writing–review and editing.

Alysia M. Robertson, School of Medicine and Psychology, The Australian National University, 39 Science Road, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia [email protected]

Received August 19, 2024

revised December 23, 2024

Accepted February 20, 2025

Psychological Services Publish Ahead of Print, March 20, 2025. | DOI: 10.1037/ser0000959

Despite increasing employment of peer workers, primarily hired for their lived experience of mental health issues, concerns remain regarding the appropriateness of clinical health professionals (e.g., psychologists, counselors) disclosing their own lived experience. This qualitative study examined how therapists’ lived experience disclosures are perceived by clients and other therapists. Participants (160 clients and 158 therapists) shared their experiences with therapist disclosure and responded to one of four hypothetical scenarios. Reflexive thematic analysis identified key themes that highlighted the tension between disclosures demonstrating humanity versus professionalism, openness versus a client-centered approach, and empathy versus competence. Themes also highlighted the challenge of getting disclosures “just right,” ensuring therapists had established rapport, kept disclosures brief and relevant, and shared experiences from which they had recovered. The findings underscored the trade-offs between the potential benefits and harms of disclosure, highlighting some conditions under which disclosure is considered appropriate and best supports the client.

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