Potential Concerns
Disclosure of any kind can bring up concerns and given the stigma of mental illness when therapists disclose their own histories to their teams or clients can create apprehension for the clinician, team, and client
DBT therapists who have also been DBT clients are all around the DBT community and teams. This can raise important questions about boundaries, professionalism, and team culture. Thoughtful conversations can strengthen trust and cohesion. The following concerns, reflections, and recommendations are intended to guide teams, supervisors, and the DBT community in approaching this topic with openness, validation, and dialectical thinking.
Professional Boundaires
Questions may arise about what the professional boundaries are when sharing experiences with clients and in the consultation team.
Encourage regular conversations about boundaries as a team-wide value, not a response to one person’s history.
Establish shared norms for how lived experience is discussed, emphasizing respect, containment, and clinical relevance.
Supervisors can model transparent discussion of limits, such as when personal material belongs in consultation team versus supervision.
Normalize the idea that empathy and professionalism can coexist; boundaries make empathy sustainable.
As DBT therapists, we don't need to shy away from disclosure; instead, we can embrace disclosures and change the way we approach clinicians who have also been clients.
Professional Identity and Credibility
Unspoken questions may arise about whether a clinician’s lived experience affects competence or credibility.
Supervisors can affirm a clinician’s strengths while offering structured feedback on boundaries and role transitions.
Highlight the ways lived experience can enhance clinical insight, compassion, and perseverance.
Revisit what “professionalism” means within DBT. It includes authenticity, self-awareness, and willingness to use skills, not perfection.
Consider incorporating conversations about diverse pathways to becoming a therapist into team trainings or onboarding.
When teams view lived experience as one source of clinical wisdom rather than a liability, they strengthen both individual identity and collective trust.
Team Culture and Dynamics
Disclosures or awareness of a clinician’s lived experience may shift team interactions or create discomfort.
Name discomfort openly and validate that it can coexist with respect and admiration.
Periodically revisit team agreements to ensure they promote inclusion and compassion for all members.
Supervisors can help the team stay balanced by redirecting to the DBT consultation agreement: balancing acceptance and change, and treating all members as fallible yet capable.
Discuss as a team how to respond when personal experiences are shared, with curiosity rather than avoidance.
Holding space for both discomfort and connection allows the team to grow stronger and more cohesive, embodying the very dialectics DBT teaches.
Impact on Clients and Consultation Teams Focus
Teams may worry that lived experience or self-disclosure could shift focus away from clients or be misunderstood.
Reinforce that clinician well-being directly affects client care; attending to both is not a distraction; it is fidelity to DBT’s biosocial model.
Model dialectical thinking: the clinician’s experience can inform care and the focus must stay on the client.
Supervisors can guide debriefing after disclosures, helping clinicians reflect on timing, purpose, and outcome.
Use consultation to assess when self-disclosure enhances treatment versus when it risks centering the therapist.
Holding space for both the clinician’s humanity and the client’s goals allows teams to maintain the balance between client and therapist focus that makes DBT consultation teams so effective.
Systemic and Professional Considerations
There may be concerns about how institutions, licensing boards, or hiring practices view clinicians with personal histories as DBT clients.
Supervisors and program leaders can advocate for policies that value clinician wellness and recovery.
Recognize that transparency exists on a continuum, clinicians can share authentically without full self-disclosure.
Integrate discussions of lived experience into continuing education or staff development to reduce stigma system-wide.
Encourage staff to seek accurate information about professional and ethical standards rather than relying on assumptions.
Recognizing that both institutional realities and individual strengths allows teams to navigate systemic challenges without losing sight of the clinician’s worth and capability.
A clinician can be both a professional and a person with lived experience.
A team can uphold boundaries and cultivate compassion.
A community can stay rooted in its core principles and evolve to embrace the full range of clinician experiences.
When teams lean into these conversations with validation and curiosity, they model the essence of DBT itself: holding multiple truths at once:
Together, these dialectics support clinician well-being, deepen the effectiveness of the team, and help the DBT community evolve with compassion and integrity, ultimately strengthening everyone’s ability to show up as a more effective therapist for their clients.