Male Gynecologists

I've been attending many supervision trainings since I started supervising an intern this year. One of the topics that come up in these trainings is self disclosure. In the MSW training between the supervisor and supervisee, they encouraged supervisors to share a little bit about their training/personal experience (if you wish) with their interns. I think I liked that about my supervisors when they shared about their experiences.

How about with clients? Usually not the greatest idea depending on the situation. Are you sharing about yourself to help the client or simply to get them to like you? I see this situation come up more often in the drug counseling field when clients are trying to figure out if their counselors are in recovery.

I remember talking to a concerned parent one day to schedule an appointment and she asked, "Are you sober?" I answered, "No." Took me a second to realize what I had said! It's technically true and she understood what I meant - that I'm not in recovery (but not high on drugs!)

During one of our groups on Monday (which is my day off), this topic came up. Some clients confronted counselors/interns (we have several) by saying, "How can you understand what I'm going through if you are not an addict?"

Those of you in the field know that we NEVER say we "understand."

This is always so fascinating to me. I don't remember any clients asking me if I have personal experience with mental disorders. I co-fascilitated a bereavement group and don't remember being asked if my parents were alive (They might have but it never became an issue). I don't know of any patients who ask their doctors if they have had cancer. Maybe these problems are fairly easy to relate to? Not sure.

The best analogy I can come up with is the male gynecologists. We know they are out there. We might even think it's very weird that a man wants to be a "female" doctor. Maybe even creepy and wrong. Why do they even care? They look inside between our legs. I don't think I've had male gynecologists and not exactly sure how I feel about them. I do know that they are trained, and they wouldn't be in practice if they were not qualified (or let's hope so?). They don't have their own vaginas, ovaries, or breasts but they know how to treat problems.

I've heard some women say that they had better experiences with male doctors than their female doctors because they weren't judged. They were more objective. Perhaps some female gynecologists are not as effective as doctors when they can't relate to their female patients.

I know a man that works for an agency that deal with assault and most of the survivors are women. I will never forget what he said to our group - You might have a sister, mother, daughter, girlfriend, or a female friend that are survivors. Many people know or has had some encounter with addicts.

So there. It might be weird for a "normie" to be a counselor but that doesn't mean that they are incompetent. Maybe just a little weird.