Telling the Truth: The Therapist’s Dilemma

‘Speak the truth here’ is a therapist’s invitation to their client – but is the same true for the therapist? Can and should psychotherapists speak honestly with clients and share the difficult truths they experience in the work? What are the limits and the implications of speaking out? Rob Hill examines therapeutic truthtelling and its impact.

Honesty is important in any relationship but within psychotherapy, honesty takes on a different dimension. The impact of speaking the truth has many repercussions to the therapeutic relationship and may harm the perception of the therapist in the eyes of the client or the relationship in its entirety. Thus, what are the limits of what a therapist can therapeutically share with a client? What are the implications of the therapist choosing to conceal what they congruently experience? Have therapists in the past been more able and more willing to tell the truth with their clients?

Rob Hill engages with these and many more questions, which lead into related territories – those of shame, power, love and hate, narcissism, intersubjectivity and madness – and invites the reader to consider them from a fresh perspective. Presented in essay form interspersed with ‘stories’ which focus on Hill’s inner reactions to working with various clients, the book seeks to evoke curiosity and contemplation rather than definitive answers.

Using language that is personalised and ‘immediate’ rather than academic and abstract, Hill hopes to engage all therapists, including those who rarely read academic and research literature. Telling the Truth is an enjoyable, thought-provoking, and accessible read that raises many important ideas. Rob Hill’s own honesty, insight, and openness in addressing this important topic makes this essential reading for practising therapists.