The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of mental health professionals who self-identify as having a mental illness by analyzing how they describe their experiences in their own words. Twelve therapists volunteered to be interviewed for a larger study of working professionals living with mental illness that focused on perceived prejudice and discrimination in the workplace, revealing versus concealing one's mental illness on the job, and how having a mental illness impacts one's identity as a professional. This article reports on how these themes relate to practicing psychotherapists who are typically careful about with whom they share their mental health information. The results highlight that expressions of prejudice toward people with mental illnesses were commonplace among these mental health professionals and may contribute to an inclination among therapists to reveal their mental health history selectively, if at all, on the job. When it comes to sharing with clients, therapists tended to be thoughtful and deliberate about self-disclosure, only using it when they believed it would be beneficial to the client rather than to themselves. Regardless of whether they shared with clients, most of the therapists emphasized that having direct experience with mental illness enhanced their capacity to empathize with their clients, although sometimes empathy could trigger their own symptoms. The implications of these results for psychotherapists are discussed, including how psychotherapists with mental illness should care for themselves and how psychotherapists without mental illness can be more sensitive to their colleagues. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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患有精神疾病的精神卫生专业人员：一项定性访谈研究。

本研究的目的是通过分析他们如何用自己的语言描述自己的经历来探索自我认定患有精神疾病的精神卫生专业人员的经历。12 名治疗师自愿接受采访，以进行一项针对患有精神疾病的职业专业人士的更大研究，该研究侧重于工作场所中感知到的偏见和歧视、在工作中揭示与隐藏自己的精神疾病，以及患有精神疾病如何影响自己作为专业人士的身份. 本文报告了这些主题如何与执业心理治疗师相关，他们通常会谨慎地与谁分享他们的心理健康信息。结果强调，对精神疾病患者的偏见在这些精神卫生专业人员中很常见，并且可能导致治疗师倾向于在工作中选择性地透露他们的精神健康史，如果有的话。在与来访者分享时，治疗师往往对自我表露深思熟虑，只有在他们认为这对来访者而不是对自己有益时才使用它。不管他们是否与来访者分享，大多数治疗师都强调，对精神疾病的直接经历增强了他们与来访者共情的能力，尽管有时共情会引发他们自己的症状。讨论了这些结果对心理治疗师的影响，包括患有精神疾病的心理治疗师应该如何照顾自己以及没有精神疾病的心理治疗师如何对他们的同事更加敏感。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。