Therapist Self-Disclosure (TSD), the revealing of a therapist’s feelings, thoughts or personal information to a client, is an inevitable aspect of therapeutic relationships. However, despite its prevalence in clinical settings, we believe there is insufficient recognition and exploration of TSD in our work with children and adolescents. Because TSD is not often formally addressed during training, therapists across the spectrum of clinical child psychology and psychiatry are often left with the belief that disclosures are rare or inherently negative occurrences that should be avoided. As a byproduct, therapists often develop a blind spot to many disclosures that they make and are thus underprepared to navigate the complex decision-making process that surrounds TSD. In our article, we address the elephant in the room: that most therapists disclose in some form or other. In addressing this topic, we hope to encourage replacement of avoidance and silence with discourse and reflection around TSD occurrences. We explore developmental considerations pertinent to child and adolescent clients as well as suggest a framework for TSD decisions. We feel that improved supervision and clinical practice around TSD is a worthy and achievable aim that merits further recognition, consideration and educational focus.

治疗师自我表露 (TSD)，即向来访者透露治疗师的感受、想法或个人信息，是治疗关系中不可避免的一个方面。然而，尽管它在临床环境中很普遍，但我们认为在我们对儿童和青少年的工作中对 TSD 的认识和探索不足。由于 TSD 在培训期间通常不会被正式解决，因此临床儿童心理学和精神病学领域的治疗师通常认为披露是罕见的或固有的负面事件，应该避免。作为副产品，治疗师经常对他们做出的许多披露形成盲点，因此没有准备好应对围绕 TSD 的复杂决策过程。在我们的文章中，我们谈到了房间里的大象：大多数治疗师以某种形式披露。在讨论这个话题时，我们希望鼓励用围绕 TSD 发生的话语和反思来代替回避和沉默。我们探索与儿童和青少年客户相关的发展考虑因素，并为 TSD 决策提出一个框架。我们认为，围绕 TSD 改进监督和临床实践是一个有价值且可实现的目标，值得进一步认可、考虑和教育重点。