Today the ITZI Support Group discussed the theme "The Wounded Healer"

Points that came up included

• some people become healers because they are wounded
• being wounded may intensify sympathy and empathy
• but may also lead one to project one’s problems onto others
• some people get wounded by the system that they work in as healers
• or by the stress of working with wounded people
• does the healer have a duty to overcome his woundedness?
• is overcoming woundedness actually a central part of the process of psychotherapy?
• the culture of the helping agency may facilitate or impede helpers seeking help
• supervision can be immensely useful
• but finding good supervision is not always easy
• though peer group supervision can sometimes solve this problem
• there can be conflicts of role within the idea of supervision (supervisor as controller, as coach, as second opinion, as therapist for the therapist)
• we are all human and humans always have some problems, at least in relationships
• the community of helpers should be a place where people do not need to be defensive.