Taboos in the Therapy Room is a blog and a (soon to be) section of my youtube channel. I’m interested in how we speak about societal taboos in the therapy room. This doesn’t mean that the subject should be tabooed, but that some people tend to feel uncomfortable when the subject is discussed.
Today we are talking about the use of swear words in the therapy room. This reflection on if we should use swear words in the therapy room came from my own reflections where I did use a swear word. I wanted to know, do you think we should use them? I asked my Instagram page and here are some of the things you told me.
In total, 63% of you said YES, it is okay to use swear words with service users. 37% said NO.
Here’s some reasoning people gave for saying YES, we can use swear words:
“When I first started training I was actually shocked to hear my supervisor swear or say mate… and then as I progressed I began using clients own language to support them convey their feelings whether it’s ‘sh*tty’, ‘cr*p’, f*cking awful’ ect… think for me it showed I’m a normal person too, can relate better to the client and therapeutic relationships, they’re probably thinking should I swear in front of my therapist also… I’ve usually found once someone has sworn that's like a gateway to 1. Definitely hear more swearing if you bounce with it too and 2. For the client to feel more at ease and natural…”
Another person related this concept of ‘do we swear in the therapy room’ to anxiety with new professionals:
“I wonder if there’s a bit of trainee anxiety as well, typically it’s been hard to be taken seriously as a professional as an AP (Assistant Psychology) so there's a pressure to be professional if you know what I mean”.
On the flip side, some people have said that they wouldn’t swear because it’s not professional to do so in the session. This doesn’t mean that they will ask the client not to use their own language, but they wouldn’t repeat those words.
I’d love to know what you think about this. Leave your comments below and tell me if you feel comfortable and not comfortable in using swear words in the therapy room.
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