At this juncture it seems appropriate to add some cautionary word about the technique of self-disclosure. And make no mistake about it, we consider this to be a counseling technique. As such, it requires the same thoughtful evaluation of its usefulness as any other counseling tool. It is important to recognize that “self-disclosure” is not limited to sharing information of one’s own alcoholism. Self-disclosure in counseling or therapy refers to sharing not only the facts of one’s life, but one’s feelings and values as well. The point of contrast would be the style of the early psychoanalyst who never revealed information about himself, nor in any way presented himself as an individual to his clients. Counselors are self-disclosing when they express empathy, or when they note that the client’s concerns are those with which other clients of the counselor have also struggled. But the phrase does have special meaning in alcohol counseling. The counselor may also be a recovering alcoholic in private life. As one, he or she may have participated nonprofessionally in interventions or AA Twelfth Step calls when self-disclosure was called for and effective and also clear cut. In a professional individual counseling or group therapy session when, or indeed, if, to use self-disclosure may not be so clear-cut.

Particularly at the early stages of the client’s treatment, or in the assessment process, it may seem only natural to allay some of the client’s nervousness or resistance with the news that you, as a counselor, have been there and know just how they feel and furthermore can testify to the possibility of a happy recovery. What seems natural may, however, be totally inappropriate or even countertherapeutic. Counselors need to remember that their professionalism is important to the client, particularly in the early days of treatment. That professionalism is comforting! The patient in an intensive cardiac care unit is interested in his physician’s medical assessment of his condition, the physician’s treatment recommendations, and the probable outcome. He is in no condition to appreciate the physician’s personal story of his own heart attack.

This is not to imply that self-disclosure shouldn’t ever be used, or that it is ineffective. In the example of the physician above, if the patient were so frightened he couldn’t hear the physician’s medical assessment or, at some point, in despair and seemingly abandoning hope, the physician might decide to reassure the patient by the example of his own recovery and obvious present robust good health. But we see the technique too often used as a matter of course without proper thought given to the possible ramifications of it in a particular instance. Because we do, indeed, see it as a sometimes very powerful aid in certain cases, we recommend that great care be taken to see that it is used at the best possible time for the best possible reason—the benefit of the client. It should never be used to make the counselor feel more comfortable by getting “everything out in the open.”

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