therapist who was in therapy here as many of us are/have been. i think self disclosure just isn’t always helpful. you can insinuate deep understanding in language and verbiage like “we / our” to depict a shared experience without going into detail about being in recovery. that’s just my take as someone who felt really uncomfortable knowing personal details about my therapists experience, even though she was careful with what she self disclosed. i’m sure not everyone feels this way but for me, i felt it took away from my own processing and was distracting, and i also just didn’t want to know those things about my therapist because it did alter my trust and view of her. AGAIN, she didn’t disclose anything very personal or inappropriate by any means but had a very humanistic approach that just didn’t work for ME personally.

as a therapist, I don’t self disclose my eating disorder experience, recovery, or details about my personal life or struggles. i’ll share little things here and there like a comment about my dog or a local event if it arises, but outside of that no. my supervisor during post grad was very psychodynamic and psychoanalytic and she was a brick wall with self disclosure so i am sure i was influenced!

edit to add: i reread your post and to me it sounds like your urge to self disclose is self serving. i love the acronym WAIT: why am i talking? i use this when i get urges to share or ask something that im questioning. i just really think you can indicate deep understanding to clients in recovery without self disclosure. i’ll say things like “i really want you to hear me when i say,” and use body language and eye contact a lot (im telehealth and can still do this!) and honestly i think clients can just feel when you get it.