You can easily say if your therapist likes you or not by noticing his interactions. Well, a professional therapist will prioritize his client first. So it’s obvious for him to like his client. All that should matter is his “liking” should not cross the line.
You like your therapist, your therapist likes you. This is a good thing. It builds a healthy relationship between you two. Just be within your boundaries and don’t make anything personal between you, too.
Now the question is, what are those signs that can help you to know if your therapist likes you?
In this article, we will be showing you the traits which say your therapist likes you as a client. Moreover, you can know from here if anything is getting personal or not.
Keep reading.
How To Tell If Your Therapist Likes You?
When a therapist likes his client, he will make the environment lively in the sessions. If your therapist does the same, he will interact with you with his all. Your emotions and feelings will matter to him. In clear words, you will feel validated while talking to him. When he finds something funny, he will laugh with you. When he finds something bad, he will cry with you. This is how he will go with the flow of your emotions.
Another sign that your therapist likes you is, he will never get bored with you. Or show any tiredness.
Let’s have a look at some other signs:
The relationship seems therapeutic
It’s a sign that your therapist likes you when your relationship with him is healthy. Besides, that relationship remains therapeutic and there are no intimidating things. If your therapist likes you, he will validate you, respect you, and make you feel important.
He makes you feel comfortable
When a person likes us, he will surely make us comfortable. The therapist also does the same when he values his client. For example- you experienced a trauma and you are sharing this with your therapist. After the session, you feel so comfortable and relaxed because he made the situation understandable. That’s the sign he likes you as a client.
He will consider your boundaries
Some clients have boundaries. And the therapists shall respect them. Suppose, you want alone time in between your sessions. A professional therapist at that time, will surely understand that and give you quiet time. And suppose you have told your therapist not to mention the person you don’t like. He will also consider that and make sure that he doesn’t utter a word about that person.
He pays attention to you
When a client pours his heart out, that’s an underlying message for the therapist. He will listen to him attentively and will be with him like company. If he didn’t like his client, he surely wouldn’t have done that.
He will keep confidentiality
An ethical therapist will never share your information with any other person. He will protect you since he respects you and values you as a client.
He remains engaged in talking to you
There are some signs which tell you that your therapist is engaged in talking to you very much. Such as- he will make eye contact with you, he will lean in, or nodding his head. In short, he will make you comfortable as much as possible. Moreover, his profound attention will give you more of a more lively presence.
There is trust in your relationship
We usually don’t discuss our truth with whom we are not comfortable. But when it’s about a therapeutic relationship, we are bound to tell our truths. And when we can trust our therapists, that is the cherry on top for us. It becomes easier to share everything with him. If he didn’t like his client, maybe his client couldn’t even trust him.
He is concerned with your alternative diagnosis
A professional therapist will remain open to his clients’ alternative diagnoses. Besides, he will listen to your perspectives with full concentration. If your therapist is concerned with your alternative diagnosis, it means he cares for you.
He challenges in a good way
If your therapist would want to challenge you, he will ask you some questions that involve irrotational patterns. He will do it because that’s going to be better for you. If he likes you, he will do this session respectfully.
Signs that say your therapist is attracted to you
The below traits are the indications that say that you should terminate your relationship with your therapist. Let’s have a look below:
He gives you sympathy
The job of a psychiatrist or a psychologist is to give empathy, not sympathy. If he shows sympathy, at that time, he can even exaggerate the conversation.
His behavior gets changed
When you see that your therapist is attracted to you, he will see some behavioral changes in you. For example- he will try to get closer to you in between the sessions. He will frequently look for the chance to touch you. He can even ask you for meetings outside.
He will extend the therapy sessions
When your therapist is attracted to you, he will make such situations to spend time with you. He may extend the therapy sessions for this reason.
He will disclose his personal information
It’s a very rare case that a professional therapist reveals his personal information to his client. The information can include something completely unnecessary for the client to know.
Ethics in Therapy
When you are bothering a lot thinking that if your therapist likes you or not, it means you have transference. It’s a common process of psychotherapy that is great for personal growth.
When you feel like your therapist likes you, it’s a good sign. It means he is understanding enough, shows empathy, and gives positive regard. That makes you easy as well. You don’t feel judged.
We all are human, we have some good things and some flaws. So, the therapist will understand that and appropriately guide us. And that’s obviously because he likes you as a client. But if you think that his “liking” is crossing the line, the relationship will become unhealthy. Because there are some boundaries and ethics that the therapist and his client should maintain.
Therapy should be like therapy. There shouldn’t be any personal relationships or issues. If you think that the relationship is getting personal or your therapist has started liking you in another way, I think you should become cautious now. I would say change your therapist.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to make your therapist fall in love with you?
Don’t panic at all when you start loving your therapist. Many clients go through this experience. It is called transference. You can make your therapist fall in love with you by being more of yourself and being as great as possible. However, it’s not a good thing that the relationship between you and your therapist goes personal.
Can a therapist tell if you are attracted to them?
A qualified therapist has a better gut feeling. He can sense that his client is attracted to him. Well, a psychiatrist or a psychologist is aware of people’s thoughts. They can easily identify by the gestures and looks of a person what he is thinking right now.
Does a therapist get attracted to his client?
Almost 70% of therapists get attracted to their clients after a time being. Whereas 25% of therapists think about romantic relationships with their clients. A therapist can rarely have a sexual relationship with his client. So far, it was 3% of therapists who had such relationships.
How can I identify transference?
Transference means when your feelings lift, and your reactions seem bigger. When a person experiences transference, he gets frustrated and enraged. That time you feel so hurt that a deep wound would be nothing in front of it.
What type of client does a therapist like?
Therapists invest a lot in the sessions. They would like it if their clients also invested in the sessions as much as they do. Besides, a therapist cherishes it when his client is motivated enough, tries new things, and cooperates with him. As a result, the progress of the therapy tends to be excellent and the therapist likes his client for that.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, it’s now easy for us to understand how to tell if your therapist likes you. We human beings like it when we know that the other person likes us. The same goes for the clients who experience sessions with their therapist. When they get to know that their therapist likes them, they automatically feel happy about that.
A therapist will mainly like you if you are actively participating in your sessions. He will like you more if you make progress in yourself. This is how a professional therapist will like his client as a client. Not anything else. Similarly, a client should like his therapist to keep some boundaries.
Let us know if you could relate anything from the above that your therapist likes you or not.
