324 - The Fall of the Traditional Therapist (and What’s Next) with Josie Rosario
"There’s such vulnerability in being hopeful, I think." ~Josie Rosario
What if the future of therapy asks clinicians to stop checking their humanity at the door?
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: There’s a gap between the world we were trained for as therapists and the world we find ourselves in now.
And here to explore that gap with compassion, curiosity, and a dose of reality is relational therapist, writer, mentor, and founder of Venus + Legacy, Josie Rosario.
Keep listening if you are curious about:
The evolving role of the therapist to meet the needs of today’s clients
Therapists doing their own healing work and examining one’s relationship to power as essential parts of becoming an effective clinician,
Spirituality, the wounded healer, and the future of psychotherapy including faith and hope amid social and systemic collapse, and a possible return to the therapist as a more relational “village healer” rooted in community rather than positioned above it.
I knew it was time to invite Josie to the show when I read her Substack post–The Fall of the Traditional Therapist—on what happens when the clinical models we inherited collide with a world demanding greater humanity, mutuality, authenticity, and connection. (BTW go subscribe to Josie with the Gems on Substack!)
“We have been trained to kinda check our humanity at the door a little bit,” Josie says. But what happens when clients are increasingly hungry for what’s real?
It’s complicated territory! But we’re traversing the chasm between healthy clinical boundaries and what Josie calls “professional erasure.” Do traditional ideas about self-disclosure, dual relationships, power, and expertise that were originally established to protect clients from predatory practices and practitioners still serve modern-day therapists and their clients? Maybe not. Either way, we wholeheartedly agree: therapists need to do their own work.
(I know it’s not the first time you’ve heard that one on the pod, either!)
Because no amount of credentials can substitute for understanding your wounds, your relationship to power, and the ways your lived experience enters the therapy room.
Lest you think we stopped there – fear not! We leapt boldly into the vulnerability of hope, the role of spirituality in clinical work, integrating astrology and other frameworks for understanding ourselves and our clients, and, of course, what it means to embrace the identity of the “wounded healer.”
“I like to meet people in their humanity,” Josie says. “So that means that I have to show up in mine.”
GUEST CONTACT & BIO
Josie with the Gems on Substack
Josie Rosario, LMSW, MSEd is a descendant of healers in the 21 Divisiones tradition and the founder of Venus+Legacy, a spiritually-integrated therapy practice focused on relationships of two or more. She's the writer behind Josie with the Gems on Substack, and mentors fellow spiritually-integrated therapists and entrepreneurs navigating identity thresholds. Her work sits at the intersection of spirituality as lived practice, clinical and relational depth, and the legacies carried through relationship.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
I Eat the Stars by Sarah Wilson
Psychotherapy Networker Symposium
RECOMMENDED EPISODES
You're Not Broken: Wholeness, Recovery & Spiritual Healing with Jamie Marich
Shawna Murray-Browne - Anti-oppressive and Liberation-focused
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Thank you to The Therapist Network for sponsoring the show!
The Therapist Network is a global community built by and for therapists. You’ll find live consult groups, an ever-growing library of workshops and courses, plus a community that really sees you. Sarah’s group, Tending to the Wounded Healer, meets every other Monday from 1–2pm CT, and it’s a space to explore the intersection of your lived experience and your clinical work.
So if you want to feel more supported and less alone, visit TheTherapist.Network—or join Sarah’s group directly at tinyurl.com/HealerConsultTTN.
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