The Therapist’s Therapist

Depth-oriented therapy for therapists.

Because you didn’t become a therapist by accident.

Therapy for Therapists

Therapy is different when you’re a therapist

Finding a therapist can be tough, especially when you are a therapist. You probably can outthink most people, including your therapist. You see around corners, anticipate their moves, and get in your own way.

You already know the language, recognize the interventions, and may understand exactly why you do what you do, yet still keep doing it anyway.

Good therapy must get beyond intellectual understanding and create an experience capable of changing what insight alone hasn’t.

Here’s what that can look like:

  • Challenge, not just support and comfort

  • Getting to the roots, not soothing the symptom

  • A therapist with an opinion who will share it when needed

  • Someone who sees your defenses and will challenge them

  • Paradox, humor, and directness, used to create emotionally compelling moments and spark bottom-up change

  • For better or worse, an authentic therapist who isn’t always so fucking proper

  • Experience: I have spent more than 15 years doing trauma-focused and inpatient therapy, plus supervising and treating other therapists

Who “holds” the “holder”?

Many therapists grew up as the emotional anchors in their families, parentified kids who learned early on to hold others. Those experiences often led them to the field and became a talent for helping people.

But parentified kids tend to be precocious, and precocious kids often become over-functioning adults.

Now, something has to give. Maybe you’re ready to finally revisit your old roles, challenge them, and change them.

This is your chance to break those rules and upset those old norms. Let’s work on you having needs, saying no, and not always permitting yourself to over-function.

Only then do you start to figure out who you are when you’re not looking out for everyone else.

Okay, but how do we do it?

I practice what I call Functional Psychotherapy, a relational, non-pathologizing, integrative model guided by the neuroscience of memory reconsolidation.

The work is bottom-up, experiential, and transformational rather than top-down and counteractive.

Learn more about how Functional Psychotherapy works as well as the story behind how I developed it.

Great. So how’s it feel when I’m done?

When bottom-up change finally clicks, it feels like something you've always known. You're setting limits, saying no, prioritizing yourself—without the guilt. Or maybe you're holding your anger differently, biting your tongue a little more. Maybe you're just slowing down.

The shift can be so seamless you barely notice it happened. Bruce Ecker—the therapist who brought memory reconsolidation into psychotherapy—calls that "effortless nonreactivation." You stop reminding yourself to do or not do something. You just do it. Or don't.

I recently published a case study with a combat-veteran client showing how the process unfolds with a combat-veteran client. In this paper and another paper, I give additional examples of my use of paradox in session.

Dr. Jim Mosher, licensed psychologist and founder of Mosher Psychological Services, PLLC.

Dr. Jim Mosher, PhD, ABPP

  • In-Person (Bloomington, MN)
  • Telehealth (43 PSYPACT States, plus NY)

What’s next?

None of us chose this field by accident. I know I didn’t. But what brought us to it can get in the way.

If you’re ready to change, here’s what’s next:

  1. Let’s just talk.
    Schedule a free consult. No pressure or pitch—let’s just see how we fit.

  2. If we do, let’s have a real first session.
    Not a diagnostic assessment—a conversation. I want to know your experiences and their connection to your pain.

  3. Then we roll up our sleeves and get to work.
    Let’s help you get out of your comfort zone so you can become your truest self.

Change begins with discomfort.
Let’s get uncomfortable.

You already know you want to work with me?

Or, start smaller. Let’s just see how we fit first.

Still deciding or just have a question?