A selfish neurotic look at therapy

It is inevitable that at some point during therapy  a client will ask me, "Don't you get tired of listening to people's problems all day?".  My usual reply, "No. Everyone is different. Everyone is struggling with something unique. No two people react or respond the same way." (Long answer to a question that could easily be answered "no".) That usually satisfies people. But, yesterday, when a relatively new client asked me, I realized that while my usual answer was sufficient, it was not really accurate.

Some of the most messed up people I know are psycho-therapists  (myself included). I have known therapists with a deep fear of being alone, not feeling complete without a man, a need to be adored by a woman 24 hours a day, unresolved mother issues, a compulsion to be friends with clients (big no-no) etc.... The list is long.   I've really only known two individuals that are fairly balanced people. But I could be wrong.  Several of these slightly unbalanced souls have been or are friends.( Now there's a sad statement). Something about this field calls to the emotionally needy.  Others need not apply.  And I must say - the more messed up the therapist is, the more effective he or she seems to be with clients.

How can this be? Counseling clients is like being in a day-long therapy appointment.  It can be as therapeutic for the therapist as it is for the client. Counseling people is an opportunity to often provide others with great insight into their issues - based occasionally on how you, the therapist,may have failed to do it, or see it, or perceive it, how you wished you'd done it or how you still could do it if you had the cajones.  Ah yes. We often watch our clients grow and succeed where we have been unable.  It's win-win. Ever careful that we don't transfer our past  emotional experiences onto our clients, there is a constant struggle to remain neutral when their problems are similar to ones we have experienced.  In the end their victories, their growth, large and small, provide us with some sense of overcoming.  I guess what I'm saying is that being a therapist is kind of selfish....but yea, I can live with that.