There is an ancient Greek myth that tells the story of the centaur, Chiron, who accidentally becomes infected by the blood of the poisonous creature, the Hydra. Being immortal, Chiron cannot die, although the wound from his infection does not heal and so he sets out on a quest to find a cure for his ailment. He travels far and wide and consults many wise healers and while none can provide a cure, he himself becomes a revered healer and cures many of their pain and sickness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiron

This myth of the ‘wounded healer’ has become a metaphor for the journey that any psychological healer must undertake – ‘physician, heal thyself’. The famous psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, believed that every therapist or counsellor must undertake the process of healing their own wounds before they can effectively heal others.

Jung expressed himself clearly on this when he wrote: “We could say, without too much exaggeration, that a good half of every treatment that probes at all deeply consists in the doctor’s examining himself, for only what he can put right in himself can he hope to put right in the patient. This, and nothing else, is the meaning of the Greek myth of the wounded physician.”

Jung’s point is that we all have wounds from our childhood and that many therapists undertake their healing work precisely because of the presence of these wounds. But do we even need the healer? Are we not responsible for our own cure? Do we not need to share the vulnerability of our wound so that we can become whole again? Do we not need to heal ourselves?

http://www.jungatlanta.com/articles/fall12-wounded-healer.pdf

http://www.thegreenrooms.net/wounded-healer/

http://blogs.psychcentral.com/psychoanalysis-now/2014/12/are-psychotherapists-nuts/