About 20 years ago I moved from having my office in a profesional office building to having my office in my home. At first, it was a practical decision based on childcare issues. My children had reached the age where they felt too old for after school daycare and I thought they were too young to stay at home alone. A home office seemed the ideal solution. And when we moved into a building that seemed to have been planned for just our situation, it became an even better idea. My kids caught on quickly to the need to use the back entrance to the house to come and go and to not knock or otherwise interrupt when my door was closed. The space was warm and had a good feel to it; my patients and I were all happy with it.
Even after I got divorced and moved into an apartment, working at home just felt better to me and I worked to make that possible in the new space. For me, there was an almost seamless connection between home as I make it and my work, something touching into the archetypal feminine.
In the field of psychotherapy there is certainly not universal agreement on this whole office location issue. In fact, there are many who see having the office in one's home as a gross violation of the therapeutic frame and of boundaries. I understand that point and that it works when one practices from that particular way of viewing the process. And I certainly would not see using my living room as an appropriate space for therapy work. That would be bring far too much of the personal about me into the temenos of therapy.
I have wrestled a lot with this whole issue over the years. At times, those times when I was intensely exploring the concept of therapeutic frame and reading and considering the ideas of Robert Langs, I seriously questioned the acceptability of having my office at home. I visited the offices of other therapists and I considered other kinds of offices I myself had had.
I am interested in therapists' offices and how they decide how to decorate them and where to locate them. And I am interested in how patients perceive them.
Years ago I saw a therapist whose office was in his basement. It was a very small space and had just a tiny window so it was a bit dark and cave-like in a slightly unpleasant way.
Both of the analysts I have worked with have had home offices. The first met with patients in her living room and that was disconcerting. I missed the sense of being in a container which was just for the kind of work we were doing. That sense of sacred therapeutic space, temenos, was missing and I believe it did negatively impact our work.
My second analyst had his office in separate space in his house. It was not a big room but was warm and personal without being intrusive. The art on the walls, the books, the plants all spoke of him but did not offer too much information. The walls were a very pale pink that made the room feel warm. It is this space that I hold in mind as I shape my own. My next project is to paint the walls a nicer color -- I am thinking maybe a very pale cantaloupe.
I'd be delighted for any comments about therapists' offices.