There is a belief that professionalism is compromised when working with patients with the same problems as the psychotherapist. For a psychotherapist to become a competent, empathetic and holistic practitioner, he needs to address his own tendency to engage in emotional manipulation. The “Golden Mean” is one of the most universally accepted axioms in the world. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” this saying speaks of the importance of the principle of reciprocity in relationships, as well as the need to avoid double standards. This is an ethical and moral imperative that is beautiful in its simplicity, universality and applicability. If you try to adapt this to psychoanalysis, you can say: “Do as you would like others to do to themselves.” The psychoanalyst needs to use those methods that would be useful and necessary primarily for the patient, and precisely to the extent that he is ready to withstand. As people who are entrusted with enormous responsibility, psychoanalysts are not recommended to work with patients who have the same problems, and these problems have not been resolved by the analyst. In this case, the main thing is that the specialist himself is well-trained and his features do not harm the therapy of patients. The rules of therapy emphasize the need to avoid hypocrisy and double standards, and do not mix therapy and attempts to solve one's problems at the expense of patients. It is also extremely important for the therapist to be sensitive to himself and seek help from colleagues when necessary throughout his career. This is necessary in order to understand where your problem is, and where there is excessive involvement in the patient’s problems, to see your “blind spots”. To a greater extent, this is a matter of self-education and self-knowledge. Having been in the patient’s place (“on the other side of the couch”), the therapist develops a high level of empathy and, therefore, a higher level of professionalism. This is especially important in developing a sufficient degree of compassion, understanding and empathy for the patients with whom we work and for whom we work. It also improves our knowledge of our feelings, our “weak” places, fears and moments when we experience anxiety. Only about 20 percent of aspiring professionals have undergone personal therapy. In many modalities, undergoing therapy is not a recommendation or a wish, but a strict requirement, without which not only practice, but also full-fledged training is not possible. The path of therapeutic knowledge can only be traversed when both the therapist and the patient are ready to move to a new level of self-understanding and personal identity. It is quite possible that many psychoanalysts, when they were children, learned to cope with their narcissistic component, developing tolerance for frustrations, endless patience, effective listening skills and problem solving skills. We learned to control our feelings not only in order to adapt to the children's world, but also to create the basis for adult relationships. 84 percent of analysts return to therapy within 20 years, even Sigmund Freud wrote: “Every analyst should return to analysis periodically, at intervals of, say, five years, and without any shame about it.” After all, our professional qualities: empathy, patience, compassion are closely related to our current psychological health. Ideally, the work itself should begin as a student in order to better understand our positive and negative qualities, affects, aspects that can influence professional interactions. There are some “golden” rules: - If you have the same problem as your patient, your effectiveness will be much lower. - Our mental health and our professional capabilities are closely intertwined. - It is necessary to periodically undergo personal analysis .- Be a role model for your patients, let them know that you care about themselves.- Intuition comes from our unconscious experience.- Working as a psychoanalyst is fun, but not