Preferences for a potential therapist's suicide lived experience and use of therapy

The present study is an examination of laypersons' preferences regarding therapists with lived mental health experiences. Specifically, we investigated participants' preferences for a treatment with a therapist who has sought personal therapy, experienced suicidal ideation, or made a suicide attempt. Additionally, we explored how participants' personal experiences may impact these preferences. Three hundred ninety-eight community members were recruited to complete an online survey through Amazon's Mechanical Turk. Participants completed delayed discounting paradigms which involve choices between a therapist with the experience (e.g., suicidal ideation) and a therapist without the experience providing treatment with varied levels of therapeutic efficacy (i.e., average percentage of client recovery). Overall, participants were willing to lose therapeutic efficacy in order to work with a therapist who has not been in prior mental health treatment (9.36% efficacy loss), experienced suicidal ideation (19.43% efficacy loss), and engaged in suicide attempts (20.18% efficacy loss). Across these therapist options, the strongest preference was for therapists with prior treatment compared to the other two conditions. Preferences differed somewhat depending on the participant's social stigma, history of suicide attempts, and prior suicidal ideation; however, these effects were small in size. Overall, participants preferred less effective therapists without a history of personal therapy, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts, compared to more effective therapists with a history of these experiences. Findings from this study highlight the pervasiveness of negative attitudes toward suicidal thoughts and behaviors and lived experience. If replicable, these results emphasize a need for destigmatization of these experiences in mental health care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).