« Short Term 12 » is an amazing movie giving a rather close insight into a group home for troubled teenagers. This movie is a very good media to make young social workers and therapists aware of the importance, but also the difficulties of the distance they have to maintain with patients they are in charge of.
The main character, Grace, is a young supervisor who apparently knows the importance of this distance as she points it out in a scene where she trains a new intern. She has a very kind attitude towards the youngsters, but as a professional she knows how not to get too close. Her posture progressively changes when a 16-year-old girl, Jayden, arrives at the group home. The story of this new resident reminds her of her own and instead of being empathetic, Grace becomes more and more compassionate and finally seems to identify herself with Jayden. The girl’s story echoes in Grace and revives dark memories of the past which she thought to have long vanished. At the same time she encounters difficulties in her actual life which reinforce the effect of these echoes. Getting totally confused and not knowing anymore which part belongs to herself and which one belongs to Jayden, she almost commits a crime in an effort to protect her.
In their article, Gelman, Fernandez, Hausman, Miller and Weiner (2007) emphasize the importance of maintaining a distance with one’s patients and give some advice of how to do so (e.g. not accepting an invitation by the patient to an external event, not giving one’s personal phone number, not promising any future relation, preparing the separation and transmission of the patient’s follow-up, etc.). The authors explain that there is a double necessity of this posture as being too close and compassionate not only represents a risk for the social worker’s or therapist’s mental health, but also makes it impossible for him to know which part belongs to the patient and which part to himself. Indeed, in order to help a patient, a therapist has to try to assist the patient in getting hold of his own memories in order to understand his own emotional and mental states related to them. Thus, it is essential that the therapist is able not to mix up his own emotions and mental states with those of the patient. The therapist’s empathy, built on the knowledge and awareness of his own life experience, enables him, thanks to the operating transfer and counter-transfer, to guide the patient through the elaboration and understanding of his own mental processes.
Therefore, it is essential for a therapist – and highly recommended for social workers – to have his own therapy before and while working with patients so as to get to know himself as much as possible and be prepared if ever a patient’s story echoes too much with his own.
This is what Grace does at the end of the movie: she starts her own therapy to be able to find her own way and let Jayden find hers.
Vocabulary:
group home : foyer de vie
awareness : (prise de) conscience
to be aware of : être conscient de
to vanish : disparaître
follow-up : suivi
intern : stagiaire
References:
Olson, M., Goldstein, A., Astrachan, J., & Najor, R. (Producers) ; Cretton, D.D. (Director, Scriptwriter) (2013). Short Term 12. USA: Demarest Films – Traction Media.
Gelman, C. R., Fernandez, P., Hausman, N., Miller, S., & Weiner, M. (2007). Challenging Endings: First Year MSW Interns’ Experiences with Forced Termination and Discussion Points for Supervisory Guidance. Clinical Social Work Journal, 35(2), 79‑90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-007-0076-6