What Is It Really Like Growing Up With a Therapist? A Teacher Turned Counselor’s Perspective
Episode 36: Behind the Therapy Door
This article draws on a conversation between therapists Sarah Thome and Matt Gallagher. Listen to the full episode for the stories behind the takeaways.
Your dad is a licensed therapist. He reads distress patterns for a living, teaches communication models to corporations, and spends his days helping strangers navigate their darkest moments. So what is it actually like sitting across the dinner table from him? On Episode 36 of Behind the Therapy Door, guest Maddie Gallagher, Matt’s oldest daughter, a high school psychology teacher and current master’s student in counseling at Wichita State University, gives an unfiltered, funny, and surprisingly relatable answer. Growing up with a therapist parent is not what most people imagine, and the path from therapist’s kid to future therapist is anything but a straight line.
Related: About Matt and Sarah.
Related: Understanding PCM® personality types.
What Happens When a Fourth-Grader Helps Dad Study for His Clinical Exam?
Maddie’s introduction to the clinical world started early and memorably. In fourth grade, she helped Matt study for his licensing exam. One term stuck: encopresis. A nine-year-old learning clinical terminology for bowel dysfunction is not a typical homework assignment, but it captures the casual intersection of family life and clinical practice that defined the Gallagher household. Clinical language was part of the furniture.
That comfort with clinical settings became an advantage Maddie did not fully appreciate until later. While classmates in her graduate program express anxiety about practicum placements and counseling office environments, Maddie grew up in one. The waiting rooms, the session rhythms, the emotional weight that clients carry through the door: none of it is foreign to her. It is the backdrop of her childhood.
Related: What is the Process Communication Model®?.
Related: PCM® training for therapists.
How Does the Imaginer Personality Type Show Up in a Future Counselor?
Maddie’s PCM® profile tells a nuanced story: base Imaginer, phase Persister, with Promoter sitting on her fifth floor. Imaginer energy means deep internal processing, a need for solitude to recharge, and a reflective approach to decision-making that can look like passivity to more action-oriented types.
No counseling. Just be our dad.
Matt Gallagher, Behind the Therapy Door
Her Persister phase gives her conviction and a values-driven lens that shapes her teaching. Her fifth-floor Promoter adds a directness and willingness to act that surfaces in unexpected ways. Maddie pretend-farts on her students to break tension in the classroom. She teaches PCM® alongside the Big Five personality model in her high school psychology course, giving teenagers a framework for understanding communication that most adults never encounter. Her students call her an “op” and a “rage-baiter,” which in the currency of teenage respect is the highest compliment available.
Related: Compare PCM® to other assessments.
Related: PCM® for educators.
“No counseling! Just be our dad.”
— Maddie and Gracie to Matt
What Do Therapists’ Kids Really Think About Growing Up With a Therapist Parent?
The most revealing moment in the episode is a boundary Maddie and her sister Gracie set early and clearly. They told Matt directly: “No counseling. Just be our dad.” That boundary captures the tension every therapist parent navigates. Clinical tools are powerful for understanding behavior, but children do not want to be case studies in their own home. They want a parent who is present, not one who is assessing.
Gracie’s reaction to Maddie practicing reflection of feeling on her became family legend. When Maddie mirrored her sister’s emotion back to her in classic person-centered fashion, Gracie responded with a two-word phrase that would make any clinical supervisor cringe. The response was authentic, boundary-setting, and, in its own profane way, healthy. She was not interested in being therapeutically engaged. She was interested in having a normal conversation with her sister.
These stories humanize the therapist in a way that builds trust. Matt and Lori are not clinical machines producing emotionally optimized children. They are parents who sometimes get it right and sometimes get told to knock it off. That authenticity is what makes their clinical work credible.
Related: Communication strategies for families.
Related: Parent workshops using PCM®.
What Turns a High School Teacher Into a Graduate Counseling Student?
Maddie’s pivot from teaching to counseling did not come from a dramatic moment of revelation. It came from two converging forces: a desire for a new professional challenge and a pointed question from Lori. “When are you going to start your master’s? Do you like living in poverty?” That question, delivered with the directness that Promoter energy provides, was the push Maddie needed to pursue what she had been circling for years.
She is now completing her master’s in counseling at WSU with a play therapy certification. The flat tire she and Gracie changed using YouTube becomes a metaphor for Maddie’s entire approach: resourceful, practical, willing to figure things out in real time rather than waiting for someone to rescue her. Growing up as a therapist’s kid gave her the clinical vocabulary. Teaching gave her the relational instincts. The counseling degree gives her the license to combine them.
Related: Explore all workshops.
Related: Take a PCM® profile assessment.
Related: Contact Affinity.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is it like growing up with a therapist parent?
Children of therapists often develop comfort with emotional language and clinical settings that peers find unfamiliar. However, they also need clear boundaries between the parent role and the therapist role. The healthiest outcomes come when the therapist parent uses clinical knowledge as a foundation for empathy rather than treating family interactions as informal sessions.
What is the Imaginer personality type in PCM®?
The Imaginer is one of the six PCM® personality types. Imaginers process the world through reflection and need solitude to recharge. They are deep internal thinkers who prefer to observe before acting, which can be mistaken for disengagement by more expressive personality types around them.
Can you teach PCM® to high school students?
Yes. The Process Communication Model® is accessible enough for teenagers to learn and apply immediately. High school psychology courses can pair PCM® with established models like the Big Five, giving students a practical communication framework alongside academic theory. Students respond well because PCM® explains real behavior patterns they recognize in themselves and their peers.
How do you know if counseling is the right career for you?
Signs that counseling may be a good fit include a natural curiosity about why people behave the way they do, comfort sitting with emotional intensity without trying to fix it immediately, and a desire to help others develop their own solutions rather than providing answers. Prior experience in teaching, mentoring, or caregiving often translates directly into strong counseling instincts.
What is play therapy and who is it for?
Play therapy is an evidence-based therapeutic approach primarily used with children. It uses play as the medium for communication because children process experiences through action and imagination rather than verbal reflection. Therapists trained in play therapy observe patterns in how children play to understand emotional struggles the child may not have words for yet.
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