Is sharing personal experiences a good thing?

If it was a casual conversation with a friend, yes. But I don't think that applies here. Everyone's situation is a little bit different, and I think if I tried to talk to someone about how I was feeling and I was met with, "When I had this problem..." I would feel worse. I know that there are other ways to phrase your shared experience, but they would most likely sound like the example I gave, if someone was depressed.

Sharing is not at all bad thing, but sometimes we need to be careful about.. to whom we are sharing..

Self-disclosure can be an incredibly powerful tool, and I have done a lot of personal research on it as a student myself, and used it in multiple professional settings as well.

Self-disclosure can be an incredibly powerful tool when used to accomplish one or more of the following goals:

1) To create a sense of connection through shared/similar experience between the Listener and Speaker
2) To reassure the Speaker that they are not alone in their struggle, and that others suffer in ways similar to them.
3) To provide suggestions for coping/treatment, or to affirm a decision that the Speaker is considering, based on the experience of the Listener.

Some things to remember about self disclosure are as follows:

1) The Listener should only self-Disclose personal stories that are resolved.
- If you are going to share your experiences with self harm, for example, it is best that you have reached closure on this issue in your life before using it to help others in theirs.
- Do NOT share the story of a friend, family member, or client, unless the story that you are choosing to share has been scrubbed of identifying information. This is also not technically self-disclosure

2) The listener should spend as little time as possible talking about themselves, and make sure to quickly relate their story back to the speaker.
- Do not use their time so that you have an opportunity to discuss your own issues. Disclosure should be done in an effort to promote further insight, show that others suffer from similar problems, and to suggest possible methods to aid with the problem the speaker is facing.

3) Disclosure should be used rarely, and in situations with considerable similarity, and should never assume that the situation is "the same" as what the speaker is going through.

If you or anyone else would like to know more, I've written an entire research paper on this topic, so I would be glad to answer any questions you may have!

Thanks guys for your answers!