On becoming a better therapist (original) (raw)
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Personal Therapy for Future Therapists: Reflections on a Still Debated Issue
The European Journal of Counselling Psychology, 2013
The issue of personal therapy in the training of counsellors and counselling psychologists has long been debated and is still being discussed. Although some people believe that trainees' processing of personal issues helps increase their self-understanding, they do not consider it mandatory. Others argue that personal therapy is an integral part of training for future therapists revealing the characters and personalities of those who are fit or unfit to practice this profession. In most European countries a certain number of hours of personal therapy are mandatory to qualify for admission to the profession. In other countries, only certain training programs require it. What are the arguments for or against personal therapy in training? What does research indicate? What is meant by "personal development" and what by "personal therapy"? How is the necessary breadth and depth of "the work with oneself" which is contained in good educational training programs ensured? The present article reviews some of the relevant research in an effort to answer the questions raised and discuss the arguments developed.
British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 2007
Grounded in a narrative account of the author's own development as a counselling practitioner, it is argued that a programmatic developmental path for therapy practitioners can be singularly inappropriate. Such a route to practitionerhood threatens to interfere with, and even fundamentally to undermine, the necessarily unique idiosyncrasies of practitioner development, and the often ineffable, unspecifiable nature of the therapeutic process itself. Some tensions lying at the heart of the attempt to professionalise the therapy field in Britain are articulated in this personal chronicled history of principled challenge to statutory regulation. The Independent Practitioners Network is introduced as an approach to accountability that strives to avoid many of the worst incoherencies of the 'modernist' bureaucratic institution, and suggestions are made as to how we might enable diverse, innovative practitioner development in Late Modernity. Introduction: the 'state of practitioner development we're in' 'Let us search. .. for an epistemology of practice implicit in the artistic, intuitive processes which some practitioners do bring to situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict' (Schö n, 1983, p. 49). In this paper I present discursive retrospective reflections on my own particular 'journey' as a developing counselling practitioner, as a vehicle for generating some more general propositions about the future of practitioner development in what is an emerging 'trans-' or 'postmodern' future for our field (House, 2008, accepted). As I have discussed at length elsewhere (House, 2003, pp. 277Á280, 305Á307), recent trends towards the institutional professionalisation of the field are fraught with difficulty and contradiction, and for a whole host of complex interrelated reasons.
Little empirical research exists about highly effective psychotherapists, and none about the factors that mediate the acquisition and maintenance of superior performance (e.g., Ericsson, 1996; Ericsson, 2006; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993). In the full sample, a three-level multilevel modeling (Level 1: clients, Level 2: therapists; Level 3: organization types) of practitioner outcomes was used to examine the contribution of the therapist to treatment effectiveness. Consistent with prior research, in the full sample (n = 69 therapists; n = 4580 clients) found that therapist effects explained 5.1% of the variance in outcome, after adjusting for initial severity. Therapist gender, caseload, and age were not found to be significant predictors. In a subsample of therapists, the relationship between outcome and therapist demographic variables, professional development activities and work practices was analyzed (n= 17 therapists, n = 1632 clients). Therapist characteristics (e.g., years of experience, gender, age, profession, highest qualification, caseload, and degree of theoretical integration) did not significantly predict client-reported outcomes. Consistent with the literature on expertise and expert performance, the amount of time spent targeted at improving therapeutic skills was a significant predictor of client outcomes. Further, highly effective therapists indicated requiring more effort in reviewing therapy recordings alone than the rest of the cohort. Caveats and implications for clinical practice, continuing professional development, and training are discussed.
How psychotherapists develop: A study of therapeutic work and professional growth
Psychodynamic Practice, 2010
People have known and experienced the power of talking and relating to other human beings since the earliest recorded times. In ancient times, healing or reparative talk in the context of a relationship was most frequently placed within religious practices. Also, Hippocrates, in his injunctions to physicians, emphasized the healing nature of maintaining a patient's privacy and implementing honest and straightforward communication with patients.
A model of personal professional development in the systematic training of clinical psychologists
Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 2007
Staff development has been identified as a key way to improve the delivery of psychological therapies, particularly through enhancing professionals' capacity for reflective practice. Traditionally, the 'reflective practitioner' model has guided how we train professionals to deliver therapies, but this model is vague and needs refinement. We therefore outlined a more coherent model, by integrating the ideas and methods of these and other educationalists into our working definition of the 'Personal Professional Development' (PPD). We proposed that reflection can be made explicit within a circumplex model that is based upon an experiential learning cycle. This allowed 'reflective practice' to be developed systematically and analyzed empirically. We detailed how PPD is addressed within one clinical psychology training program, and provided some initial, promising evaluation data to support the approach. The need for further development and evaluation of our model and its associated methods is discussed as an appropriately reflexive next phase. B = Broad scope; model is comprehensive, or at least extensive. C = Clarity; model characterizes and explains the phenomena present, and clarifies any relationships and interactions between them. F = Functions; displays specified assumptions and outcomes based on underlying rationale and purpose. M = Methods; defines regular, systematic procedures that provide a basis for experimentation. P = Pictorial display; the model is presented in an illustrative way, such as a diagram.
The role of deliberate practice in the development of highly effective psychotherapists
Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), 2015
Little empirical research exists about highly effective psychotherapists, and none about the factors that mediate the acquisition and maintenance of superior performance skills (e.g., Ericsson, 1996, 2006; Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer, 1993). In the full sample, a 3-level multilevel modeling (Level 1: clients; Level 2: therapists; Level 3: organization types) of practitioner outcomes was used to examine the contribution of the therapist to treatment effectiveness. Consistent with prior research, in the full sample (n = 69 therapists; n = 4,580 clients) it was found that therapist effects explained 5.1% of the variance in outcome, after adjusting for initial severity. Therapist gender, caseload, and age were not found to be significant predictors. In a subsample of therapists, the relationship between outcome and therapist demographic variables, professional development activities, and work practices was analyzed (n = 17 therapists, n = 1,632 clients). Therapist characteristics (e...
Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, 2024
The person behind the therapist There is a growing interest in personal and professional development (PPD) of therapists, but little is known about what types of experiences make therapists into who they are as professionals. PPD is defined as "the integration of professional skills and personal development necessary for engaging with clients, facilitating transformative processes, and addressing the challenges inherent in professional practice" (de Condé et al., 2023, p. 59). This study is focused on the person-of-the-therapist and which significant life experiences contribute to their PPD. The present study applies the significant events approach to explore the important moments within the personal and professional evo
2013
The issue of personal therapy in the training of counsellors and counselling psychologists has long been debated and is still being discussed. Although some people believe that trainees ’ processing of personal issues helps increase their self-understanding, they do not consider it mandatory. Others argue that personal therapy is an integral part of training for future therapists revealing the characters and personalities of those who are fit or unfit to practice this profession. In most European countries a certain number of hours of personal therapy are mandatory to qualify for admission to the profession. In other countries, only certain training programs require it. What are the arguments for or against personal therapy in training? What does research indicate? What is meant by "personal development " and what by “personal therapy”? How is the necessary breadth and depth of "the work with oneself " which is contained in good educational training programs ensu...
Therapist skills: A cognitive model of their acquisition and refinement
A new model of therapist skill development is presented. Grounded in information processing theory, it provides a comprehensive framework that accounts for a range of phenomena encountered by trainers and trainees -for example, why different training methods are needed for different elements of therapist skill. The model features three principal systems: declarative, procedural and reflective (DPR). Reflection is identified as central to therapist skill development and, accordingly, a pivotal role is given to a reflective system, which enables therapists to reflect and build on their conceptual (declarative) knowledge and procedural skills. The DPR model incorporates a taxonomy of therapist skills, and explains why different skills develop in different ways at different rates. It highlights the centrality of therapists' perceptual skills, and of when-then rules, plans, procedures and skills (rules that determine when to implement what interventions with which patient under what conditions) in the development of therapist expertise. It makes a distinction between personal and professional selves (the self-schema vs. the self-as-therapist schema); and it identifies the role of the personal self in therapist skill development. While there are still many questions to be investigated, it is hoped that the model will stimulate researchers and provide guidance for trainers.