The Principle of Beneficence and Life Span Development: The Role of “Personal Therapy” (original) (raw)
BACKGROUND: For more of the twentieth century senior psychotherapists have struggled with the task of how best to impart the skills and techniques of therapeutic work to novices trying to avoid charlatanism. Cultural pluralism is not yet reflected in students, faculty, curriculum or research of psychotherapy training programs (Highlen, 1994), however, the vast majority of studies consisted of surveys of therapists' opinions indicate that personal therapy has a positive effect on those therapist qualities often cited as constructive to client change (e.g. empathy, warmth, genuineness). OBJECTIVES: The face of our world changes, so must the training of psychotherapists. It is evident that there needs more methodologically sound research as well as a more theoretical understanding of how personal therapy affects clinical practice, before any firm conclusions can be drawn about its usefulness. METHOD: The teleological nature of action is dependent on narratives therefore we adapt a life-span narrative research perspective. The point of narrative research is to make explicit the view of lives, which is embodied in stories. The life story offers a template that can be applied in many disciplinary settings or to fulfill much research needs. RESULTS: The vision of the lives that the stories express and the practices that they present have to be regarded as relevant not only to people involved but also to the researcher and his/her world. It is suggested that it may be more useful for future research in this area to focus on therapy process rather than client outcome. CONCLUSION: On the assumption that “people are not the problem they are the solution” therapy needs to attend to the political as well as the clinical symptoms of clients, that being ‘spiritual’ and ‘just’ as well as being ‘scientific’, ‘neutral’ and ‘professional’. No therapist however, has the omnipotence or the omniscience to decide what is the best way for clients to restructure their lives since each life path and journey is unique.
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