Initiation as a rite of passage is strongly linked to the history and practice of psychotherapy and counselling psychology. The absence of recent studies on this topic encourages research in this area. This research investigates the initiation experiences of seven female participants as they became qualified as psychotherapists and counselling psychologists, i.e. in their ‘becoming a therapist’. Data were collected through open-ended interviews, and narratives analysed using the interpretive-constructivist version of grounded theory developed by Charmaz. The emerged grounded theory (considered a preliminary theory due to the limited number of participants) highlights the interplay between two fundamental agencies of the self: Being and Doing. Their interaction allows female therapists to engage in several inner and outer tasks affecting the shaping of their sense of self. The theory highlights a dynamic and non-linear process of identity transformation and shows how female therapists relate to transitions and changes on a personal and professional level. The emerged theory is relevant and informative for the current practice of counselling psychology, as it emphasises the importance of female therapists' personal and professional development. By considering the psychological impact and influence of initiation, it highlights how the process of female therapists' becoming unfolds and shows how this can serve their clinical practice.

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the ways that beginning therapists utilize ‘informal supervision’, the process wherein therapists in training engage individuals who are not their formally assigned supervisors in significant conversations about their clinical work. Because the research literature on formal supervision does not adequately acknowledge the frequent use and significance of informal supervision, this study sought to provide a comprehensive understanding of why therapists in training seek informal supervision, what they get out of it, how informal supervision differs from formal supervision, and how it influences trainees’ clinical work and their developing therapeutic identity. Participants were 16 doctoral trainees in clinical and counseling psychology programs. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR) method. Eleven domains emerged from CQR analysis, and results suggest that informal supervision is a valid practice by which trainees in clinical and counseling doctoral programs in psychology develop clinical and professional competencies. The valuable practice of informal supervision was evident in a multiplicity of arenas: in seeking informal supervision, trainees received validation, reassurance, and emotional support. Additionally, trainees used informal supervision to openly and authentically discuss personal anxieties and self-doubt, strong countertransference reactions to patients, and salient clinical challenges and mistakes. Trainees who used informal supervision gained insight into their clinical work, explored diverse approaches to clinical interventions, and increased their capacity to access and use their personal reactions to patients to further their clinical work. Results also revealed important differences between formal and informal supervision, specifically that informal supervision provides trainees with a unique and important space to discuss clinical interactions that lead them to feel emotionally dysregulated, overwhelmed, confused, concerned, upset, and drained – i.e., those aspects of experience that are often not disclosed or are carefully curated in their presentation to formal supervisors – so that they could better understand and use their personal reactions to influence their clinical work. Regarding the former, i.e., personal challenges of clinical work, trainees revealed their personal anxiety, self-doubt, uncertainty, and shame frequently and non- defensively in informal supervision. Lastly, results showed that participants’ concerns about using informal supervision are considerable, and include anxiety about breaking APA’s ethics codes regarding patient privacy and confidentiality Recommendations are proposed for clinical practice and clinical training, including an ‘ethical’ proposal to integrate informal supervision as an important avenue for trainees’ clinical and personal development throughout their training, and thus legitimize its practice. Clear and innovative ethical guidelines regarding the use of informal supervision that are consistent with the APA’s ethics codes are outlined, and future directions are discussed.

Supervision of psychotherapy constitutes a major component of the professional training undertaken by individuals pursuing careers in clinical psychology. The empirical literature has only recently begun to address the impact which supervision has on the development of its recipients. The present study explored relationships between changes in the theoretical orientations and personal values of therapist trainees and the theoretical orientations and values of the training faculty who provided them with supervision during a one year training program. Trainee theoretical orientation and personal values were assessed at the beginning and at the end of the training program for three successive training years, yielding a trainee sample N of 16. Follow-up assessment of theoretical orientation was obtained from this sample three to five years after they had completed this one year program. Background characteristics assessed included measures of personality functioning, locus of control and prior clinical experience. Parallel data were collected from 11 supervisory faculty. Regression analyses assessed the extent to which changes in trainee orientations and values could be predicted on the basis of the perspectives held by their supervisors. Trainees were found to enter the program with a positive bias toward psychoanalytic and experiential forms of therapy and a negative bias toward cognitive-behavioral therapy. Through the follow-up assessment this psychoanalytic orientation was maintained and consolidated. Trainees also became more accepting of cognitive-behavioral treatment and less supportive of experiential therapy. While supervisors' orientations were generally found to be unrelated to changes in trainee orientation during the training period, follow-up data suggested that supervisors had influenced the orientations currently held by former trainees. Changes in orientation were found to be unrelated to trainee background characteristics or level of prior clinical experience. Current findings suggested that trainee perceptions of supervisors' influence were related to supervisor status within the training program. Trainees entered the program with value systems that were similar to those of their supervisors. These values did not change substantially during the course of training. Trainee personality characteristics were more frequent predictors of those value changes which did occur than were supervisor values.

M.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This research aimed to trace the development of psychologists as therapists within a South African context. Two distinct career levels were explored in relation to a competency model, a skills development model, and a developmental phase model of psychotherapists' professional development. Through purposive sampling five intern psychologists and six registered psychologists with at least seven years post-qualification client contact were selected according to the inclusion criteria of the study. Through semi-structured interviews, couched in the social constructionist position, the participants' experiences were thematically analysed. In addition, the researcher's own personal journey of developing as a psychotherapist was reflected upon. The current research study found that a number of aspects fostered the development of psychotherapists. Across the two career levels the life experiences of participants particularly featured events that were personally wounding or placed the participant in the helper role. The theoretical orientation(s) of participants were voiced as influential in their development, yet the ability to adjust their theoretical orientation to clients' needs was of overriding importance. Participants emphasised forming a strong therapeutic relationship with clients as the centrepiece of psychotherapy and depicted the therapeutic process using diverse metaphors. No key differences in use of metaphors emerged between intern and established psychologists. Catalysts for professional growth included personal therapy, "unforgettable cases", group supervision and, in the case of established psychologists, continuing professional development workshops. xiii Shifts in competency were recognised by intern psychologists as they gained more experience, namely, dissolution of naivety, a decrease in anxiety regarding their clinical work, a greater flexibility in the therapeutic process, a decreased sense of inappropriate responsibility for clients' progress, and an ongoing process of negotiating the interface of their personal and professional lives. Established psychologists spoke of having gained more confidence through their years of practice and yet experienced moments of anxiety which they found fostered humility. Limitations of the study and potential future research directions were outlined.

Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))—University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / The question of how to address diversity in the professional training of clinical psychologists is of concern in South Africa and elsewhere. This concern is particularly salient in contemporary South Africa, where much of the sociopolitical discourse centres on issues of race, transformation, relevance and redress. This research is in line with current debates, and set out to explore the self articulated racial identities as well as the impact of those identities on the work of trainees in the second year of their clinical psychology masters degree, at three universities in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Trainees’ perceptions of the role of the universities in facilitating the working through of challenges identified in trainees’ racial identities and in facilitating multiracial competencies, were also explored in this study. Individual interviews were conducted with nineteen trainee psychologists. A minimally structured questionnaire was used in this qualitative inquiry. The theoretical framework underpinning the methodology used in this thesis endeavour, with a critical lens as background, is primarily supported by the “interpretive” or “hermeneutic” approach to psychological theory. Critical theory offered further support to understanding some of the complex issues in working with racialised discourses. Whilst all trainees identified themselves in racial terms, race continues to be a complex and, for many, a painful construct. For many, the family has been the primary source of racial socialisation, largely premised on essentialist, stereotypical discourse. With regard to the impact of their racial identity on their work, many indicate that their race significantly impacted on this. They reported a particular concern with working in cross-racial dyads. Racial difference was sometimes reported to enhance the clinical process, but was far more often experienced as a difficulty. The trainees were unanimous that the universities at which they had studied had fallen far short of what they would have wished in terms of facilitating multiracial competencies. The findings suggest that whilst legislation has changed the political profile of South Africa, the process of transformation within the psychological sites studied, is cause for concern. The dissatisfaction with the training provided, for many trainees centres around issues of relevance to the South African context. Despite efforts by some universities to diversify the racial profile of trainees, in the attempt to address the needs of people of colour, trainees believe efforts to be insufficient. While this study did not collect data, that could corroborate or question the opinions of trainees, results clearly suggest that trainee psychologists do not believe universities are currently doing enough. The implications of the trainees’ views are discussed and implications considered for trainees, trainers, the users of psychological services, and for the role of psychology as a discipline in civil society.

This study explores trainee psychotherapists' experiences of double bind situations and inconsistency between explicit and implicit contexts of training. The epistemological foundations of this text are postmodern, social constructionist and ecosystemic. A review of the relevant literature is presented, which includes aspects such as explicit and implicit contexts, double bind and experiences of trainees in training. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research approach adopted, namely, discourse analysis. Themes that are extracted from the text of the transcribed interviews are assumed to reflect discourses in training and the broader societal contexts in which trainees find themselves. These discourses are seen to inform trainees' constructions of their experiences in training. The findings of the analysis are found to concur with the initial hypotheses of this dissertation, as well as with findings in the literature. Recommendations for future research are offered. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The mini-dissertation explains how systems theory provided a healing context for me in my training as a clinical psychologist over two years. The emergence of my authentic voice is narrated in an autoethnography (five act drama) about what happened. The main theoretical bases for the dissertation are – constructivism to understand the learning and teaching I experienced; learning as a collaborative endeavour and the emergence of my authentic voice with help from more skilled others. Systems theory informs the entire study at every theoretical level. Bowen’s family therapy theory is significant for the differentiation of the self and his I-position is equated with the emergence of an authentic voice. Myth, epic narratives, the hero’s journey amplify my interpretation of the differentiation of self. The raw data for the qualitative research were observations, interviews, creative writing, photocollage, a collection of readings, songs and dialogues. The themes emerging from the autoethnography were about obstructions because of the authoritarian nature of my upbringing, life and work. These themes lessened in force in clinical training until my authentic voice emerged in relation to self and as a clinical psychologist. A recommendation from the dissertation is that autoethnography provides a good vehicle for reflection and intense interior scrutiny needed to become a practising clinical psychologist; the autoethnographical exercise could be used by training clinical psychologists more extensively on their journey to maturity. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study explores trainee psychotherapists' experiences of double bind situations and inconsistency between explicit and implicit contexts of training. The epistemological foundations of this text are postmodern, social constructionist and ecosystemic. A review of the relevant literature is presented, which includes aspects such as explicit and implicit contexts, double bind and experiences of trainees in training. This is followed by an account of the qualitative research approach adopted, namely, discourse analysis. Themes that are extracted from the text of the transcribed interviews are assumed to reflect discourses in training and the broader societal contexts in which trainees find themselves. These discourses are seen to inform trainees' constructions of their experiences in training. The findings of the analysis are found to concur with the initial hypotheses of this dissertation, as well as with findings in the literature. Recommendations for future research are offered. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The mini-dissertation explains how systems theory provided a healing context for me in my training as a clinical psychologist over two years. The emergence of my authentic voice is narrated in an autoethnography (five act drama) about what happened. The main theoretical bases for the dissertation are – constructivism to understand the learning and teaching I experienced; learning as a collaborative endeavour and the emergence of my authentic voice with help from more skilled others. Systems theory informs the entire study at every theoretical level. Bowen’s family therapy theory is significant for the differentiation of the self and his I-position is equated with the emergence of an authentic voice. Myth, epic narratives, the hero’s journey amplify my interpretation of the differentiation of self. The raw data for the qualitative research were observations, interviews, creative writing, photocollage, a collection of readings, songs and dialogues. The themes emerging from the autoethnography were about obstructions because of the authoritarian nature of my upbringing, life and work. These themes lessened in force in clinical training until my authentic voice emerged in relation to self and as a clinical psychologist. A recommendation from the dissertation is that autoethnography provides a good vehicle for reflection and intense interior scrutiny needed to become a practising clinical psychologist; the autoethnographical exercise could be used by training clinical psychologists more extensively on their journey to maturity. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)