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No description available.

This study explored the relationship between psychotherapists' personality and choice of theoretical orientation. A total of 493 participants (274 practitioners and 219 students) completed a web-based survey. Personality was assessed using the HEXACO Personality Inventory (HEXACO-PI; Lee & Ashton, 2004) while theoretical orientation preference was assessed using a modified version of the Theoretical Orientation Profile Scale-Revised (TOPS-R; Worthington & Dillon, 2003). In the practitioner sample, the Humanistic/Existential scale was found to be significantly correlated with the Openness Unconventionality scale (r = .34). Results further revealed that practitioners' theoretical orientation preference differed based on the Conscientiousness and Openness personality dimensions. In the student sample, the cognitive-behavioural orientation was significantly correlated with Conscientiousness ( r = .37) and the Conscientiousness Prudence facet scale (r =.36). The humanistic/existential scale was significantly related to Openness ( r = .34) and the Openness Creativity subscale (r = .35). Results further indicated that students' theoretical orientation preferences were different based on the Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness personality dimensions. Lastly, results showed that students' theoretical orientation preferences were significantly related to their supervisors'. Implications for future research, training, and practice are discussed.

The present study implemented an experimental design to investigate the impact of psychotherapists' transient affective states (mood) on the formulation of client problem and on treatment recommendations. Moderating influence of personality traits and situational factors was also explored. / Thirty-two counseling interns participated in a between-subject experiment which compared the impact of 20 minutes of positive or negative mood inductions (achieved by exposure to a humorous or a conflictive film segment) upon their assessment of stimulus material consisting of a 20-minute segment of an initial counseling interview. Three measures were obtained prior to mood induction: (a) background information consisting of demographic data, theoretical orientation, and clinical experience, (b) the Life Events Report (LER) measuring level of satisfaction in various life areas and self-reported actual mood, and (c) the Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) to define levels of Extraversion and Neuroticism. Immediately following mood induction a double mood check was obtained through rating of the film just watched, and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Finally, the Client Assessment Form (CAF) was administered immediately after exposure to the stimulus material in order to obtain an assessment of the client and ensuing treatment recommendations. / Although a series of univariate analyses of variance failed to reveal between-group differences, multivariate statistical tests showed significant differences relative to client assessment. Results indicated that mood and current life events accounted for a substantial percentage of the variance for the assessment variables considered. Findings suggest that negative mood (distressed) clinicians assess global severity in less serious terms than positive mood (nondistressed) clinicians. Clinicians reporting current negative life events (stressed clinicians) assess client problems in less serious terms than clinicians reporting current positive life events (nonstressed clinicians). Additionally, a post-hoc exploratory series of two-way univariate analyses of variance showed unexpected biasing effects of mood on the assessment produced by psychodynamicists relative to their humanist counterparts. Findings of this study support the main hypotheses in that they show significant differences in assessment ability attributable to clinicians' mood and current life events. In addition, post-hoc data analyses suggest that clinicians with certain theoretical approaches may be more sensitive to the biasing effects of mood than others.

No description available.

This study examined if there were characteristic differences between play therapy students and non-play therapy students in training. Specifically, this study was designed to explore what, if any, characteristic differences between play therapy students and non-play therapy students in training exist in the following two areas: (a) personality variables, as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) and (b) attitude toward children, and measured by the Barnett's Liking of Children Scale (BLOCS). Additionally, this study examined whether certain personality traits and the general attitude toward children for the play therapy student group correlated with the play therapy students' effectiveness ratings assigned to them by their play therapy supervisors. This study found statistically significant differences at the .05 alpha level between the play therapy (N=105) and non-play therapy students (N=79) in training in both the Extraversion personality trait on the NEO PI-R assessment and attitude toward children on the BLOCS. Non-play therapy students were in the High range for Extraversion, whereas play therapy students in training were in the Average range. According to this finding, play therapy students are less extraverted than non-play therapy students. Specifically, a statistically significant difference occurred on the Gregariousness scale of the Extraversion domain between the play therapy and non-play therapy group. Additionally, the play therapy student group scored a statistically significant higher mean total score on the BLOCS, indicating that play therapy students have a more favorable attitude toward children as compared to non-play therapy students in training. No other statistically significant results were indicated on the other personality scales of the NEO PI-R between the play therapy and non-play therapy students in training group. Statistical significance was found on the BLOCS total mean scores between play therapy students rated as "Highly Effective" and play therapy students rated as "Effective" by their play therapy supervisors. This result indicated that play therapists rated as highly effective had an overall more favorable attitude toward children then students rated as effective. Interestingly, the Conscientiousness personality domain was approaching statistical significance for the play therapists rated highly effective as compared to the play therapists that were rated effective. Furthermore, the results of this study quantitatively supported the personal characteristic qualities of play therapists as discussed by Axline (1969) and Landreth (2002).

The purpose of this study was to explore how personal therapy influences experienced psychodynamic psychotherapists’ ways of being clinicians, and, by implication, their professional development. A hermeneutic research method, which also drew upon aspects of grounded theory methodology, was therefore devised to explore and examine how personal therapy and professional practice relate to each other and to the therapist’s development, and to deepen this descriptive account into a more differentiated and theoretically viable understanding. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight psychodynamic psychotherapists who were working as clinicians and who were concurrently in therapy. Keeping the research objective in mind, a list of questions was developed from the interview material through which the data was re-read and edited. In accordance with the aims of the study, and as suggested by the results of the initial phase of the textual analysis, intersubjective theory, mainly that of Jessica Benjamin, was used to generate a conceptual framework through which the interview material was further interpreted. This foregrounded the shifting power distributions and the varying processes of identification between the treating therapists and the participants. The Jungian notion of the wounded healer was intersubjectively reconfigured as indicating a therapist whose (often unacknowledged) needs and vulnerabilities engender a proclivity to relate to patients as objects rather than subjects. The participants could all be described as having started out their professional lives as wounded healers. The effects of personal therapy on their clinical work were conceptualised in terms of increased abilities for subject-to-subject relating. These were linked to augmented capacities for reflective and symbolic thinking and an enhanced openness to the implicit, unformulated and opaque aspects of experiences in the therapeutic space. Finally an intersubjective model of personal therapy and development as a therapist was generated. It was concluded that because of the focus on the therapeutic relationship as the vehicle for change in psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as the current increasing emphasis on the use of the therapist’s subjectivity, the therapist’s capacity to engage in and sustain subject-tosubject relating and, by implication, the therapist’s personal therapy, are of pivotal importance for all therapists doing the work of psychodynamic psychotherapy.

This project investigated the spiritual well-being (SWB) of psychotherapists in training and their physiological reactions to religious questions posed by a mock client. Electrodermal activity served as an index of physiological arousal interpreted as anxiety. Thirteen psychotherapists in training at the University of North Texas were recruited. They participated in a simulated intake session with a mock client who asked the psychotherapist neutral questions, personal-other questions (POQs), and personal-religious questions (PRQs). It was discovered that the level of SWB did not affect subjects' anxiety responses to PRQs. There also was no difference in subjects' anxiety responses for POQs between high and low SWB therapists. However, psychotherapists did experience some anxiety associated with questions related to their counseling experience and expertise.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the current process research by investigating a psychotherapist's experience during psychotherapy. Massage therapy and relaxation therapy were used to manipulate psychotherapist's bodily focus, physiology, and affective state. Topics discussed include: the bodily focus of the therapist, neurobiological models of experience, mind-body boundary issues, and a present-time focus. Doctoral level Counseling and Clinical graduate students were used as participants.

The purposes of the study were (1) to assess the validity and reliability of Values for Helpers, (2) to determine whether the test would be a usable instrument for analysis of value systems of mental health professionals, (3) to provide information on possible utilization of the test as a measurement tool for assessing the quality of relationship skills of helpers, and (4) to provide information of a heuristic nature for future research with Values for Helpers. To accomplish these purposes, the following questions were examined. 1. What are the relationships between the scales of the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values and Values for Helpers? 2. What are the relationships between the scales of the Personal Orientation Inventory and Values for Helpers? 3. What are the relationships between the total scores on Myrick and Kelly's Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale and the scales of Values for Helpers? Conclusions based on the results suggested that (1) there was acceptable reliability for Values for Helpers, (2) the tribalistic and conformist scales of Values for Helpers demonstrated negative convergent validity with the scales of the Personal Orientation Inventory, (3) the existential scale of Values for Helpers demonstrated positive convergent validity with the scales of the Personal Orientation Inventory, (4) the existential scale of the Values for Helpers demonstrated concurrent validity when related to the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale, and (5) the existential scale of Values for Helpers appeared to exhibit very low predictive validity for counselor success in developing relationship skills and demonstrating positive practicum performance as measured by the Counselor Evaluation Rating Scale.